Apple will skip M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, new report says

Apple is planning a big change to its Apple Silicon strategy for the Mac. A new report from Bloomberg today details that Apple does not plan to release higher-end versions of the upcoming M6 chip. Instead, it will release the base M6, then immediately shift its focus to the M7 lineup. Here’s what to expect.

According to the report, the M6 chip has been tested in a new entry-level MacBook Pro and is planned for later this year. It will reportedly focus on improved memory bandwidth, offering up to 200 gigabytes per second. The current M5 chip maxes out at 153 gigabytes per second, for comparison.

Here are other improvements coming with the M6:

The M6 chip will include an updated memory architecture and an upgraded neural engine, the company’s dedicated component for AI processing. Performance will also improve across all of the cores, the processing units within chips. There are enhancements coming for video encoding and decoding as well.

Another change planned for the M6 is a redesigned graphics processing unit, with Apple having tested versions with up to 12 graphics cores. That’s up from a maximum of 10 in the M5. The new GPU is intended to better handle the concurrent rendering demands of AI, graphics and other tasks.

Apple, however, does not plan to release any additional variants of the M6 chip. Bloomberg says the next “Pro” and “Max” chips that Apple releases will materialize in the M7 generation next year. The M6 chip will be the first Apple processor since the advent of Apple Silicon in 2020 to not have a “Pro” or “Max” configuration.

The base M7 chip is reportedly set for “as early as the first half of next year.” The faster M7 Pro and M7 Max are slated for the end of next year, followed by the M7 Ultra in 2028.

“The M7 line is designed primarily around major advancements to on-device AI processing,” Bloomberg reports. “The base version is slated to support about 240 gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth.”

Finally, Apple is still working on the M5 Ultra chip. Today’s report says Apple aims to release it “as early as this year as part of a new Mac Studio.”

The M5 Ultra chip — code-named Sotra D or H17D — will have around 36 central processing unit cores and 80 GPU cores. Those specifications would make it one of the most powerful chips available in a mainstream computer.

Apple has also tested support for up to 768 gigabytes of memory in the M5 Ultra Mac Studio, though the component constraints could complicate its debut.

You can read the full report at Bloomberg.

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