M4 MacBook Pro Models Expected to Launch in Late 2024

[PaperMag]

Low percentage is probably because Apple still doesn't have an answer to the high end PC market in many workflows. Ultra is still two mobile chips. Plus the Mac Pro was a slap in the face of pros. The EXACT SAME as a Mac Studio yet was $3,000. No motherboard/case design is worth that much of a markup.

Apple really has no interest in the desktop market. I was hoping things would be better with Apple silicon but it appears not. My M3 Max is already better than my M2 Ultra in many workflows. M4 Max will outclass their best desktop line and this is just getting laughable.

Don’t you have that backwards?

How is it laughable that the M3 Max beats M2 Ultra? When that performance gain year-over-year is what we hope for?

And my comment you responded to is discussing the possible M4 Extreme which would possibly be its own chip (not a multiple of a Max chip). Supposedly that would drop in a Mac Pro, and Apple releases Mac Studios with Mac Pros, so that’s why both are to be announced WWDC 2025. It wasn’t ready for 2024. Turns out 3nm was hard on TSMC and they needed to jump to a different process, forcing Apple to move onto M4 gen for the Extreme. It isn’t that Apple doesn’t care about desktops.

Obviously Apple, a single company, a computer company who’s brand is “democratizing luxury” isn’t going to compete equivalently with Intel, AMD and Nvidia combined, especially in regards to price. You should have jumped ship 10+ years ago. Or do you enjoy complaining? Because the complaining hasn’t changed since 2013—Apple has been weak sauce in desktops since then. Just rip the bandaid already and make yourself happy with a Wintel box.

 

[andrewsyd]

I dream of a day where I can actually buy the most recent chip in the form factor that is most suited to me, instead of how things are released now. It's my money I'm spending for goodness sake 🙄😂

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

My 2023 M3 pro 16" is gonna last like 7-8 years easily. Thrown all kinds of workflows at it and have only heard the fans once

$499 edu M4 mac mini would be nice though

That’s the one I want as long as it’s not 8gb ram 256 gb ssd.

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

Don’t you have that backwards?

How is it laughable that the M3 Max beats M2 Ultra? When that performance gain year-over-year is what we hope for?

And my comment you responded to is discussing the possible M4 Extreme which would possibly be its own chip (not a multiple of a Max chip). Supposedly that would drop in a Mac Pro, and Apple releases Mac Studios with Mac Pros, so that’s why both are to be announced WWDC 2025. It wasn’t ready for 2024. Turns out 3nm was hard on TSMC and they needed to jump to a different process, forcing Apple to move onto M4 gen for the Extreme. It isn’t that Apple doesn’t care about desktops.

Obviously Apple, a single company, a computer company who’s brand is “democratizing luxury” isn’t going to compete equivalently with Intel, AMD and Nvidia combined, especially in regards to price. You should have jumped ship 10+ years ago. Or do you enjoy complaining? Because the complaining hasn’t changed since 2013—Apple has been weak sauce in desktops since then. Just rip the bandaid already and make yourself happy with a Wintel box.

Because he’s used to get a Pro that would be better than any other Mac for 5 years at least. There’s no reason to spend double for a Mac that will get surpassed next year by the regular Mac.

 

[Ethosik]

Don’t you have that backwards?

How is it laughable that the M3 Max beats M2 Ultra? When that performance gain year-over-year is what we hope for?

And my comment you responded to is discussing the possible M4 Extreme which would possibly be its own chip (not a multiple of a Max chip). Supposedly that would drop in a Mac Pro, and Apple releases Mac Studios with Mac Pros, so that’s why both are to be announced WWDC 2025. It wasn’t ready for 2024. Turns out 3nm was hard on TSMC and they needed to jump to a different process, forcing Apple to move onto M4 gen for the Extreme. It isn’t that Apple doesn’t care about desktops.

Obviously Apple, a single company, a computer company who’s brand is “democratizing luxury” isn’t going to compete equivalently with Intel, AMD and Nvidia combined, especially in regards to price. You should have jumped ship 10+ years ago. Or do you enjoy complaining? Because the complaining hasn’t changed since 2013—Apple has been weak sauce in desktops since then. Just rip the bandaid already and make yourself happy with a Wintel box.

No mobile chip has EVER outperformed an X-1 generation desktop chip.

My Mac Studio costed $6,999.00. If I got the Mac Pro that would be over $10,000 and the next laptop is better than it in some ways?

 

[Ethosik]

Because he’s used to get a Pro that would be better than any other Mac for 5 years at least. There’s no reason to spend double for a Mac that will get surpassed next year by the regular Mac.

Precisely. Mac Studio is less relevant today, and it will be two generations old if this rumor and the other one is true we won't see Mac Studio get updated until mid-2025. Apple has been frustrating pros since the trash can Mac Pro. They need to focus more on it.

