Mark Gurman, one of the main sources for rumors of Apple due to its reliability and experience, has commented on what he believes would be the next step in Apple’s transition from Intel to its own chips after the arrival of the M1 to MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. That next step would aim to improve the performance and efficiency of Intel’s most powerful chips.
This would be achieved with a new chip more powerful than the M1 (or a modified version of it) that would be equipped from next spring in iMac, high-end MacBook Pro, and finally in Mac Pro. There would still be time until Apple completes the transition in 2022 as promised, but this would have the entire range of Mac with its chips to autumn 2021.
CPUs with 32 cores and GPUs with 128 cores in 2022: Apple has the ambition to lead with their chips
At the moment, the analysis and criticism of the M1 chips are generally positive, emphasizing the increased performance of these Macs despite being less powerful or even lack of ventilation in the case of MacBook Air. So looking ahead, if in a few months Apple shows that this M1 is the entry chip to something more important, that goal of exceeding the power of Intel can be achieved. There are optimism and expectation about how Apple can “resurrect” the Mac with this transition: many experts have already given their arguments to wait and for the moment not buy any Mac.
There are not much concrete data about how these big brothers of the M1 chip could be, although Gurman mentions that we could see them with up to 32 cores. Taking into account that the four efficiency cores would be kept as a base in all models, that would mean that we would see chips with 8, 12, and even 28 performance cores. The chips with so many cores would be reserved for the most demanding Mac, including a Mac Pro whose size would be reduced by half.
In terms of graphics power, Gurman says that Apple is planning to integrate 16-core and up to 32-core GPUs for mid-range and high-end Macs. And for those Mac Pro, we could see GPUs up to 128 dedicated cores. That, I insist, would be a reality within about two years.
Apple has refused to comment on Bloomberg’s news. Remember that we’re talking about rumors, so we shouldn’t take this as confirmed news, let alone official news.
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