Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU vs GeForce RTX 4090

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking1not rated
Place by popularity6not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation18.80no data
Power efficiency15.39no data
ArchitectureAda Lovelace (2022−2024)no data
GPU code nameAD102no data
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date20 September 2022 (2 years ago)17 January 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$1,599 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores1638438
Core clock speed2235 MHzno data
Boost clock speed2520 MHzno data
Number of transistors76,300 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology5 nm5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)450 Watt53 Watt
Texture fill rate1,290no data
Floating-point processing power82.58 TFLOPSno data
ROPs176no data
TMUs512no data
Tensor Cores512no data
Ray Tracing Cores128no 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
Length304 mmno data
Width3-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 16-pinno 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 typeGDDR6XLPDDR5-6400
Maximum RAM amount24 GBno data
Memory bus width384 Bitno data
Memory clock speed1313 MHzno data
Memory bandwidth1.01 TB/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 Connectors1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4ano data
HDMI+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 Ultimate (12_2)no data
Shader Model6.8no data
OpenGL4.6no data
OpenCL3.0no data
Vulkan1.3-
CUDA8.9-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 20 September 2022 17 January 2023
Power consumption (TDP) 450 Watt 53 Watt

Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU has an age advantage of 3 months, and 749.1% lower power consumption.

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

Be aware that GeForce RTX 4090 is a desktop card while Apple M2 Max 38-Core GPU is a notebook one.


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

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

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Community ratings

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3.7 14055 votes

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3.3 197 votes

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Questions & comments

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