Following on from the extremely positive reception of the M1 chip, Apple Silicon has now launched two new chips.
Autumn 2021 has seen the advent of the M1 Pro chip and the M1 Max chip. Both of these chips will be available for the MacBook Pro model.
The two latest chips are pro to the max, by this we mean they pack considerable power, in addition to speed and power usage efficiency. Thanks to their capabilities in running power-hungry programmes and extensive multi-tasking, these two chips will be especially attractive to business users.
All Macs with any of the M1 chips will provide advantages to businesses. They make Macs incredibly fast, thereby boosting productivity in business settings.
However, certain industries require more power. Many sectors must use complex and power-consuming systems for programming, design and 3D modelling. This requires more power than other business tasks.
The M1 Pro and M1 Max are Apple’s answer to these pro users who require more power, while still using fast, energy-efficient hardware.
But why has Apple Silicon created two additional chips for pro users, and what are the differences between M1 Pro and M1 Max?
Key differences between M1 Pro and M1 Max
Let’s firstly look at the specification differences between M1 Pro and M1 Max.
| M1 Pro | M1 Max |
|---|---|
| 200GB memory bandwidth | 400GB memory bandwidth |
| 16GB unified memory | 32GB unified memory |
| 33.7 billion transistors | 57 billion transistors |
| Video decode engine | Video decode engine |
| Video encode engine | Video encode engine |
| ProRes encode and decode engine | ProRes encode and decode engine |
Both the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are ideal for pro users and businesses, creators, and designers with high power requirements.
Both chips are significantly larger than the standard M1 chip. They both use the same intelligent architecture of the M1 chip. Within the M1 Pro and M1 Max that architecture has been scaled up.
The M1 Max is the largest of the chips and offers the most memory, speed, and storage. It is designed for users with the greatest power-performance needs. M1 Pro is half the size but still double the size of the original M1 chip. It will be suited to a wide range of industries with high power demands but not quite as high as the M1 Max users.
The M1 Pro was the first pro chip designed for Mac and offers those industries utilising complex programmes even more power-boosting while extending battery life and preserving energy more than any other hardware of comparable power levels.
M1 Max adds even more scale to this design.
The first big difference between all the chips is the number of GPU cores. M1 boasted 8 cores with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. M1 Pro offers a 14 and 16 core option, meanwhile, M1 Max has 24 and 32 core versions
Apple says its 16 core M1 Pro is up to twice as fast as the original M1 and the M1 Max is twice as fast as that again in its 32 core version.
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