Apple introduces the powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max

Its possible that the biggest surprise of the Apple October event was that rather than calling the successor to the M1 chip the M1X as was widely thought and rumored, Apple instead revealed that there are two chips coming to the MacBook Pro; the M1 Pro and the M1 Max. 

The 14 inch MacBook Pro has the standard with M1 Pro chip, but for those who want the ultimate in power there is a build-to-order option to add the M1 Max chip, so we will discuss what both chips offer below.

Processor

Those picking the 14 inch MacBook Pro have the choice of a 8-core or 10-core CPU. This is the same 10-core CPU whether it's a M1 Pro (which it is as standard) or an M1 Max (which you can customise your Macbook with). Apple claims that this CPU offers 70 percent faster CPU performance than the M1.

In the 10-core version there are eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores.

Apple uses a 5-nanometer process technology, which means it can carries 33.7 billion transistors on the M1 Pro, which is more than two times the amount in the M1.

Apple claims that compared with the latest 8-core PC laptop chip the M1 Pro delivers up to 1.7x more CPU performance and achieves the PC chip's peak performance using up to 70 percent less power. which simply mean its basically almost 2 times better than the leading 8-core laptops on the market while using 70 percent less battery power!

Graphics Processor

The real difference between the M1 Pro and M1 Max is the graphics capabilities.

The M1 Pro offers a 14-core or 16-core GPU (14-cores on the entry-level). Apple says that this offers up to 2x faster GPU performance compared to the M1. They also claim that the GPU is up to 7x faster than the integrated graphics on the latest 8-core PC laptop chip.

The M1 Max GPU goes even further with 32-cores. Apple claims that the graphics performance is up to 4x faster than M1. This is possible because Apple has packed 57 billion transistors on to the chip - 70 percent more than M1 Pro and 3.5x more than M1.

As a result the GPU can deliver performance comparable to a high-end GPU in a compact pro PC laptop, according to Apple. All while consuming "up to 40 percent less power". Apple states that the performance is "similar to that of the highest-end GPU in the largest PC laptops while using up to 100 watts less power."

ProRes acceleration

Having mentioned the graphics processor it's good to note that the M1 Pro adds a ProRes accelerator in the media engine, which should speed up video processing and make it more power efficient. It will also enable playback of multiple streams of high-quality 4K and 8K ProRes video while using very little power.

M1 Max goes a step further, offering two ProRes accelerators which help it deliver up to 2x faster video encoding than M1 Pro. As a result, Apple says, pros can edit up to 30 streams of 4K ProRes video or up to seven streams of 8K ProRes video in Final Cut Pro. That's more streams than on a 28-core Mac Pro with Afterburner. This is a MacBook Pro so expect very pro features.

RAM

Professional Mac users will be happy that Apple hasn't decided to release the 2021 MacBook Pro models with 8GB RAM as standard, as seen in the M1 models. The 14in MacBook Pro will ship with 16GB Unified Memory, and that is upgradable to 32GB, for an extra £400/$400, or 64GB if you opt for a M1 Max chip for an extra £800/$800. Note that only the M1 Max can support the 64GB RAM.

Apple uses fast unified memory, which is beneficial because of the way it is shared by the CPU and GPU. For the M1 Pro Apple claims to deliver up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is nearly 3x the bandwidth of M1.

The M1 Max offers an even higher-bandwidth and boasts up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. That is 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1. That's why 64GB RAM is possible with the Max.

Apple explained that the latest PC laptops top out at 16GB of video memory and claimed: "Having this huge amount of memory available is game-changing for pro workloads."

Battery life and power efficiency

The M1 Pro and M1 Max also offer industry-leading performance per watt and incredible power efficiency, according to Apple. What this translates into is 17 hours of video playback for the 14in MacBook Pro - that's seven more hours than the predecessor. (The 16in MacBook Pro offers 21 hours - 10 hours more than the last generation).

Apple also claims that the 2021 MacBook Pro deliver "the same level of performance whether it is plugged in or using the battery."

The company also says that because power use is managed so efficiently there is less heat generated, which means the fans run quietly and less often, allowing for longer battery life.

In the simplest terms, Apple's 2021 MacBooks are already famous for being extremely powerful. However, they've now multiplied that power several times while getting rid of some limitations they had like RAM and overall storage. Pro users and Tech reviewers are very excited to see how much power these chips really have and how much  battery they really save.