MacBook Pro’s 32-Core M1 Max GPU Could be More Powerful Than the PlayStation 5

BY Chandraveer Mathur

Published 19 Oct 2021

M1 Max

Apple made tall claims about the M1 Max and M1 Pro chips at its “Unleashed” event yesterday. On paper, the top-of-the-line M1 Max chip appears to have more GPU muscle than the Sony PlayStation 5.

Apple offers the M1 Max with up to 32 GPU cores, a huge step up from the M1’s 8-core GPU. Apple claimed that the new model uses 70 percent less power than a regular laptop with a discrete GPU while being pushed to the hilt. Additionally, the iPhone maker said the M1 Max’s GPU offers performance comparable to a “pro laptop with high-performing discrete GPU” albeit while consuming 100W less power. Apple arrived at these numbers after pitting a MacBook Pro (with a 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 64GB of RAM) against an MSI GE76 Raider and the Razer Blade 15 Advanced.

Compared to the PlayStation 5 that maxes out at 10.28 teraflops (a measure of GPU performance), the M1 Max with the 32-core GPU is estimated to top out at 10.4 teraflops. Since the M1 Max hasn’t yet been tested, the computation power is a theoretical estimate for now. We believe that although numbers don’t lie, real-world performance may vary greatly depending on various factors including firmware-level optimization and thermal limitations.

YouTuber ZoneOfTech noted that the M1 Max can also achieve faster data read speeds (at 7.4GB/s) than the PlayStation 5. It is also noteworthy that the MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip is costlier than the gaming console it beats. These, however, are no assurance that the new MacBook Pro lineup will be better at gaming.

[Via Notebookcheck]