First Geekbench Scores for New Mac Mini With M2 Pro Surface, Beats M1 Max

[chucker23n1]

For the M2 pro to beat M1 Max in both SC and MC after just 1 generation, its impressive

The M1 Max is virtually the same in terms of CPU as the M1 Pro; it's basically an M1 Pro with more GPU cores (and more memory bandwidth to support them).

I wonder if M2 Max can approach the level of M1 Ultra, in SC yes, but in MC?

It'll handily beat it in SC. Even the MacBook Air's M2 (with no suffix) does.

In MC, no. The Ultra scores 23325; the 15013 don't come close to that. Which makes sense — the M1 Ultra has 16+4 cores, whereas the M2 Pro and M2 Max have 8+4.

But i still suppose the gpu will be more powerful on the M1 Max compared to M2 Pro

Probably, but it could be close!

 

[tudy2525]

"For comparison, the previous M1 Mac mini achieved a single-core score of 1,651 and a multi-core score of 5,181." - there's something wrong with that score, I get 1750ish and 7700ish on my M1 MBA.

 

[woolypants]

For the M2 pro to beat M1 Max in both SC and MC after just 1 generation, its impressive
I wonder if M2 Max can approach the level of M1 Ultra, in SC yes, but in MC?
But i still suppose the gpu will be more powerful on the M1 Max compared to M2 Pro

The M2 Max is going to be very fast compared to the M1 Max – if this result for the Pro is true, I think we can expect a 30% increases in GeekBench for multicore. That really will make a big difference to all those out there compiling large chunks of code, or outputting 4K/8K video. If I were working in those kinds of professional fields, I'd be looking to upgrade. But for the rest of us, well, it's basically like the second gen of a car being able to go at 180MPH, while the older version can go at 150MPH. Nice on paper. But functionally meaningless.

I must admit I'm impressed. I thought this would be a small speed bump but it looks like it's very respectable. I still want to see those real world battery figures, though, because that increase in clock speed and the more core counts don't come free of charge.

 

[woocintosh]

more CPU cores, more GPU cores, higher clock, however less power consumption. it's amazing.

 

[StudioMacs]

While we've yet to see Geekbench scores for the updated MacBook Pros, M2 Pro's performance with the Mac mini is unlikely to differ greatly from its performance with the new Mac notebooks.

This is because Geekbench does not expose the thermal limitations of the notebooks.

For intense real-works tasks, the Mac Studio outperforms the MacBook Pro due to the Studio’s improved cooling, which means throttling occurs much later (if at all) on the Studio compared to a MacBook Pro with identical configurations.

It will be interesting to see if the same holds true for the Mac Mini with the M2 Pro.

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

With a score of nearly 2000 for single core and a score of over 15000 for multi-core. These M2 Pro chips are smokin the competition per watt.

 

[Motorola68000]

creditable but not earth shattering, and I still have gut feeling that Apple were not that impressed with the M2 in general, especially with delays causing it to be on the heels of the M3 where I believe a much greater efficiency in both energy and productivity will occur. Also question why they bother to have different implementations of m1/m2 rather than go for the best to start with and possibly go to the dual chip implementation for higher end. Costs a lot less producing one implementation. I know its SOC and I know much of the benefit is by virtue of it being SOC, but sure Apple could sort that out. I know with the M1 the top end was basically a dual chip, but cost and even performance could be enhanced by having one M3 chip based on the best Apple could do, as the performance hike on every device would be worthwhile but still not preclude the power hungry users having dual chip etc.

I was very unimpressed with the base M2 air both from its SSD slow down and its less than impressive performance hike.

After testing the MBA M2 I've postponed any thought of updating the iMacs, Mac mini's and MacBooks we have, as they still do their job well but will revisit it when the M3 shows up in a device.

I don't upgrade for the prestige, not the colour of the device, and it does make me smile when I see the only criticism is 'they don't do it in x colour'....

 

[chucker23n1]

"For comparison, the previous M1 Mac mini achieved a single-core score of 1,651 and a multi-core score of 5,181." - there's something wrong with that score, I get 1750ish and 7700ish on my M1 MBA.

Yeah, not sure why they cite that one. The average for the M1 Mac mini is 1715/7442.

 

[PeeWee1963]

…and since the bulk of Apple’s Mac business is ultra-portable laptops and ultra small-form-factor desktops, that’s the key measure of their success. Also, this is just Geekbench - application benchmarks that take advantage of the media engine, neural engine etc. may show a greater advantage over Intel.

