Apple Vision Pro Rumored to Receive R2 Chip Next Year

[maflynn]

but can you work with three or four on your Studio Display? I

I have a M4 Max Studio, not the studio display. Besides, my 1440p monitor easily handles multiple spreadsheets open at any one time. In fact I typically have excel, word, email, chatgpt, several firefox windows open, imessage, and the terminal open. My studio will largely out perform and outwork the vision pro - not sure you really want to compare a desktop computer with a vr headset.

 

[its93rc]

I'd love mine only if typing weren't such a pain. That is my main complaint with the Vision Pro. It rarely registers my Magic Keyboard. I'd rather use my MacBook Pro.

 

[Roller]

I have a M4 Max Studio, not the studio display. Besides, my 1440p monitor easily handles multiple spreadsheets open at any one time. In fact I typically have excel, word, email, chatgpt, several firefox windows open, imessage, and the terminal open. My studio will largely out perform and outwork the vision pro - not sure you really want to compare a desktop computer with a vr headset.

Clearly, I was referring to the AVP's display abilities, not computing.

I don't doubt that you can have multiple windows open on your monitor, but when I've tried doing that on high-res displays like yours, I had considerable difficulty reading the text. The AVP works well for this, not to mention the other advantages I cited that aren't available with any monitor, regardless of cost.

Despite its shortcomings, the AVP has valid use cases for people like me, which seem to be not understood or are ignored in any AVP thread here. But at least you're willing to engage on the merits, as opposed to those who chime in with non-productive comments about Apple having sold only a handful of devices.

 

[deconstruct60]

This makes sense. What I have now works fine now. I don't see faster helping it much at all unless it has software that demands the extra power. So, they need to do a push on the software also.

It isn't 'extra power'. It is far more likely less power consumed that is the issue:

" ...

	Intel 18A vs Intel 3	N3P vs N3E	N2 vs N3E	N2P vs N3E	N2P vs N2	A16 vs N2P	N2X vs N2P	A14 vs N2	A14 SPR vs N2
Power	-25%	-5% ~ -10%	-25% ~ -30%	-36%	-5% ~ -10%	-15% ~ -20%	lower	-25% ~ -30%	lower
Performance	15%	5%	10% - 15%

..."

Intel's 18A production starts before TSMC’s competing N2 tech — here's how the two process nodes compare

Production starts at Fab 52.

www.tomshardware.com

[ Intel might get 'schooled' on this 18A bragging if these the R2 does uses N2 and these ship in November. ... ]

You don't get both the Power and Performance increase. It is either one or the other.
Either keep the clock frequency he same as previous generation and consume 25-30% less power. Or use the increased thermal envelope and crank the clocks higher (and get no power savings.). Chips usually don't operate at one extreme 90+% of the time. However, for the Vision Pro (VP) might be an exception.

Apple could just run the M5 and R2 at fixed clocks of the M2/R1 zone and take all the saving.s. M5 is likely N3P. That is only a 5-10% power saving over N3E, but the M2 is no where near being implemented on N3E . The M2 is back in N5P . Probably also looking as something the 25-30% drop in power consumption range. If M2/R1 were 40% of system battery consumption that is around 28% savings. So could move from 2 hours to about 2:22 . Running cooler means the fan has to work less and could be in 2:25 range. 50% of system consumption probably can get to 2:30 hours pretty easily. That would put watching video only mode probably close to 3 hrs. [ getting close to being able to watch Avatar and not drain the battery. 3:15 or so. If some improvements to the A/V decoder hardware and firmware that could fill in the remaining gap. ] Movies aren't the 'end all, be all' for the product , but would have increased the scope of what it can do. ( if doing virtual surgery , run time is up also. )

That would be a substantive improvement.

TSMC didn't go into high volume production until this Q4 2025 quarter, but the production volume needed for the Vision Pro isn't all that relatively 'high'. Extremely probably they need less than a 100K to service the end of the year. Pretty good chance even less than that if the shipping date slides into November (and even less December). Even if Apple as capped by using pre-HVM wafers to limited numbers of 20-30K that actually might work to their advantage because there would be a temporary scarcity for the Vision Pro. The scarcity effect wouldn't last long, but neither would the production shortage. By January the VP would be 'too small' for TSMC HVM.

But the R2 could be a useful 'pipeline cleaner' for TSMC ( and the other N2 customers. Still a pretty decent chance AMD will ship some cores running end-user software on N2 before Apple does. Other folks will be running wafers in 26Q1 and 26Q2. The VP doesn't to do support production all by itself. )