Another round of leaked M2 Max benchmarks is still not telling us much

After the first leaked CPU benchmark scores for the M2 Max processor arrived last week, another set of scores is making the rounds today and they’re…fine. They’re quite reasonable in fact. If you were to look at the performance jump from the M1 to the M2, and apply that same relative to the M1 Max, you’d be in the ballpark.

First published by Follow @VNchocoTaco, the alleged Geekbench 5 scores for a “Mac14,6” product (such naming is common with unreleased hardware) are 1,853 for single-core and 13,855 for multi-core. The newer scores are slightly better, with a singlecore score at 2,027 and a multiplecore score at 14,888. These scores are comparable to scores of around 1,746 or 12,154 for a MacBook Pro equipped with the M1 Max as part of the Geekbench 5, database.

The M2 Max is about 10-15% faster in single-core CPU performance, and 15-20% faster in multicore CPU performance. The gap between the M1 and M2 is similar..generally around 8-9 percent for single-core and 16-18 percent for multi-core, depending on which particular M1-based product you’re looking at.

These early scores are often not up to the final product’s speed. Apple continues to improve firmware, drivers, cooling, and other aspects to ensure the best possible performance. The new benchmarks show a chip running at 3.68 GHz compared to 3.54 GHz in the first numbers. This could explain the difference. The benchmarks may have been created using a Mac Studio and the previous set was taken from a MacBook Pro. They could also be different versions of the chip that were being tested.

The benchmark results showed that 96GB of RAM was available, which is 50 per cent more than the 64GB maximum RAM available with M1 Max. It is not a huge number, especially since Apple wants to expand the memory bandwidth by using a wider bus (the M1 Max already uses LPDDR5).

If there’s a surprise here, it’s the claimed 12-processor cores. The M1 has four high-performance cores and four high efficiency cores, while the M2 has eight processor cores. The M1 Max features 10 cores, eight high-performance and two low-efficiency. We expect the M2 Max will have the same arrangement. Apple increased the core count of the M1 Max, but only on its graphics side. The CPU has the same eight cores (4 high-performance, 4 high-efficiency). Two extra CPU cores would make a difference.

Moving to 12 means two more high-performance cores or, more likely, four additional high-efficiency cores. The multi-core score of under 14,000 is a little bit disappointing if there are two additional cores, but then again, it’s not uncommon for early leaked benchmarks to come in lower than final, fully optimized products.

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There’s more to come

Even if this is accurate, it doesn’t tell us all that much about the M2 Max. After The M2’s processor gains were not the most interesting. The M2’s processor gains were not the most interesting. It was the increase in GPU performance, bandwidth, video processing that was more important. We don’t know what Apple intends to do in those areas with the M2 Pro, Max, and Ultra, or if it has any surprises in store like a big boost to the Neural Engine.

And of course, this Geekbench score says nothing about power efficiency and battery life, which are critical areas for Apple’s future Macbook Pro laptops. A rumor this week suggested that these are two areas where there is room for improvement.

So while we think this leaked benchmark is possibly true, and a reasonable guess if not, we’d remind you that it’s an incomplete picture of what to expect from the M2 Max and the products in which it will be found.