Likely MacBook Pro M2 Max chip benchmark hints at a disappointing performance boost

(Image credit: Apple)

What is likely to be a future MacBook Pro M2 Max chip has popped up in online Geekbench results, perhaps giving us our first real feel for how fast the unannounced chip will be.

With Apple expected to announce new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips next year, this benchmark score shows us what the higher-end chip will be capable of. And while it's undoubtedly fast, there might be some disappointment in just how much faster than the M1 Max it will turn out to be.

Still pretty quick

The new results were first spotted over on Twitter with some notable specifications included in the results. First is the fact that the chip has a 12-core CPU and 92GB of onboard RAM — more than any MacBook Pro currently ships with. The most RAM you can spec a MacBook Pro with today is 64GB, which is still more than enough for all but the most demanding of workflows.

New Mac’s Geekbench 5 scores!12 cores, 96GB of RAMhttps://t.co/74dOcmgTod pic.twitter.com/PXl8Ul9eVpNovember 30, 2022

Next, we have the performance itself. If this Geekbench score is indeed the M2 Max, it looks like it's capable of a single-core score of 1,853 and a multi-core score of 13,855. Those numbers are nice and high, as you'd expect, but the delta between the M2 Max and existing M1 Max chips is relatively small — the older chip manages a range of results around the 1,750 single-core and 12,600 multi-score mark.

While single-core scores are very similar, the higher multi-core score is to be expected thanks to the two additional cores that the M2 Max has over its older sibling.

If the chip is indeed capable of using more RAM than the M1 Max that would allow for more beefy specifications, giving professionals more to work with. And it's important to note that this is an unreleased machine, running an unreleased version of macOS Ventura. These scores could well change between now and the expected early 2023 release window.

Rumors earlier this year had Apple announcing the new M2-series MacBook Pros towards the end of the year. But that narrative changed in recent months with Apple choosing a 2023 release for its best MacBooks money can buy instead.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.