Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) vs GeForce RTX 4090

[ VERDICT ] Winner: GeForce RTX 4090 (89/100)

GeForce RTX 4090 leads overall with a score of 89/100 compared to Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) (38/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core)
Apple

Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core)

38/100
View Full Specs →
[ WINNER ]
GeForce RTX 4090
GeForce

GeForce RTX 4090

89/100
View Full Specs →

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Efficiency 75.0 Good WINNER 43.0 Poor
Gaming 26.0 Poor 93.0 Excellent WINNER

Detailed Technical Specifications

3D Mark

3D Mark specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Solar Bay 30368 187525
Wild Life Extreme 24948 85218
Fire Strike — 72432
Night Raid — 195813
Port Royal — 26127
Time Spy — 36299

API

API specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
DLSS No DLSS 3
Ray Tracing No Yes
CUDA — 8.9
DirectX — 12
DisplayPort — 1.4a
OpenCL — 3.0
OpenGL — 4.6
Vulkan — 1.3

GeekBench 6 ML

GeekBench 6 ML specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Backend GPU DirectML
Depth Estimation (Q) 31105 75599
Face Detection (HP) 27965 78111
Framework Core ML ONNX
Image Classification (SP) 6657 15600
Image Segmentation (HP) 13854 36657
Image Super Resolution (Q) 18642 48114
Machine Translation (HP) 2052 6349
Object Detection (SP) 6495 21186
Pose Estimation (Q) 83144 289639
Style Transfer (SP) 135686 601428
Text Classification (SP) 2377 4074

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GeekBench 6 OpenCL specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
API OpenCL OpenCL
Background Blur 149 img/sec 318.9 img/sec
Edge Detection 6.88 Gpixels/sec 21 Gpixels/sec
Face Detection 98.1 img/sec 222.8 img/sec
Feature Matching 0.73 Gpixels/sec 2.38 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 4.44 Gpixels/sec 23.9 Gpixels/sec
Horizon Detection 3.8 Gpixels/sec 14.2 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 11144.2 FPS 48090.4 FPS
Stereo Matching 264.9 Gpixels/sec 1950 Gpixels/sec

General

General specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Architecture Apple M GPU Ada Lovelace
Build Integrated Discrete
Case Laptop Desktop
Nvidia Equivalent -GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop —
Purpose Professional Gaming
Released January 17, 2023 September 20, 2022
Segment High-end High-end
Successor -Apple M5 Max GPU (40-core) -GeForce RTX 5090
Used in CPUs -Apple M2 Max —
Vendor Apple Nvidia
GPU Codename — AD102
Launch price (MSRP) — $1599
Recommended CPU — -Intel Core i9 14900Kor above

Graphics Processing Unit

Graphics Processing Unit specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Base Clock 450 MHz 2235 MHz
Boost Clock 1398 MHz 2520 MHz
Compute Units (Pipelines) 608 128
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC
Render Output Units (ROPs) 152 176
Shading Units 4864 16384
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 304 512
L1 Cache — 128KB per cluster
L2 Cache — 72MB shared
Ray-tracing Cores — 128
Tensor Cores — 512

Memory

Memory specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Bus 512-bit 384-bit
ECC No No
Effective Memory Speed 12800 Mbps 21000 Mbps
Memory Clock 6400 MHz 2625 MHz
Memory Type System Shared GDDR6X
Memory Size — 24 GB

Physical

Physical specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Fabrication Process 5 nm 5 nm
Interface Custom PCIe 4.0 x16
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Max. Temperature 94°C —
TGP 70 W 450 W
Transistor Count 52 billion 76.3 billion
Die Size — 609 mm²
Transistor Density — 125.29 MTr/mm²

Raw Performance

Raw Performance specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Pixel Fill Rate 212 GPixel/s 444 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 425 GTexel/s 1290 GTexel/s

Games

Games specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
1080p High — 255
1080p Ultra — 217
1440p Ultra — 177
4K Ultra — 106
CoD: Modern Warfare III — 266263219151
Counter-Strike 2 — 33923818890
Cyberpunk 2077 — 22620814366
Far Cry 6 — 203179170104
Forza Horizon 5 — 275199193155
Ghost of Tsushima — 18815213791
Hogwarts Legacy — 20016313274
Margin of Error — Low
Shadow of the Tomb Raider — 302284222118
The Witcher 3 — 292268191101

Passmark Graphics

Passmark Graphics specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
DirectX 11 — 323 FPS
DirectX 12 — 151 FPS
G2D Mark — 1303
GPU Compute — 26022 Ops/s

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple M2 Max GPU (38-core) GeForce RTX 4090
Date — Benchmark
📘 2026-04-03(afroman420IU) — Cinebench 2024

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