Apple executives talk new MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in interview

Last week, Apple released the new MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. This launch brings the second iteration of a new design Apple introduced in 2021. With a more industrial look, the company removed the Touch Bar and added back the function keys, more ports, and a better display with a new cutout.

Now, in an interview with The Stalman Podcast, Apple’s Kate Bergeron, VP of Hardware Engineering, and Doug Brooks, Mac Product Marketing, talked about Apple’s design process for the new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.

In the half-hour talk, photographer and YouTuber Tyler Stalman reflects with Apple executives about professional workflows, how the shift from Intel to its custom silicon, combined with new neural and media engines, improved Macs, and which Mac users should choose.

The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are the latest introduced by Apple. They come a few months after the company unveiled the M2 chip, inaugurating the second generation of the M processors.

According to Apple, they bring interesting improvements over the past iteration, even though they still use a 5nm technology process.

M2 Pro consists of 40 billion transistors — nearly 20 percent more than M1 Pro and double the amount in M2. It features 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth — twice that of M2 — and up to 32GB of low-latency unified memory. The next-generation 10- or 12-core CPU consists of up to eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, resulting in multithreaded CPU performance that is up to 20 percent faster than the 10-core CPU in M1 Pro.

The GPU in M2 Pro can be configured with up to 19 cores — three more than the GPU in M1 Pro — and includes a larger L2 cache. Graphics speeds are up to 30 percent faster than that of M1 Pro, resulting in huge increases in image processing performance and enabling console-quality gaming.

The M2 Max is built with 67 billion transistors — 10 billion more than the M1 Max and more than 3x that of the M2. Its 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth is twice that of M2 Pro, 4x that of M2, and supports up to 96GB of fast unified memory.

M2 Max features the same next-generation 12-core CPU as M2 Pro. The GPU is even more powerful, with up to 38 cores, and is paired with a larger L2 cache. Graphics speeds climb up to 30 percent faster than M1 Max.