The last variant of the M2 series Apple Silicon, the M2 Ultra chip was unveiled at the WWDC 2023 event. Powering the 2023 Mac Studio and Mac Pro, the new M2 Ultra features a faster CPU and GPU to deliver higher performance.
But how does it compare to its predecessor M1 Ultra?
As Mac Studio is the only device to feature both variants of Ultra to date, we will review the benchmark scores of Mac Studio with M2 Ultra and M1 Ultra chips to see which chip delivers faster performance.
The 2023 Mac Studio has the same design language and the $3,999 premium price tag as the 2022 Mac Studio. Since its launch, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio is now available at third-party retailers for a reduced price like $3,199 on Amazon.
If you are looking interested in buying a new Mac or want to upgrade your older desktop, we have compared the M2 Ultra benchmarks with M1 Ultra for you to know which Mac Studio you should buy.
M2 Ultra vs. M1 Ultra: Specs comparison
| Specs | M2 Ultra | M1 Ultra |
| Manufacturing process | 5nm | 5nm |
| CPU | 24-cores (16 high-performance cores @3.50 GHz and 8 high-efficiency cores @2.80 GHz) | 20-core CPU (16 high-performance cores @3.20 GHz and 4 high-efficiency cores @2.06 GHz) |
| GPU | Up to 76 cores @1.40 GHz | Up to 64-core GPU @1.30 GHz |
| Transistors | 134 billion | 114 billion |
| Memory capacity | 192GB | 128GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 800GB/s | 800GB/s |
| Memory type | LPDDR5-6400 | LPDDR5-6400 |
| Neural Engine | 32-core runs 31.6 trillion operations per second | 32 core runs up to 22 trillion operations per second |
| Low latency | Over 2.5TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth | 2.5TB/s of low latency inter-processor bandwidth |
M2 Ultra vs. M1 Ultra: Benchmarks
Apple said that the M2 Ultra is 20% faster than the M1 Ultra chip. Let’s have a look at some popular benchmarks to see their performance.
| Benchmarks | M2 Ultra | M1 Ultra |
| Geekbench 6 | Single core: 2,837 Multi-core: 21,730 | Single-core: 2,381 Multi-core: 17,664 |
| Geekbench 5 | Single-core: 1,940 Multi-core: 27,860 | Single-core: 1,793 Multi-core: 24,055 |
| Cinebench R23 | Single-core: 1,695 Multi-core: 28,570 | Single-core: 1,534 Multi-core: 24,189 |
| Blender 3.1 | N/A | 379 |
In conclusion, it can be said that the M2 Ultra is definitely faster than M1 Ultra but not necessarily by 20% across the board. In some benchmarks, the performance difference ranges from as low as 16% to as high as 20%.
