This correct. Call it "M1X" or whatever, there are two variants of M1 with 12 core and 16 core based on leaks from 8 months ago. I believe one or both of those are what is currently in production, in advance of Pro machines to be released this summer.
Nope, they reflect whether or not the chip is a variant of M1 (same design, more cores) or a totally new architecture.
How I look at it: What will the 2025 model with 8+4 cores be called? Just like the A-chips went from A4 to A14 over the years, the number on the M-chips will increase every year. So Apple has two choices: Either ALL chips are just M-some number. M1 this year, M2 next year, M3 the year after that. And as a buyer you need to check if it is M3 with 4+4, 8+4, 16+4 cores. Or an additional letter: M1 and M1X this year, M2, M2X, M2Y next year and so on. But calling the next chip M2 will be creating confusing forever. What are they going to call next years low-end chip?
That's a bad bet. It is already known that Apple has variants of the M1 with more cores. What makes sense is that those are currently in production headed for MBP's and maybe, maybe an iMac.
I assume there will be the low-end M1 chip, and some high-end chip, whatever the name (could be M1 with 12+4 cores, I'd like that). If there's a 16" MBP, there must be a model with the high-end chip, but I'd also expect a model with the low-end chip, for all those who want a large monitor on the go and are fine with M1 performance. Many people will be just fine with just a 16" monitor to carry around and no external monitor at all. Obviously times are a bit different now, but that's what many people will want in 2022 and after that.
If today's rumor is accurate that Apple is currently manufacturing a chip for new MacBook Pros, then you'd have to believe that the A15 is not only way ahead of schedule, which it never is, but that Apple is also going to release the M2 months ahead of the A15, from which it is derived. And you'd have to believe that Apple is abandoning its routine of producing a base chip, and then variants with more cores for higher performance products.
doubtful: a few may regret being impatient, but I suspect that most know what they're doing
Maybe, or maybe the M2 IS a enough of a jump for the pro users. For all anyone here knows, it is a 16 or 32 core monster. No one in the industry expected the A7 to be a 64-bit monster or be released as soon as it was.
That is true, but the iPad Air was launched when the iPhones were scheduled to be launched. I wonder what this year's A15 will look like vs the M1. The iPhones seem so hamstrung with iOS vs what the CPU can handle but the longevity and years of Apple support probably influence that.
Base model mbp 16in come with 16gb ram standard. We can’t be charged more to get the bare minimum mbp ram config. Also, how many hundreds of dollars more does an xdr panel cost when one can be had for around a thousand on the iPad Pro and that comes with an m1 computer attached? The new ones will cost more because we have no cheap used ones to buy as an alternative. They charge what they think the public will pay and still be able to get their stock price up. They are not doing us any favors when they include more expensive parts. They just want to see if we accept paying more. In the past every upgrade to the line came with better parts and kept prices the same.
Yes there is. Cost and physics.
The disabled core is a GPU core, and it's pretty much irrelevant for 95% of the population.
You have no idea whether that will be the case or not. Only the M1 has been released. And even if the naming scheme was based on the underlying architecture, that is still purely a marketing decision.
Intel has i3, i5, i7, i9 and each one of those have specific architectural differences such that there’s a series of i3’s of varying performance and features, a series of i5’s etc.
By WWDC, the code examples provided will indicate whether discrete GPU’s are in the future. IF, in the tracks about Apple Silicon GPU’s continue to mention unified memory, then there won’t be discrete GPU’s for the near future.
I don't think they will do this.
Agreed. Likely to support 32GB of RAM or higher and possibly 12 cores. Who knows tho. There is a thread on the M1 MacBook Air of users with the base 8GB 256GB model who also have the 16GB 1TB model Mini and they don't see much difference in performance and the way the M1 manages RAM appears to be one of the most impressive aspects of the chip design.
You DO realize that 80 percent of professionals have done their work in the past with Intel-based mobile systems, right? ALL configurations of which pale in comparison to Apple’s M1. So, to indicate that a more performant variant of the SAME processor architecture will suddenly NOT be sufficient for these same professionals is interesting… potentially humorous.
Whenever there is a performance improvement in the hardware, the software and workloads become more demanding in response. That's why my phone is actually faster than my MacBook, and guess what, the performance improvement is actually noticeable (although I can function fine on my MacBook).
I see a number of reviews on editing high resolution video, and 16 GB makes for quite noticeable improvements in performance over 8 GB on the M1 Mac mini.
I just do very light kids' video editing on my iPad Pro occasionally. The A10X iPad Pro 10.5" gets quite sluggish during scrubbing with 4K iPhone video once you layer some stuff on top of that, and that can be a bit annoying. I don't have a more recent iPad Pro, but according to side-by-side review comparisons, the A12X iPad Pro 11" is much smoother.
Don’t forget, the M1 was the first motion coprocessor
So, T1 is up for being redefined. Especially since future Macs won’t need a T1!
