Apple’s WWDC23 livestream. Skip to 00:10:40 to see the announcement of the M2 Extremely processor.
Apple has unveiled the M2 Extremely, the ultimate chip in its M2 line of Apple Silicon processors, which it describes as “the world’s strongest chip ever created for a private pc”.
The brand new processor, which mixes two M2 Max dies in a single system on a chip, can be out there in Apple’s new Mac Studio and Mac Professional workstations from subsequent week.
Within the story under, you possibly can see what we all know thus far about its key specs and the way it performs with DCC functions like Cinema 4D, DaVinci Resolve and Octane X.
| Apple M1 and M2 processors | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M2 Extremely | M1 Extremely | M2 Max | M1 Max | M2 Professional | M1 Professional | M2 | M1 | ||
| Unified reminiscence (1) | 192GB | 128GB | 96GB | 64GB | 32GB | 32GB | 24GB | 16GB | |
| Reminiscence bandwidth (2) | 800 GB/s |
800 GB/s |
400 GB/s | 400 GB/s | 200 GB/s | 200 GB/s | 100 GB/s | (68) GB/s | |
| CPU cores (1) | 24 | 20 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 | |
| GPU cores (1) | 76 | 64 | 38 | 32 | 19 | 16 | 10 | 8 | |
| GPU compute (1, 2) (Teraflops) |
TBC | 21 | 13.6 | 10.4 | (6.8) | 5.2 | 3.6 | (2.6) | |
| Neural Engine cores | 32 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | |
| Video decode engines (2) | (2) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Video encode engines (2) | (4) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| ProRes encode/decode engines (2) | (4) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Launch date | 2023 | 2022 | 2023 | 2021 | 2023 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | |
(1) Most configuration out there
(2) Figures in brackets are taken from third-party web sites
Closing M2 processor places two M2 Max dies in a single system on a chip
The M2 Extremely completes Apple’s present technology of Apple Silicon processors, begun with the M2 itself final June, and continued with M2 Professional and M2 Max this January.
As with its previous-generation counterpart, the M1 Extremely, it’s two chips in a single system, consisting of two M2 Max dies linked by way of Apple’s UltraFusion interconnect know-how.
Two editions can be found, one with 60 GPU cores, and one with 76 GPU cores. Each have 24 CPU cores, and help a most of 192GB of unified CPU and GPU reminiscence.
So how a lot quicker is the M2 Extremely than the M1 Extremely?
In comparison with its predecessor, the M2 Extremely’s core specs observe an analogous sample to the opposite M2 processors, incrementally rising CPU and GPU core depend.
Apple describes its CPU as “20% quicker” and its GPU “as much as 30% quicker” than the M1 Extremely.
Its Neural Engine, used to speed up AI operations, is “as much as 40% quicker” than the M1 Extremely, though that’s on account of enhancements in structure: the core depend stays the identical.
Equally, its media engine can play again “as much as 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video”, up from 18 streams for the M1 Extremely, though the variety of encoding and decoding models appears to be unchanged.
In proportion phrases, the most important improve is in unified reminiscence supported – Apple describes the M2 Extremely’s 192GB most capability as a “breakthrough” – though reminiscence bandwidth is unchanged.
What efficiency positive factors will the M2 Extremely carry to CG functions?
So how will the specs of the M2 Extremely translate into real-world efficiency in CG software program?
In its launch materials, Apple gives two particular comparisons, each utilizing a top-of-the-range previous-gen Mac Studio with a 20-core CPU, a 64-core GPU, 128GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD.
Rendering in Octane X, the Steel-native version of OctaneRender, is “as much as 3x quicker” than the M1 Extremely.
Video processing in modifying, grading and compositing app DaVinci Resolve is “as much as 50% quicker”.
Apple additionally describes “workflows like video transcoding and 3D simulations” as being “as much as 3x quicker” on a new Mac Professional geared up with a M2 Extremely processor than a previous-gen 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W-based system with a 32GB AMD Radeon Professional W6900X GPU, though it doesn’t say during which functions.
As well as, the picture above, additionally taken from the launch materials for the Mac Professional, reveals Disney’s Moana information set being rendered inside Cinema 4D, though that appears to be to exhibit that even massive scenes will match inside unified reminiscence: there’s no efficiency comparability to previous-gen processors.
Which CG functions help the M2 Extremely natively?
For an software to take full benefit of the M2 Extremely’s processing capabilities, its developer must have applied native Apple Silicon help.
Different software program can run on M2 Macs by way of Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation surroundings, however the efficiency positive factors aren’t often as important.
For the reason that launch of the M1 Extremely, the record of key CG apps with native Apple Silicon help has expanded markedly, and now contains After Results, Houdini, Maya, the Substance 3D instruments and Unreal Engine.
On the time of writing, the primary remaining exception is Nuke, though Foundry has begun to introduce native Apple Silicon help in its different software program.
You will discover our record of CG apps which have introduced native Apple Silicon help right here.
Value and availability
M2 Extremely processors can be found to pre-order in new Mac Studio and Mac Professional workstations, and are on account of start delivery from 13 June 2023.
Pricing for a Mac Studio geared up with a 24-CPU-core, 60-GPU-core M2 Extremely processor and 64GB of unified reminiscence begins at $3,999, with a 76-GPU-core processor costing $1,000 extra.
Pricing for a Mac Professional tower geared up with a 24-CPU-core, 60-GPU-core M2 Extremely processor and 64GB of unified reminiscence begins at $6,999, with a 76-GPU-core processor costing $1,000 extra.
Learn extra in regards to the M2 Extremely processor on Apple’s web site
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