 

[Ethosik]

I dream of a day where I can actually buy the most recent chip in the form factor that is most suited to me, instead of how things are released now. It's my money I'm spending for goodness sake 🙄😂

EXACTLY! I use every single port on my Mac Studios. The Macbook Pro form factor does not work for me when at my desk. Obviously its good as a laptop but not as a desktop replacement, not enough ports for me. And its frustrating that the M3 Max Macbook Pro has the extra power I need in some of my workflows.

 

[PaperMag]

Because he’s used to get a Pro that would be better than any other Mac for 5 years at least. There’s no reason to spend double for a Mac that will get surpassed next year by the regular Mac.

M3 Max was exceptional; it went from 8 → 12 performance cores in one generation. That jump isn't going to happen every year. And the M2 Ultra is still faster in most tasks.

I understand that Ethosik is not looking forward to the upcoming M4 Max chip surpassing their M2 Ultra in CPU and GPU scores, but that overlap will only exist for 8 months, in which case they can buy an M4 Ultra or M4 Extreme and then hop back onto dominance for several years.

 

[MacHead84]

Most of my devices are still on M1. This will be a nice upgrade. 👍

 

[teejaysplace24]

I fully expect Mac Studio will get the M4 Max next year as it's base chip (and the Mac mini an M4 Pro option). There is no real benefit to Apple to develop a dedicated desktop chip when the Pro and Max models work very well.

That being said, I could see Apple developing the Ultra model into a dedicated chip to provide better overall performance than the current "two Max" configuration. We have seen that the "two Max" solution does not scale linearly and the Mac Studio and Mac Pro offer sufficient cooling and power headroom to support an SoC that is mostly performance CPU cores, GPU cores and Neural Engine cores along with higher memory bandwidth.

This has been rumored for awhile. It does make sense if Apple wants their “pro” desktops to compete with modular competitors. In the phone and tablet space, Apple is only really competing against itself. So yeah, the Mx is 33% faster than the Mz, and it’s a whole nanometer smaller, but who cares? You’re not going to browse Safari or text your partner confusing emoji any faster. But (small ‘P’) pro machines have to compete with their windows counterparts. And although impressive, the M2 Ultra sill lags behind discrete GPU performance in certain benchmarks. If a dedicated desktop chip can help close that gap, it will be worth it to pro users — and they are the only reason Apple makes the Mac Studio and Pro to begin with.

Although I think you are right in that there is definitely still room for an M-Max Studio, given that the mini tops out with the M-Pro and omitting that configuration would leave a gap in Apple’s desktop line at that price point. The Ultra Studio already has a bigger heat sink, so there’s a small degree of internal differentiation between that and the Studio Max as-is.

 

[PaperMag]

No mobile chip has EVER outperformed an X-1 generation desktop chip.

But Apple switched to ARM and are designing their own chips. Would you rather mobile chips be weak again?

And your M2 Ultra is still the fastest chip. In some multicore tests maybe not by say 5%, but it still has 30-40% faster GPU and 2x the memory bandwidth. Overall, you would be downgrading by going to an M3 Max product. So your claims aren't accurate really.

You'll have had the fastest chip for 1.5 years, and then you -GASP- will have a $3700 M4 Max laptop surpass you for 8 months, but then you can buy an M4 Ultra or M4 Extreme. I sympathize, but its not that bad. It's only 8 months.

My Mac Studio costed $6,999.00. If I got the Mac Pro that would be over $10,000 and the next laptop is better than it in some ways?

You know you're playing tricks, because if you're dollarizing the product to that price then you are dollarizing the ports, RAM, and storage specs—not the chip.

More Accurate: a $3900 M4 Max MacBook Pro will surpass your $4,000 M2 Ultra Mac Studio for 8 months, but then you'll be able to update to a $4,000 M4 Ultra that will make the MacBook Pro cry.

So why the stress?

 

[teejaysplace24]

Don’t you have that backwards?

How is it laughable that the M3 Max beats M2 Ultra? When that performance gain year-over-year is what we hope for?

And my comment you responded to is discussing the possible M4 Extreme which would possibly be its own chip (not a multiple of a Max chip). Supposedly that would drop in a Mac Pro, and Apple releases Mac Studios with Mac Pros, so that’s why both are to be announced WWDC 2025. It wasn’t ready for 2024. Turns out 3nm was hard on TSMC and they needed to jump to a different process, forcing Apple to move onto M4 gen for the Extreme. It isn’t that Apple doesn’t care about desktops.

Obviously Apple, a single company, a computer company who’s brand is “democratizing luxury” isn’t going to compete equivalently with Intel, AMD and Nvidia combined, especially in regards to price. You should have jumped ship 10+ years ago. Or do you enjoy complaining? Because the complaining hasn’t changed since 2013—Apple has been weak sauce in desktops since then. Just rip the bandaid already and make yourself happy with a Wintel box.

My understanding was that the Extreme was originally canceled because it would have cost way too much to produce relative to the units they expected to sell. But I’d welcome them bringing it back because the current cost of the Pro is just as bananas, especially when compared to the Studio. I’m not sure who is buying those (outside of Ethosik, I guess), but I’ve never seen an M-Series Pro outside of the Apple Store.

