Apple M2 Max (96GB Unified Memory)
Overview
Apple M2 Max is Apple Silicon's 2nd-generation high-performance chip, released 2023-01-17 for the MacBook Pro 14"/16" 2023 and Mac Studio 2023. Built on TSMC 2nd-gen 5nm (N5P) with a 12-core CPU (8P+4E), 38-core GPU, 96GB LPDDR5 unified memory (first 96GB in MacBook Pro), 400 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 15.8 TOPS Neural Engine. Performance is up 20% over the M1 Max.
Key positioning:
- M2 Max (this page): single-die high-performance, laptop + workstation
- M2 Ultra (existing page): dual M2 Max merged, 192GB
- M3 Max (existing page): 2023-10 upgrade, 128GB
- M4 Max (existing page): 2024-10 upgrade, 128GB LPDDR5X, 546 GB/s
Core Specifications
| Item | Parameter |
|---|
| Architecture | Apple Silicon (M2 Max single die, non-UltraFusion) |
| Process | TSMC 2nd-gen 5nm (N5P) |
| CPU Cores | 12 (8P + 4E) |
| CPU Max Frequency | 3.7 GHz (P-core) |
| GPU Cores | 38 |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, 15.8 TOPS |
| Unified Memory | 32GB / 64GB / 96GB LPDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 400 GB/s |
| FP32 GPU | ~13.6 TFLOPS |
| FP16 GPU | ~27.2 TFLOPS |
| Media Engine | Hardware H.264/HEVC/ProRes |
| TDP | 60-90 W (laptop) / 100-150 W (Mac Studio) |
| MacBook Pro 16" M2 Max 96GB | $4,999 |
| Mac Studio M2 Max 96GB | $2,999 |
| Launch Date | 2023-01-17 |
Comparison with M1 Max
| Metric | M2 Max | M1 Max | Improvement |
|---|
| Process | 5nm (N5P) | 5nm (N5) | 2nd-gen 5nm |
| CPU Cores | 12 (8P+4E) | 10 (8P+2E) | +20% |
| CPU Frequency | 3.7 GHz | 3.2 GHz | +16% |
| GPU Cores | 38 | 32 | +19% |
| Neural Engine | 15.8 TOPS | 11 TOPS | +44% |
| Memory | 96GB LPDDR5 | 64GB LPDDR5 | +50% |
| Bandwidth | 400 GB/s | 400 GB/s | Same |
| CPU Performance | +20% | Baseline | Significant |
| GPU Performance | +30% | Baseline | Significant |
| Media Engine | H.264/HEVC/ProRes | Same | Same |
| Model | Quantization | Performance (tok/s) | Notes |
|---|
| Llama 2 70B | Q4_K_M | ~6 tok/s | Full model quantized fits |
| Llama 2 70B | Q4_K_S | ~7 tok/s | Aggressive quantization |
| Llama 2 13B | Q4_K_M | ~18 tok/s | Mainstream |
| Mixtral 8x7B | Q4_K_M | ~14 tok/s | MoE |
| Qwen 1.5 72B | Q4_K_M | ~6 tok/s | Chinese |
| Llama 2 7B | Q4_K_M | ~38 tok/s | Very fast |
| Stable Diffusion XL | FP16 | 1.3× vs M1 Max | Image generation |
96GB M2 Max advantage: Compared to M1 Max 64GB, this is the first 96GB UMA support (first ever in MacBook Pro), allowing full 70B LLMs (quantized) to be loaded.
M2 Architecture Upgrades (vs M1)
- CPU Architecture: ARMv8.6 (vs M1 ARMv8.5) — IPC +18%
- GPU Architecture: Apple GPU Gen 3 (vs M2 Gen 2) — ProRes hardware acceleration
- Neural Engine: 15.8 TOPS (vs M1 NE 11 TOPS)
- Unified Memory: LPDDR5 (vs M1 LPDDR4X)
| Item | Details |
|---|
| Vendor | Apple Inc. |
| Product | MacBook Pro 14"/16" (2023) + Mac Studio (2023-06) |
| MacBook Pro 16" M2 Max 96GB | $4,999 (2023-01 launch price) |
| Mac Studio M2 Max 96GB | $2,999 (2023-06) |
| Discontinued | 2023-10 (replaced by M3 Max) |
| Target Market | Creative professionals, local AI, MacBook Pro workstation |
Use Cases
- MacBook Pro workstation (96GB UMA laptop, revolutionary in 2023)
- Local 70B LLM inference (quantized)
- Stable Diffusion XL / video generation
- 4K/8K video editing (ProRes RAW hardware acceleration)
- On-device LLM development
- Not suitable for: datacenter training
- Not suitable for: large-scale inference (lacks datacenter hardware)
- Not suitable for: FP8 training (FP16/BF16 only)
Apple Silicon Max Evolution
| Generation | M1 Max | M2 Max | M3 Max | M4 Max |
|---|
| Release | 2021-10 | 2023-01 | 2023-10 | 2024-10 |
| Process | 5nm | 5nm (N5P) | 3nm | 3nm (N3E) |
| CPU | 10 (8P+2E) | 12 (8P+4E) | 16 (12P+4E) | 16 (12P+4E) |
| GPU | 32 | 38 | 40 | 40 |
| NE | 11 TOPS | 15.8 TOPS | 18 TOPS | 38 TOPS |
| Memory | 64GB LPDDR5 | 96GB LPDDR5 | 128GB LPDDR5 | 128GB LPDDR5X |
| Bandwidth | 400 GB/s | 400 GB/s | 400 GB/s | 546 GB/s |
| Price (MBP 16 max) | $4,199 | $4,999 | $5,799 | $6,399 |
M2 Max vs M2 Ultra vs M3 Max
| Metric | M2 Max | M2 Ultra | M3 Max |
|---|
| CPU | 12-core (8P+4E) | 24-core (16P+8E) | 16-core (12P+4E) |
| GPU | 38-core | 76-core | 40-core |
| NE | 15.8 TOPS | 31.6 TOPS | 18 TOPS |
| Memory | 96GB LPDDR5 | 192GB LPDDR5 | 128GB LPDDR5 |
| Bandwidth | 400 GB/s | 800 GB/s | 400 GB/s |
| UltraFusion | Ready | 2.5 TB/s (dual M2 Max) | Ready |
Key Features
- 96GB UMA: First 96GB in MacBook Pro 2023
- 5nm N5P: 2nd-gen 5nm, excellent efficiency
- 38-core GPU: Leading consumer SoC graphics
- UltraFusion ready: Can merge with another M2 Max for M2 Ultra
- Drawbacks: Discontinued (2023-10), 400 GB/s bandwidth limitation