Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I hear that M2 is about 15% faster than M1 (probably single core speed). Obviously, multicore scores will be much higher due to the speed difference of a single core and also higher number of cores in general. Apple also will probably include various media encoders, all in all, M2, while an incremental upgrade, is going to be quite a leap.

M1 is still a first-generation product, albeit one that was executed extremely well. It may be worth waiting for M2 for that reason alone.
 
M1 is still a first-generation product, albeit one that was executed extremely well. It may be worth waiting for M2 for that reason alone.
While absolutely true, one also has to remember that M1 is based on A chips, which Apple has developed for a decade now so i’d say that for a first gen M chip, M1 is a very mature product on its own.
 
I wonder how long these M1 products will be supported in regards to OS updates. Seems to me that the average right now with Apples intel Mac’s is around 7ish years for all but the Mac Pros.

As good as the new M1 MacBooks are, they’re also much more expensive (I’m mostly looking at the MBP’s here). Not to mention the soldered components which really brings up the cost of even the Air. If I’m spending $2000+ on a laptop, I’d hope to get 10 years out of it. I may be in the minority, but I keep my electronics a long time and the fact that being behind in macOS updates means being locked out of programs (Windows doesn’t have this issue), i hope that Apple supports the M1 products longer than their Intel products. Apple would rather everyone just buy a new laptop, but a man can hope.
 
Apple updates their iOS devices every year. They obviously are going to update their Mac hardware every year as well now that they're on their own chips.
Apple doesn't update Macs like they do iPhones. Show me some examples where Macs have been updated yearly in recent years. This is the basis for a lot of people sold on the thought that there will be M2 SoC's before most other Macs designs even see M1 Pro's/M1 Max. You just saw the M1 Ultra in March. The M1Pro/Max was just half a year ago. We have multiple Macs that could use these more powerful M1 family SoC's yet we continue to discuss all the M2 possibilities? Just seems odd Apple would go that route IMHO.
 
Last edited:
Apple doesn't update Macs like they do iPhones. Show me some examples where Macs have been updated yearly in recent years. This is the basis for a lot of people sold on the thought that there will be M2 SoC's before most other Macs designs even see M1 Pro's/M1 Max. You just saw the M1 Ultra in March. The M1Pro/Max was just half a year ago. We have multiple Macs that could use these more powerful M1 family SoC's yet we discuss continue to discuss all the M2 possibilities? Just seems odd Apple would go that route IMHO.
I'm with you no that. I believe a Mini will come out with an M1 Pro soon, if the supply chain gets moving. M2, likely not until the end of the year if not 2023.

And I maintain that M2 has a reasonable chance of debuting in the Mac Pro, but I'm probably the only one hanging my hat on that one.
 


Apple is internally testing several variants of the next-generation M2 chip and the updated Macs that will be equipped with them, reports Bloomberg, citing developer logs. There are "at least" nine new Macs in development that use four different M2 chips that are successors to the current M1 chips.

13-inch-macbook-pro-m2-mock-feature-2.jpg

Apple is working on devices with standard M2 chips, the M2 Pro, the M2 Max, and a successor to the M1 Ultra, with the following machines in the works:
  • A MacBook Air with an M2 chip that features an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU.
  • A Mac mini with the M2 chip and a variant with the M2 Pro chip.
  • An entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 chip.
  • A 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. The M2 Max chip features a 12-core GPU and 38-core GPU, along with 64GB Memory.
  • A Mac Pro that will include a successor to the M1 Ultra used in the Mac Studio.
Apple has also tested an M1 Max version of the Mac mini, but the release of the Mac Studio may make such a machine redundant, so Apple could stick with M2 and M2 Pro chips when the Mac mini eventually sees a refresh.

According to Bloomberg, the internal testing is a "key step" in the development process, and it suggests that the machines could be released in the coming months. We have heard multiple rumors about a new MacBook Air, an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, a Mac Pro, and a new Mac mini, but this is the first we are hearing of a possible 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro refresh this year.

Prior rumors have suggested that we can expect to see the MacBook Air, low-end MacBook Pro, and Mac mini come out in 2022, and Bloomberg has previously said that at least two Macs will launch mid-year, perhaps at WWDC.

Article Link: Apple Testing at Least Nine New Macs With Four Different M2 Chip Variants
My impression is that Apple is (and has been) developing new technology and corresponding new Mac models faster than todays supply chain can keep up.

It is commonly understood that supply chain issues have limited new product availability (and not just Apple), but when I think about this my thought is that we will see a surge of new product over the next 1-2 years as the balance between product development and supply chain capability slowly returns to a normal equilibrium.

