These machines are undoubtedly the best MacBooks ever produced from a raw performance perspective, and that means they’re the best Apple laptops ever produced for gamers too. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a good buy if gaming is a top priority for you.

Put simply, the RAM is now part of the system-on-chip which allows both the CPU and GPU to pull from the same pool of fast-access memory for performance that comes at the cost of upgradeability. Unified memory is another trick Apple has pulled out of the hat since switching to its own ARM-based architecture in 2020. The M1 Max may even outperform NVIDIA’s portable darling in some tasks, particularly where the software has been optimized to use Apple’s Metal API. AppleĪpple even claims that the 32-core GPU variant is up there with NVIDIA’s RTX 3800 Mobile chip in terms of raw performance, though real-world benchmarks have yet to materialize. This means that the higher-end MacBook Pro models can chew through data and graphics-intensive tasks with aplomb, which is great news for professionals who have been hungry for new silicon to speed up their workflows. That’s faster than the PlayStation 5 (5.5GB/sec).

Memory bandwidth can hit 400GB/sec and the solid-state drive that Apple ships use PCI Express Gen 4 for a maximum throughput of 7.4GB/sec. The higher-end variant comes with 10 CPU cores and up to 32 GPU cores and can share a pool of up to 64GB of unified memory. This is the first time Apple has produced a version of the M1 chip first seen in 2020 for the “professional” market, with all the grunt a data scientist or video editor could ask for. The 2021 MacBook Pro comes with your choice of M1 Pro and M1 Max systems-on-a-chip. Unfortunately, raw performance isn’t everything. On hearing this news you might think that the new MacBook Pro is nearing “ gaming laptop” territory. The 2021 MacBook Pro is a monster, with 10 CPU cores and up to 32 GPU cores for never-before-seen 3D graphics performance.

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