Apple’s M2 Pro and M2 Max chips finally arrive for MacBook Pro and Mac mini

As rumored, Apple has unveiled is new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips that will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will be up to 40 percent faster than before and better still, they’re now available to order and will start shipping next week.

The new entry level chip processor is the M2 Pro, which offers 10- or 12-core core CPUs including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The GPU, meanwhile, goes up from 16 to 19 cores, promising faster processing for content creation apps like Photoshop or compiling in Xcode.

Meanwhile, Apple calls the M2 Max “the world’s most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop” with the same 12 cores as the M2 Pro, but an increase from 34 to 38 GPU cores. More impressively, it supports up to 96GB of fast unified memory. With all that, Apple is processing graphic speeds up to 30 percent higher than the M1 Max chip, for chores like visual effects, machine learning and more. 

Along with the extra cores and efficiency, the new chips features apple’s next-generation 16-core Neural Engine that’s up to 40 percent faster than before. The M2 Pro offers a new media engine with hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC and ProRes video encode and decode modes, and playback of multiple 4K and 8K ProRes video streams while using very little power. The M2 Max doubles the video encode and ProRes engines, allowing for double the processing speed of the M2 Pro. 

The new MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch models have the same designs as before, but offer considerably more performance, plus up to an incredible 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model. Apple is promising up to a 30 percent boost in graphics performance with the M2 Max model and a more modest boost on the M2 Pro. 

One of the main benefits, though, is battery life, as the MacBook Pro can now run up to 22 hours — the longest ever on a Mac, Apple claims. And as rumored, it now supports WiFi 6E, which offers up to twice the speed of the previous generation. Another new feature is an HDMI port that supports 8K for the first time. 

The models have similar designs the late 2021 M1 Pro/Max versions, so you get features like a MagSafe power connector and Liquid Retina XDR displays. The rumored touchscreens are not on these models but expected to come in a couple of years. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to preorder starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro, and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. Shipping will start on January 24th. 

These chips will also appear in Apple’s new Mac mini, which comes with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip, giving potential buyers a budget option. Apple is promising considerably faster graphics processing and AI speeds for content creation, gaming, music and more. 

The M2 version comes with up to 24GB of unified memory and 100GB/s of bandwidth, boosting image editing speeds in Photoshop by up to 50 percent, for example. It can also “simultaneously play up to two streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps, or up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps,” Apple says.

The faster M2 Pro version, meanwhile, supports up to 32GB of unified memory and offers 200GB/s of memory bandwidth. That delivers up to 2.5x faster graphics performance in Affinity Photo, 4.2 faster ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro and 2.8x faster gameplay in Resident Evil Village, the company claims.

As before, it offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two displays, and can support a single 8K display — a first for a Mac. It also comes with two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, A gigabit ethernet port with a 10GB option and an upgraded headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. As with the MacBook Pro, they also offer WiFi 6E connectivity, along with Bluetooth 5.3.  

The new Mac mini starts at $599 with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro, and is now available on preorder with shipping set to start on January 24th.