Table Of Contents
- MacBook Pro comparison: M2 Pro/Max vs M1 Pro/Max
- CPU, GPU, memory, neural engine
- Display
- MacBook Pro I/O
- Size and weight
- Battery life
- Price
- M2 MacBook Pro comparison wrap-up
Apple overhauled its MacBook Pro laptops in late 2021 with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. That brought RAM up to 64GB, CPUs with up to 10 cores, and GPUs with up to 32 cores. Other additions were a 1080p webcam, Liquid Retina XDR Display with mini-LED backlighting, an updated I/O array with HDMI, SD, and MagSafe returning.
Then the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro machines arrived in early 2023 with increased performance, better battery life, up to 96GB RAM, 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 8K HDMI, Wi-Fi 6E, and more.
Note – the 13″ MacBook Pro updated with the M2 chip in 2022 is most comparable to the M2 MacBook Air rather than these MacBook Pro machines.
We’ve also got a comparison if you’re on the fence between the Air and Pro:
- MacBook Air vs 2023 Pro: Here’s how the M2 laptops compare
Let’s get into all the differences between the M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pro and the M1 versions!
MacBook Pro comparison: M2 Pro/Max vs M1 Pro/Max
CPU, GPU, memory, neural engine
Apple says the M2 Pro gives 20% faster CPU and 30% faster GPU performance than the M1 Pro. And the M2 Pro neural engine has seen a 40% speed increase over its predecessor.
You’ve also got up to 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU with the M2 Pro.
For the M2 Max, Apple says the same 20, 30, and 40% performance improvements apply when compared to the M1 Max for CPU, GPU, and neural engine.
The M2 Max now supports up to 96GB of unified memory, 12-core CPU, and up to 38-core GPU.
The overall transistor count has gone from 33.7 billion on the M1 Pro to 40 billion on the M2 Pro and from 57 billion on the M1 Max to over 67 billion on the M2 Max.
Like their predecessors, both the M2 Pro and M2 Max feature dedicated media engines to offer hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW support.
Apple says the new media engine has “twice the ProRes support to dramatically accelerate media playback and transcoding.” The new M2 Max chip continues to include two video encode engines like Apple did with the M1 Max.
Display
A major advancement for the 2021 MacBook Pro notebooks was the Liquid Retina XDR Display. It features double the sustained brightness via mini-LED backlighting, ProMotion with up to 120Hz refresh rates, an increased resolution/pixel per inch density, and greatly reduced bezels.
The M2 MacBook Pro machines feature the same display with identical specs.
The latest MacBook Pros come with a notch at the top center of the display for the 1080p FaceTime camera just like the 2021 models.
Unfortunately, Face ID has not arrived with the M2 MacBook Pro machines.
MacBook Pro I/O
The M2 MacBook Pro features almost all the same ports with the same layout as the M1 MacBook Pro. That includes an HDMI port, SDXC card reader, and MagSafe (officially called MagSafe 3). There are also 3 Thunderbolt 4/USB-C 4 ports.
But M2 Pro and M2 Max do take external display support a bit further with an upgrade from the HDMI 2.0 to 2.1 port that supports up to 8K output at 60Hz. That also allows for multichannel audio output.
