Maybe but we sometimes hear rumors that M2s ARE coming sooner. It’s hard to know what Apple’s plans are, especially with the supply chain causing major hiccups in their launch plans. If they do come out sooner it isn’t really a problem. The M1 Pro/Max would still be more than twice as fast as an M2 for any multi-core operations. Anyone that really needs the power and is willing to spend the money on an M1 Pro/Max machine will understand the difference. Less technical consumers might be swayed by the larger number in the M2 but those people are probably well served by such a machine anyway.
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Apple Files New Macs in Regulatory Database Ahead of Rumored Spring Event
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I more or less assumed those reasons, but people keep bringing up Apple’s 2 year to update all iMac computers without considering that the chip crunch happened after they committed to the upgrades. And there may have been reasons even if Covid never hit that the world would still have had a chip shortage, such as Europe and other nations switching to EV’s faster than expected and China and Taiwan relations getting really bad, and both of those countries are major chip suppliers, causing companies to buy as many chips and processors even if normally they wouldn’t have ordered them yet.
A kind of toilet paper shortage for electronic components.
There might be another reason that Apple would want to release the M2 based macs before the final M1 Macs. The M2 is probably a different fab line that would free up space on the M1 fab line for the larger M1 Pro & Max and maybe the even larger Jade2C and Jade4C. Someone like @cmaier with more knowledge might be able to confirm.
Updated mini gets my money. Everyone salivating over ‘M2’ here, but honestly, the M1 Pro is more than plenty good enough thank you kindly. I’m not keen on M2 prices if M1 does it already. My M1 MBP and Air are still monsters. Still the best computers I’ve owned. An M1Max Mini will do me well.
We're all assuming that M2 will be a significant upgrade over M1 when it really could be minor.
It seems as if Apple's strategy is to hold off on any substantial power for anything but the "Pro" branded machines.
So the non-Pro/Max branded M2 will be an upgrade over M1. But it's not going to feature as many CPU and GPU cores as M1 Pro/Max. Or maybe Apple will just hold back on GPU cores, like we saw with M1, and there will be many more cores in "plain" M2 than "plain" M1.
The first day of Spring is March 20. The rumored event will take place on March 8, in Winter.
Apple has filed three new unreleased Mac computers in the Eurasian Economic Database ahead of when the company is expected to hold a rumored Spring event on or around March 8, as first spotted by Consomac.
It's only me or buying an M1 Pro/Max having M2 so close it's a bit strange? I hope the releases settle a bit after migrating all to Intel, I would say that pro/max version should arrive closer in time of normal Ms... not one year after at least...
Definition of PEDANTIC
of, relating to, or being a pedant; narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned; unimaginative, dull… See the full definition
www.merriam-webster.com
Any M1 Pro/Max that you get is still going to run circles around a base level M2 for anything but the simplest tasks.
Yep, I was thinking of this song as soon as I posted ?
And thanks for the video embed - I don’t know how, but I’ve never seen it before! ??
You’re in the wrong forum and asking the wrong company for all of that. That’s simply not how Apple rolls and hasn’t for decades and won’t ever again.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Someone to which I responded was posting their wish for a next iMac. I posted mine. I was not claiming that was coming. In fact, I have no perception that that would show at all.
So instead, I'm going to make what I want by NOT buying the rumored iMac and instead buying the rumored Mac Mini (or perhaps Mac Pro Jr if Mini does not show with PRO & MAX) and an ultra-wide monitor from another company.
So instead, I'm going to make what I want by NOT buying the rumored iMac and instead buying the rumored Mac Mini (or perhaps Mac Pro Jr if Mini does not show with PRO & MAX) and an ultra-wide monitor from another company.
If M2 is based on A15 (which I don't think it will be) and subsequently on TSMC N5, then we already know from iPhone benchmarks the advantage will be negligible (<5%), especially for the CPU side. If, however (what I believe), M2 is based on A16 and with that (most likely) TSMC N3, then you can expect a 15% uplift in performance from the process alone, plus probably around 5% to maybe, possibly 10% from incremental, architectural improvements considering A16 is two iterations up from A14. So I fully expect M2 to be around 20% better in terms of single thread performance. Things look even better on the GPU side as the A15 GPU cores are already quite a bit stronger than A14's.
So.... if you really want a thin and light Apple Silicon device you should probably wait for september/october (if you can), unless you really dig the current MBA design and/or plan on mostly using it as a lightweight task machine (browsing, office, web development, etc). Plus: I cannot imagine the MacBook Air successor (I suspect just MacBook) to come as cheap as the current M1 MBA. Expecting a 200 bucks price bump seems reasonable given the current "state" of the world, the fact that TSMCs N3 process is significantly more expensive, and that we can expect M2 to utilize more expensive LPDDR5 memory (opposed to current M1 devices using LPDDR4x).