There is a Create ML benchmark: https://github.com/jcampbell05/ml-training-benchmark

Would be interesting to know the difference between M1 and M2 neural engines.

 

[jonnysods]

I don't want to read this - this will fill me with techno lust and undermine the love I have for my 14" M1 Max

 

[falkon-engine]

So raptor lake 13600k is faster than this… same with zen 4.

x86 is still impressive and will only get better as Intel ramps intel 4, 3 and 20a, and amd ramps designs using tsmc 4nm and 3nm.

M2 pro vs M1 Pro/ max is a decent uplift but still “meh” compared to M1 Max vs intel skylake / comet lake. I’m going to skip m2 ad wait for m3 3 nm. But those upgrading to m2 pro should be happy.

 

[aTomek]

Apple has the best CPUs and materials, but it god worse with design in recent Macbooks.

 

[chucker23n1]

So raptor lake 13600k is faster than this

That's cool. Or rather, very hot. You want to put a high-end desktop CPU in a Mac mini?

 

[falkon-engine]

How is the battery life, fan noise and heat on those 13th gen Intel laptops?

And what about the performance when unplugged?

How about the Mac mini performance when unplugged 🤣🤣🤣

 

[Danfango]

How is the battery life, fan noise and heat on those 13th gen Intel laptops?

And what about the performance when unplugged?

I've got a 12th gen 12850HX Dell 7670. Flat out it can kill a battery in under 60 minutes.

 

[Cromulent]

This makes me want to upgrade my Mac Studio M1 Max to the M2 Ultra when it comes out (assuming they don't skip M2 Ultra entirely and move straight onto M3 Ultra).

 

[indiekiduk]

delete

 

[falkon-engine]

For the M2 pro to beat M1 Max in both SC and MC after just 1 generation, its impressive
I wonder if M2 Max can approach the level of M1 Ultra, in SC yes, but in MC?
But i still suppose the gpu will be more powerful on the M1 Max compared to M2 Pro

M2 pro and m2 max have the same cpu core complex of up to 12 cores; 8 perf and 4 efficiency. M2 max has a better gpu than m2 pro.

 

[indiekiduk]

delete

 

[LiE_]

So raptor lake 13600k is faster than this… same with zen 4.

Yep, you just need to a bolt a huge heatsink to it or an AIO watercooler and put all that inside a large chassis 😅

 

[falkon-engine]

Yep, you just need to a bolt a huge heatsink to it or an AIO watercooler and put all that inside a large chassis 😅

Not true a water cooler helps yes with raptor lake, but a 13600k does not need a water cooler a noctua fan cooler will tame that beast.

And the amd 7900 (non X) part is even more power efficient out of the box before you apply PBO, and it has a much lower tdp of only 65W. Runs cool under load. And is faster than m2 pro.

 

[rhysmorgan]

For the M2 pro to beat M1 Max in both SC and MC after just 1 generation, its impressive
I wonder if M2 Max can approach the level of M1 Ultra, in SC yes, but in MC?
But i still suppose the gpu will be more powerful on the M1 Max compared to M2 Pro

That's not a surprise. The CPU in the M1 Pro and Max are identical, as are the CPUs in the M2 Pro and Max, so it's no surprise that the M2 Pro beats the M1 Max in single core and multicore. M2 Max benchmarks will be about the same as the M2 Pro, give or take margin of error/slight differences when running the benchmarks. M2 Ultra is where we'll get the next multicore boost.
GPU is what separates the Pro and Max chips, not CPU performance.

M2 Pro GPU, while a hell of a lot better than the M1 Pro, doesn't quite hit the M1 Max GPU performance. M2 Max is likely to be an equally large gain over the M1 Max though, so that's quite exciting.

 

[tRYSIS3]

For the M2 pro to beat M1 Max in both SC and MC after just 1 generation, its impressive
I wonder if M2 Max can approach the level of M1 Ultra, in SC yes, but in MC?
But i still suppose the gpu will be more powerful on the M1 Max compared to M2 Pro

it's not really impressive considering the Pro and Max models share the exact same cpu

 

[Nicole1980]

That is a VERY good score (usual disclaimer about synthetic benchmarks).

Here's the score my M1 Max MBP got in August last year (haven't tested recently). The new M2 Pro leaves it in the dust!

View attachment 2144580

Here's what I got on my M1 pro 2021. So not sure what Macrumors is basing their scores on ...

 

[l0stl0rd]

If M2 Max scales the same way as last gen for the GPU in Metal that would be around 86k that is M1 Ultra territory.