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Here's Why Apple is Reportedly Skipping M6 Pro and M6 Max Chips

I’m planning to upgrade my 2015 iMac. Was thinking about the M5 Studio. But maybe I should hold out for the M7.

Apple has no power over me 🙂
 
Seems that Apple is giving Mac Studio the Pro treatment. That is, not caring about it at all. It’s already three generations behind.

Luckily the M3 Ultra is still a bit faster than the current cheapest base model.
 
tutubibi said:
It does not make sense to release base M6 only for base M7 to supersede it months later. I would think it is more likely that M6 will be a family that article is referring as M7, with base model released early next year.

Or Apple might separate base and performance CPUs, keeping M for base and having other letter for performance models.
Click to expand...
The base M6 will power the following: 14” MacBook Pro, 13” and 15” MacBook Air, iPad Pro 11” and 13” and eventually drop down to the iPad Air 11” and 13”, so it makes complete sense not to skip it. Also, it’s already taped out and ready to go with final validation testing being completed before mass production in the next 4-6 weeks.

EDIT: Forgot the iMac.
 
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Hoping that future Studios will have more than just four thunderbolt ports that way more units can be clustered. 🙄
 
Why not "skip" the M6 tech and just delay all M7 tech so it can be the M6 set instead of a fragmented release across generations? It does not seem like anyone is in desperate need of a minorly incremental increase for the M6 from the M5.
 
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tutubibi said:
It does not make sense to release base M6 only for base M7 to supersede it months later. I would think it is more likely that M6 will be a family that article is referring as M7, with base model released early next year.

Or Apple might separate base and performance CPUs, keeping M for base and having other letter for performance models.
Click to expand...

If there’s any truth to this rumor, Apple could very well wait a year after the M6 to release the base M7, and concentrate on getting the Pro and Max variants out earlier in the year.
 
I guess depends on how much M5 left over, Mac mini may skip M5.
I have M4 mini so if Apple launch M6 mini on late 2026 will be great.
 
Vincent Hanna said:
Another example of hobbyists being painfully ignorant of professional workflows.

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 768GB of RAM will cost over $30,000. That price is a bargain for the corporations, institutions, universities, and AI professionals who need to run enormous models locally. Apple will sell every single one they can make.

It's not designed to go on your desk.
Click to expand...
will it have PCI-E slots? more then 10G networking? SFP something? QSFP something?
 
My M2 Max still does a perfect job for image and video processing.

For games it's GeForce Ultimate or nothing anyway since 2025.

And why would someone switch from M3 Max to M4 Max or M5 Max?
 
tutubibi said:
It does not make sense to release base M6 only for base M7 to supersede it months later. I would think it is more likely that M6 will be a family that article is referring as M7, with base model released early next year.

Or Apple might separate base and performance CPUs, keeping M for base and having other letter for performance models.
Click to expand...
Who does it not make sense to? Pretty sure the only people it would not make sense to are OCD internet dorks.

Customers don't care.

If Apple produces a base M6 for a certain purpose for certain products, and then later produces an M7 Pro and M7 Max...these are different architectures with different goals and products in mind. You wanting them to just "name things" in a way that makes you more comfortable is not relevant.
 
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AI the chips need to be AI ready. All the RAM needs to be AI. It's all going to be AI and so apples choice is correct. Good move....get the chips more AI ready with much much higher integrated video RAM.
 
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1d1otic said:
Memory chips ruined everything and Apple is part of the reason.
Click to expand...
The largest buyer of memory chips by far has been Nvida. It's driven by hyperscalers like google, meta, microsoft, amazon and openai, who buy memory foe their own chips and buy from Nvida, but not apple which is not a hyperscaler.

Apple's only role is as a user of some gemini capacity. Apple products use a different low-power type of memory which is impacted because the memory companies shifted production from what Apple buys to the type hyperscalers want.
 
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Blue Nova said:
The “M” stands for Mac — it’s Apple’s branding for its own custom silicon chips designed for the Mac lineup (as opposed to the “A” series used in iPhones and iPads).

I looked it up using Claude, ChatGPT did not know?
Click to expand...
😊
I think ChatGPT —before Apple formally accused Open AI of trade secret theft— would have answered “‘M’ stands for ‘miraculous’”, but after the accusation became public, it changed it to “mediocre”
😊
 
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These upsale products require more than just glueng some exiting process and memory chips together. It's probably a simple cost-benefit quetsion - cost to produce them versus anticpated demand. Apple isn't a charity willing to make products that lose money because a small number of people are angry and think them stupid if they don't.
 
Ben11 said:
What does The “M” stand for?
Click to expand...
It's not an M.

1783967651395.png
 
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