It also makes sense that they'd offer the MBA (or just MB) with M2 first since it is by far the best selling Mac out there, and the only one to garner substantial market share. Personally I think we will not see another Mac Mini non-pro, as the desktop market is firmly in the hand of people using their machines for business and professional work, and hence will be willing to pay for a pro level machine. I guess the M1 Mac Mini was just a one-shot stopgap solution to bring "some" Apple Silicon to desktop users right away.
2 cents.
So.... if you really want a thin and light Apple Silicon device you should probably wait for september/october (if you can), unless you really dig the current MBA design and/or plan on mostly using it as a lightweight task machine (browsing, office, web development, etc). Plus: I cannot imagine the MacBook Air successor (I suspect just MacBook) to come as cheap as the current M1 MBA. Expecting a 200 bucks price bump seems reasonable given the current "state" of the world, the fact that TSMCs N3 process is significantly more expensive, and that we can expect M2 to utilize more expensive LPDDR5 memory (opposed to current M1 devices using LPDDR4x).
It also makes sense that they'd offer the MBA (or just MB) with M2 first since it is by far the best selling Mac out there, and the only one to garner substantial market share. Personally I think we will not see another Mac Mini non-pro, as the desktop market is firmly in the hand of people using their machines for business and professional work, and hence will be willing to pay for a pro level machine. I guess the M1 Mac Mini was just a one-shot stopgap solution to bring "some" Apple Silicon to desktop users right away.
2 cents.
As seen from the PowerPC to Intel 2yr transition this is incorrect.
The first Intel-based Macs included only Intel Core Duo processors, which were 32-bit. Apple refreshed its line of computers six months later, adding Intel's new Intel Core 2 Duo 64-bit processors.
Also note the transition - from announcement to announcement was completed 4 months early, but the last product did ship on month 23/24.
So sorry no Osbourne effect happening here.
As someone who just got the MacBook Pro 14 base model, it doesn’t potentially sting a little bit if the performance is close and the price differential is large. But, I needed it now and when I purchased it, all rumors pointed to a fall update. The March 8th event is outside of my return window, but I would have a month or 2 at least with my new Pro vs on my old PC.
You missed TSMC’s N4 which is an enhanced version of their N5 process. The M2 is likely to be an A15 fabricated on the N4 process.
I honestly only see the Mac Mini getting upgraded to M1 Pro|Max, and maybe an iMac Pro with miniLED/M1 Pro|Max.
It doesn’t make sense for the 13in MB Pro to stick around without the Touch Bar and a the Air due for an upgrade.
Alternatively, Apple may maximize silicon vertical chip production and release the new MB Air this spring with miniLED/M1 Pro (7cu)/six speaker audio/new design.
So either MB Air with M1 Pro in spring, or MB Air with M2 this fall.
Based on current chip shortage, Apple probably planned for both events.
It doesn’t make sense for the 13in MB Pro to stick around without the Touch Bar and a the Air due for an upgrade.
Alternatively, Apple may maximize silicon vertical chip production and release the new MB Air this spring with miniLED/M1 Pro (7cu)/six speaker audio/new design.
So either MB Air with M1 Pro in spring, or MB Air with M2 this fall.
Based on current chip shortage, Apple probably planned for both events.
TSMC is still having issues with N3, so most likely M2 will be based off an iteration of N5, an N5+/++.
Also I don't think A14 to A15 was a 5% cpu performance increase.
iPhone 12 Pro Geekbench 5 score: https://browser.geekbench.com/v5/cpu/12773533
Single: 1605
Multi-Core: 4300
Metal: 12311
iPhone 13 Pro:
Single: 1747 = 8%
Multi-Core: 5012 = 15.2921%
Metal: 15137 = 20.5917%
Understand, I have owned a few in my days, including the first one. My favorite Mac still is my MacBook Air 2013. Had hoped they just added a Retina when they did a redesign back in the day (though the best performance with a descent design overall is my new MacBook Pro 2021).
I did not understand why it needed a M1, but understand now as someone said due to Virual Reality stuff requirements.
But still…shouldn’t logically the MacBook Air be the overall usable Mac and VR usage and potential gaming go with the entry level Pro? Yes of course any upgraded power and graphics etc. would be good for MacBook Air, but then there is no need for an entry MacBook Pro.