Which will probably include more diversification in suppliers to Apple so that they are not so heavily dependent upon certain suppliers or certain geographic areas (i.e. China) for their product.
 
The minute I see M2 mentioned without any other Mac products using M1 Pro besides the MBP I am skeptical.
Yeah, interesting. That's a good point. I kinda wonder whether the new Studio Monitor will become an M1 Pro iMac Pro (or something like that).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Realityck
Maybe Apple has a Mac Pro configuration that uses four "regular" M2 Max SoCs & four "mainly memory controllers & GPU cores" M2 Max SoCs all working together; thereby offering up to 512GB LPDDR5 SDRAM and 256 GPU cores...!



38 is an odd number though, most "GPU core stuff" is on a base-8 kinda thing...?



Maybe the M2 Max/Ultra/Extreme/Kraken have all Performance cores, with the M2 and M2 Pro having a mix of Performance and Efficiency cores...?

CPUCore TypesGPURAM
M28-core4P/4E10-core16GB
M2 Pro12-core8P/4E16-core32GB
M2 Max12-core12P/0E32-core64GB
M2 Ultra24-core24P/0E64-core128GB
M2 Extreme48-core48P/0E128-core256GB
M2 Kraken48-core48P/0E256-core512GB

So the 14" & 16" M2 Max MacBook Pro laptops take a hit by not having any Efficiency cores, but the headless desktops are All Killer, No Filler...?!? ;^p

TabletLaptopHeadless Desktop
M211" iPad Pro
12.9" iPad Pro
13" MacBook
15" MacBook
Mac mini
M2 Pro14" MacBook Pro
16" MacBook Pro
Mac mini
M2 Max14" MacBook Pro
16" MacBook Pro
Mac Studio
M2 UltraMac Studio
Mac Pro
M2 ExtremeMac Pro
M2 KrakenMac Pro

A full-sweep M2-family refresh before the end of 2022 would be quite the successful transition...!
Release the Kraken!
 
Would be ridiculous to see new 14" and 16" M2 MacBook Pros this year. I just got the 16" M1 Max.

I got the m1 max 16” I hope the m2 max doesn’t come anytime soon
How your computer will be worse because m2 exist?

I just bought the 14 pro, I don’t care if they release the 14 m2 pro tomorrow. Mine will still be as fast as yesterday and will gives me many many years of usage.
 
If we are supposed to be believe this, is the base line M2 Pro(+higher config) 8+4?
That seems unlikely given the current 8+2. But alternatives like (5+5)+2 also don't make sense.
6+6 makes sense (a cluster of 6 rather than 4 P-cores is not necessarily a crazy idea) or 4+4+4, but then no E-cores really doesn't make sense.

Wayne Ma had stated his information said the M2 was going to be 4 performance cores with 4 efficiency cores and then 9 (binned) or 10 GPU cores. He also said there would be an "M2 Duo" that was two M2s stitched together that would have 8 P cores + 8 E cores and 20 GPU cores.

In January, Dylandkt tweeted the existence of a "12 core M1 variant" with 10 P cores and 2 E cores and 16 or 32 GPU cores that I started a thread upon. Based on the claims of 12 cores for the M2 Pro and M2 Max, his information might have been pointing to that as Mark Gurman believes the M2 Pro will have 16 GPU cores and the M2 Max would have 32 GPU cores. Though if M2 has 10 GPU cores, one would think Pro would be 20, Max 40 and Ultra 80...

The question is, on the Mac Pro, will there be multiple of the extreme (x1,2,4,6, or 8)? I wonder if RAM limits will stay the same on each level of chip this time around?

Majin Bu has claimed that Apple can use the UltraFusion interconnect to link two M1 Ultras together along their vertical axis (so they would be side-by-side).

As for RAM, there have been rumors Apple is developing a memory controller that can access DIMMs outside of the SoC package (though at much slower speeds) to allow for larger RAM capacities than the presumed 256GB of 2xM1 Ultra.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert
Processor design takes several years and even once they have the first working dies it could still be a year before it is released. There are subsequent iterations as they iron out bugs, etc. So this tells us that there will be several processors/products in the next year, but not all at once. Also, assuming this is on the next TSMC process node there will most likely be supply issues if they tried to release everything at once.
 
Can anyone explain to me why the M2 will make a difference over the M1 to 95% of the Mac users? Hell, 99%. And while you are at it can you explain why YouTubers think they need to 'shoot' in 8k for a video of them unboxing something in their living room that most will watch on a small 11-16in iPad/Notebook screen? And why they believe they are "real;" cinematographers?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.