MacBook Pro Now Expected to Get M5 Chip Before iPad Pro

[twocents]

Dear admins, can you please rename to: Gurmanrumors.com

Haha willing to compromise on markrumors

 

[switz]

When there is a very verifiable report of actual M5 production in place, then the conjecture has a basis in hardware vs vaporware. A few prototype chips are not production.

The low ball of a 10% price increase across Apple's China made products due to tariffs may dampen purchase enthusiasm for those on the fringes watching their finances. All these current layoffs may reduce the numbers of buying public for non-necessities if there is a mortgage in the individuals life to have to pay......

Reading all this conjecture and "I wish Apple would" material is entertaining, though.

 

[picpicmac]

The desktop Macs don´t need E-cores.

Energy consumption is always an issue. It is just more important for mobile devices relying on batters.

Secondly, the volume of iMac and Mac Mini sales is much, much lower than MacBook and iPad sales, and it makes no sense to develop an entire new processor for the niche of desktop Macs.

 

[picpicmac]

No there wasn't because the node that m3 is on is expensive and a bit of a failure on TSMCs part.

The M2 Ultra was not cheap.

And more to the point: Apple's share of the high-end workstation market is pretty low, it's primary sector for Mac Studios and Mac Pros being the video/cinema/pro-photo industries.

If there was a strong demand for high-end Mac workstations then Apple would have offered something up after the M2 Ultra Mac Studio.

Apple likely has one big customer for an AI-intended next-gen "ultra" chip: itself.

Apple has hinted before of doing its own servers (once again, after many years of abandoning Xserve) for its own farms.

If Apple doubles down on Apple Intelligence and wanting to have AI server farms, then some new rack-mounted server-intended SoC is possible from Apple.

And for that, Apple will just use whatever TSMC has to offer to meet the processing requirements.