But understand now why the focus on an upgrade.
actaully yes apple DID release new CPU’s every year since iPhone 4!
every iPhone top and mid-tier is new chips every year since.
regarding intel macs well intel didn’t significantly improve their chips since the 3rd iteration Of core i7 from dual to quad cpu. The units ran super hot.
coding teams, high end producers of photos videos music etc are probably getting smarter at calculating the cost of ownership now includes power consumption over the length of ownership. Those hydro bills are sky rocketing.
from the G5 970x in the PowerMac G5 I had years ago which even running 4 days a week for a few hours for light consumer tasks significantly increased my electric bill. Moving to intel was a significant drop and I could use my machine more. selling my intel MBP and using an M1 iPad along with a high end Mac Mini next get soon I’ll bet I can run both full tilt and still not be spending nearly as much as running the intel MBP as much on external power.
I wonder if maybe these new macs are actually all M2 variants. Hear me out:
We know Apple locks in chip designs ~3 years in advance. They announced A15 this last September, meaning they have the basic core design for a theoretical M2 chip already. These designs were likely tapped out a long time ago. Because of the chip shortages, Apple was forced to slow down their announcements of M1 products (iMac being delayed, rumors of MBP being delayed too), but this doesn't mean development of these chips was slowed down at all. So their chip team has likely been plowing away at M2, M3, etc. while were still stuck on M1 due to ship shortages.
Eventually, Apple needs to catch up. A15 still uses the same 5nm process as M1 so it's entirely possible they have M2 chips ready. The only catch here is they would need to announce M2 and M2 Pro/Max chips all at once. BUT due to massive delays, it's not that unrealistic to think they actually have them ready, Apple has just been waiting for the supply chain to improve.
The only thing that I'm skeptical of with this is really lack of chip rumors. If this were true we would have heard about this. hmmm......
We know Apple locks in chip designs ~3 years in advance. They announced A15 this last September, meaning they have the basic core design for a theoretical M2 chip already. These designs were likely tapped out a long time ago. Because of the chip shortages, Apple was forced to slow down their announcements of M1 products (iMac being delayed, rumors of MBP being delayed too), but this doesn't mean development of these chips was slowed down at all. So their chip team has likely been plowing away at M2, M3, etc. while were still stuck on M1 due to ship shortages.
Eventually, Apple needs to catch up. A15 still uses the same 5nm process as M1 so it's entirely possible they have M2 chips ready. The only catch here is they would need to announce M2 and M2 Pro/Max chips all at once. BUT due to massive delays, it's not that unrealistic to think they actually have them ready, Apple has just been waiting for the supply chain to improve.
The only thing that I'm skeptical of with this is really lack of chip rumors. If this were true we would have heard about this. hmmm......
While we are fixated (I think understandably) on the 2021 iMac's missing front-facing colors that pop versus the current pastel, and questionable choice of white bezel – an aesthetic aberration that some, as with the infamous Touch Bar, actually liked despite popular opinion, one key absent characteristic of the MacBook Air that's bothered me for some time is how bloody expensive it is to get a laptop from Apple with a diagonal screen length of over 13"; needing to upgrade to a 16" MacBook for the real estate at a premium that's minimally $2,700 after taxes is ludicrous if you don't need the horsepower, when you consider an entry level laptop on the Air side costs about $1,100. For people who just want to see more on a portable device and aren't crunching 4K videos constantly it feels like we've been left out of the loop. People need to multitask in ways the iPad can't as naturally deliver with split screen. Though I understand there's probably some corporate concern about such a device as the Air cannibalizing the market share of their other products were it more competitive with a 16" screen it's really not eating their lunch, when you consider it's not meant to be a power house or necessarily for media consumption primarily which I'd argue the iPad mostly is. I just want a device that gives me the space to multitask effectively without minimizing and flipping constantly or deferring to a secondary device for non-passive functions the display is better being dedicated to, like a textbook or video. Students in particular these days are juggling accessing an online assignments portal, 1080p webcam, instant messenger, an office suite, probably code text editing and terminal if that's your cup of tea (or coffee), and I could really use that 3 inches without dropping almost 3x the price, please. We'd also get an improved battery life, more efficient heat dissipation for a mini-LED screen if they went that route, possibly more ports for the size bump, bigger speakers. I would pay an extra $500 for all that slight increase entails. If they can do this for the MacBook Pro shouldn't they also with the Air? Students need love too!
It might actually be the m1 pro soc on the MacBook Pro 13 cheaper form factor... Together with the almost confirmed Mac mini m1 pro and a iMac 21 inch m1 pro... I feel the m2 release is reserved for the MacBook Air released only after all the m1 products are released.