The M2 Ultra was announced just a few months ago when Apple debuted it in its Mac Studio and updated workstation, the Mac Pro. For those who already own one of these, it will not be very reassuring to hear that the fastest Apple Silicon has been dethroned by the cutting-edge M3 Max, which was announced alongside updated 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. What is especially impressive about these results is that Apple’s latest 3nm SoC is designed for high-performance notebooks, and it beats a desktop-class silicon that did not even reach six months of launch maturity.

M3 Max leads the M2 Ultra by a negligible 3 percent margin but with fewer cores and possibly reduced power consumption

Shortly after the base M3 leak, where we see the 8-core SoC beat the 10-core M2 Pro, we are greeted by some M3 Max scores that were shared by Michael Burkhardt. The benchmark seemingly used to test the 3nm Apple Silicon is Geekbench 6, the same one tested for the M3. Though the single-core results have not been shared, it is revealed that the M3 Max obtains a multi-core score of 21,890, beating the M2 Ultra by a measly 3 percent, with the latter securing 21,292 points.

Apple only has a single M2 Ultra variant for the CPU, with the chipset offering 24 cores, of which there are 16 performance and 8 efficiency cores. With the M3 Max, you have a 14-core variant and a 16-core one, but the benchmark leak does not verify which version was tested. Even if it was the top-tier one, beating the M2 Ultra, which has more performance cores, is an impressive feat.

Wow, M3 Max outperforms M2 Ultra in Geekbench!

While a small margin, it's funny how Mac Pro always ages poorly. 2019 Mac Pro was released less than a year before the Apple Silicon transition, and now the M2 Ultra Mac Pro is being beat by a lower end chip 4 months after release. pic.twitter.com/KlFx29UAOl

— Michael Burkhardt (@mbrkhrdt) November 1, 2023

Just like the M3, it is possible that the 3nm architecture helped the M3 Max operate at higher frequencies, which no doubt contributed to these results. We still do not know several variables at this time, such as the number of CPU cores, the operating temperature, or the power consumption of the M3 Max. However, since the M2 Ultra is available in the 60-core and 76-core GPU configurations, it will probably achieve a higher score in Geekbench 6’s Metal results. Regardless, we look forward to seeing those comparisons and more.

News Source: Michael Burkhardt