Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU vs GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q

VS

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureAda Lovelace (2022−2024)no data
GPU code nameAD103no data
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date3 January 2023 (1 year ago)17 January 2023 (1 year ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores972838
Core clock speed930 MHzno data
Boost clock speed1455 MHzno data
Number of transistors45,900 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology4 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)80 Watt53 Watt
Texture fill rate442.3no data
Floating-point processing power28.31 TFLOPSno data
ROPs112no data
TMUs304no data
Tensor Cores304no data
Ray Tracing Cores76no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datamedium sized
InterfacePCIe 4.0 x16no data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR6LPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount16 GBno data
Memory bus width256 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1750 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth448.0 GB/sno data
Shared memory-+

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsPortable Device Dependentno data

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)no data
Shader Model6.7no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL3.0no data
Vulkan1.3-
CUDA8.9-

Pros & cons summary


Chip lithography 4 nm 5 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 80 Watt 53 Watt

RTX 4090 Max-Q has a 25% more advanced lithography process.

Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU, on the other hand, has 50.9% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q and M2 Max 38-Core GPU. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q
GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q
Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU
M2 Max 38-Core GPU

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.3 149 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 4090 Max-Q on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.3 199 votes

Rate M2 Max 38-Core GPU on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.