 

[PaperMag]

My understanding was that the Extreme was originally canceled because it would have cost way too much to produce relative to the units they expected to sell. But I’d welcome them bringing it back because the current cost of the Pro is just as bananas, especially when compared to the Studio. I’m not sure who is buying those (outside of Ethosik), but I’ve never seen an M-Series Pro outside of the Apple Store.

Gurman said in April that the Mac Pro is "set to get the new Hidra chip,” a “top-end” version of the M4. And RAM would supposedly go from 192 GB to a 512 GB option with that chip.

I'm calling that the Extreme chip, but I'm obviously speculating.

EDIT: Learning more, Hidra is code for the M4 Ultra. But it will be its own chip (not two M4 Maxs put together with an interposer, like the M2 Ultra was). For instance, the M4 Ultra won't have any efficiency cores, only performance cores. The rumor is that Apple will combine two M4 Ultras with an interposer to form an M4 Extreme. If that's the case, we'll learn more the closer we get to WWDC 2025.

 

[teh_hunterer]

No Apple MacBook Pro update goes through a chip swap only. There will be other tidbits to enhance end-user experience. For me, this year is only about iPhone 16. Let's grab it before Apple thinpossible rushes in.

What were the changes for the M2 Pro/Max beyond the chip?

 

[chucker23n1]

Might be in the market for this. My M1 Pro with 10 cores and 32 GiB RAM will be three years old next May.

Single-core will be up 55%, possibly more due to higher clock (probably not) or higher memory bandwidth (possibly!). E-cores are up even more than that.

Configuration will be interesting. Will they do 18/36 RAM options again? Maybe bump it to 24/48? Will it be 6p 6e again?

 

[svish]

Not expecting any major changes other than a new M4 chip. Waiting to see what the minimum RAM will be on the new models. Hopefully it will be 12GB on M4.

 

[MrGunny94]

I’ll continue to wait until a redesign or OLED panels.

Plus next time I’ll up for more than 16/18 GB of memory to avoid memory competition between CPU/GPU when driving 4K/5K displays.

Might actually bother to upgrade my M1 Pro for this.

Should wait for the OLED redesign in 26” tbh

 

[MacFin]

It’s really disappointing to see Mac Studio and Mac Pro users consistently having to wait an excessive amount of time for updates. Apple, I understand that Mac Pro users might expect longer intervals between updates, but the Mac Studio should be updated as often as the MacBook Pros. It’s frustrating that the Mac Studio often gets updated last, only for the next generation of chips to be released within six months. It feels unfair to spend a significant amount of money on technology that quickly becomes outdated.

 

[chucker23n1]

No Apple MacBook Pro update goes through a chip swap only.

Most Apple MacBook Pro updates go through a chip swap only.

 

[chucker23n1]

That being said, I could see Apple developing the Ultra model into a dedicated chip to provide better overall performance than the current "two Max" configuration. We have seen that the "two Max" solution does not scale linearly

That's to be expected, though. They could tweak the Ultra, such as by giving it even more cores or increasing the clock, but other than that… (Increasing the memory bandwidth won't help, unless they massively increase the core count; the CPU can't really exhaust it already.)

However, if an Extreme is still something they want to shoot for, they'll have to change something. And the M3 Max suggests they're at least willing to deviate somewhat from the M1/M2.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What a mess. Priorities are skewed.

??

 

[chucker23n1]

I assume they meant M4 should've been launched on mac first and then iPad.

I imagine the answer isn't any more complicated than "the M4 was ready in time for the iPad Pro, and wasn't ready in time for the MacBook Air, and there was no real reason to delay the MacBook Air any further, given that the M3 was a perfectly fine and recent SoC".

I'm not sure what people are whining about. The only Mac that's currently more than a year old is the Mac mini. Even the Mac Pro got an update 12 months ago.

 

[chucker23n1]

No please. If removing the notch means having a much more intrusive huge pill, I'd say keep the notch. But the notch should be removed. If not having bezels is so critical for the survival of humankind (which, if true, would show how dumb humankind is), I'd say just use a minimal punch hole that doesn't interfere with the well designed Mac interface. No notch, no dynamic island, please.

Apple isn't going to do a punch hole, because it doesn't allow for additional sensors (and is far more intrusive than the Dynamic Island).

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Well, if many of us (including me) who have insisted they don’t care about AI (at least for the first few years) are telling the truth, we should be able to pick up a brand-new M3 MacBook Air or base MacBook Pro at really good price soon. They should be more than capable enough for our needs and last long enough to determine whether we need (or should) jump onboard with AI - or run away from it as fast as we can.

Sorry but AI is unlikely to be that distinct, even for the first few years. AI will likely just permeate everything, quickly.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Still going to be lackluster at best. Might as well wait for the M5 with OLED (fingers and toes crossed). Until my current MBP decides to die out on me or if I can no longer stomach having to wait a few seconds for software to load, then I’m fine with just waiting.

Seriously you expect "lackluster?" M2 Max with 96 GB RAM is already so powerful that the idea of M4 Max power boggles my mind.