This is an overview of the difference in the current line up of Apple processors. It’s interesting to see that they went from DDR4 top DDR5 ram between the M1 and the M1 Pro.
M1 Processor

Characteristics
RAM : DDR4 (up to 16GB)
Transistors : 16 billion (5nm)
CPU cores : 8 : 4 high performance (12MB L2 shared cache) + 4 efficiency (4 MB L2 shared cache)
GPU cores : 8 (2.6 teraflops)
Neural engine : 16 cores : 11 trillion operations per second
M1 Hardware codecs support
Codecs (hardware accelerated)
Encode / Decode
h264 / h265 / HEVC (8 bit) / h265 / HEVC (10 bit) / VP9 / JPEG
Decode only
VP8 / VC1 / AVC:
M1 PRO
Characteristics
RAM : DDR5 (up to 32GB)
Transistors : 33.7 billion (5nm)
8 CPU cores : 6 high performance (24MB L2 shared cache) + 2 efficiency (4 MB L2 shared cache)
10 CPU cores : 8 high performance (24MB L2 shared cache) + 2 efficiency (4 MB L2 shared cache) up to 70% faster than M1
GPU cores : 16 (5.2 teraflops) 100% faster than M1
Neural engine : 16 cores : 11 trillion operations per second
Support two external displays
Codecs (hardware accelerated)
Encode / Decode
h264 / h265 / HEVC (8 bit) / h265 / HEVC (10 bit) / VP9 / JPEG / ProRes / ProRes RAW
Decode only
VP8 / VC1 / AVC:
M1 Pro also includes dedicated acceleration for the ProRes professional video codec allowing playback of multiple streams of high-quality 4K and 8K ProRes video while using very little power.
M1 MAX
Characteristics
RAM : DDR5 (up to 64GB)
Transistors : 57 billion (5nm)
10 CPU cores : 8 high performance (24MB L2 shared cache) + 2 efficiency (4 MB L2 shared cache) up to 70% faster than M1
GPU cores : 24 or 32 ( 10.4 teraflops)
Neural engine : 16 cores : 11 trillion operations per second
Media Engine: Two Prores encode/decode engines
Support four external displays
Codecs (hardware accelerated)
Encode / Decode
h264 / h265 / HEVC (8 bit) / h265 / HEVC (10 bit) / VP9 / JPEG / ProRes / ProRes RAW
Decode only
VP8 / VC1 / AVC:
M1 Ultra
Characteristics
RAM : DDR5 (up to 128GB)
Transistors : 114 billion (5nm)
20 CPU cores : 16 high performance (48MB L2 shared cache) + 4 efficiency (8 MB L2 shared cache)
GPU cores : 48 or 64 ( 21 teraflops)
Neural engine : 32 cores : 22 trillion operations per second
Media Engine: Four Prores encode/decode engines
Codecs (hardware accelerated)
Encode / Decode
h264 / h265 / HEVC (8 bit) / h265 / HEVC (10 bit) / VP9 / JPEG / ProRes / ProRes RAW
Decode only
VP8 / VC1 / AVC:
M2
Characteristics
RAM : DDR5 (up to 24GB)
Transistors : 20 billion (5nm)
CPU cores : 8 : 4 high performance (16MB L2 shared cache) + 4 efficiency (4 MB L2 shared cache)
GPU cores : 10 (3.6 teraflops)
Neural engine : 16 cores : 15.8 trillion operations per second
Display : external 1x 6k support
Codecs (hardware accelerated)
Encode / Decode
8K h264 / 8K h265 / HEVC (8 bit) / 8K h265 / HEVC (10 bit) / VP9 / JPEG / 8L ProRes / 8K ProRes RAW
Decode only
VP8 / VC1 / AVC
- The media engine includes a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video.–
- A new image signal processor (ISP) delivers better image noise reduction.
- The Neural Engine can process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second — over 40 percent more than M1.
- Apple’s powerful ProRes video engine enables playback of multiple streams of both 4K and 8K video. (comme le M1 PRO)