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Macs With 'M3' Chips Expected to Use TSMC's 3nm Chip Technology With Test Production Reportedly Underway
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It's not BS. 3nm and 2nm are coming in the next few years; after that, Intel has announced they're looking into a 1800pm node.
I think we're on a roughly 18-month cycle.
November 2020: M1 (A14's Firestorm/Icestorm cores)
October 2021: M1 Pro and Max (I'm ignoring April 2021, because it didn't really change anything about the SoC)
Spring 2022: M2 (A15's Avalanche/Blizzard cores)
Summer 2022: M1 Extreme
Spring 2023: M2 Pro and Max
Fall 2023: M3 (A17's cores; A16 gets skipped)
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Seems like Apple has kind of backed themselves into a corner with naming and upgrade timelines. Since the M1 Pro/Max were just announced, it is logical to assume that the new MacBook Air and Mac mini updates will be next. So does that mean they will have a standard M2 leaving the 14/16-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro/Max? That is where I think that consumers will be confused because the M2 sounds better than the M1 Pro/Max.
No way. My macs and especially iPhone are so important(basically my whole life is on it) I absolutely always want the latest and greatest
Well, do you have to hold onto your money every year, and not spend your money each year? It's funny.
Totally agree. It's really cool to see Apple iterate and improve on an already impressive set of chips but unless we start to get some insane breakthroughs, I find it hard to justify upgrading as often as before. I feel like the latest CPU power in smartphones is more at the far end of that logarithmic curve where the previous generation doesn't feel very far behind of the current generation (if at all).
I definitely see some performance boosts with my 13 pro compared to my XS, but it wasn't the leap I was expecting.
Yes.
The M2 is better than the M1 Pro/Max, except at high-end workloads.
This is really no different than before, and kind of unavoidable. The Xeon W in an iMac Pro was nice if you needed that many CPU cores, but almost nobody does, and for those, it was actually a pretty slow chip. The same will happen here: core-for-core, the Pro/Max/etc. variants of Apple's chips will lag behind their consumer versions. But for high-end purposes, they add cores and more specialized features (such as accelerated ProRes encoding).
Chip development starts about 3 years give or take before final product. Could be an educated guess but it’s likely the report is true.
If so, then the M2 will not be based on the current A15 processor but on the A16. I've been expecting Mx and Ax in lockstep, but it's entirely possible they'll do every other year instead. Lock-step seems like over-rapid development for machines that have a lower churn rate than iPhones.
I honestly do not expect it will be that much of an issue. Apple Marketing addressed the issue a fair bit by calling the more powerful SoCs "Pro" and "MAX" as that sets the expectation in people's minds that these are the "performance" SoCs even if they are an earlier generation than what is in the cheaper "consumer" machines.
Who said anything about "need?"
Yeah. I think the M2 will feature the A15's cores, simply because it'll ship half a year before the A16 does. (The MacBook Air needs a new chip!)
Seems to be in the works... https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/29/apple-macbook-upgrade-program-businesses/
Did you create your username just so that you could post that comment?
Ready and waiting to upgrade from the maxed out M1 Pro Max that I just got the other day. Love it but why not go even bigger and better.
It's good to see fast progress on Apple's chip hardware. I remember the days when Apple always released the first product with some new Intel chip generation. Later this turned to waiting for Intel to release their next generation. Now Apple is free to go.
However I am close to losing oversight when their big breakthrough chips are coming and how long to wait before buying. And I am not sure what software can make use of all the capabilities, cores and speed possible?
However I am close to losing oversight when their big breakthrough chips are coming and how long to wait before buying. And I am not sure what software can make use of all the capabilities, cores and speed possible?
Our astrophysics department was going to buy a super-computer to run its galaxy-universe simulations...
We've now decided hold off for the M3, universe in your laptop, MacBook, or universe in your pocket, iPhone 17+. Apple's new slogan will be:
We plan on linking a couple of these babies together to simulate the multi-verse.
Can't wait! The black notch will fade into the background of dark matter and dark energy and won't be noticeable! If they come with a white notch, that's OK, too, as we now measure the accelerating expansion rate of the universe via Type 1-A supernova, which are bright, white points.
We've now decided hold off for the M3, universe in your laptop, MacBook, or universe in your pocket, iPhone 17+. Apple's new slogan will be:
"Faster than a speeding train! Faster than the speed of light! It's SuperMaxMac and Super-iPhone. All yours for just $XXXX.99"
We plan on linking a couple of these babies together to simulate the multi-verse.
Can't wait! The black notch will fade into the background of dark matter and dark energy and won't be noticeable! If they come with a white notch, that's OK, too, as we now measure the accelerating expansion rate of the universe via Type 1-A supernova, which are bright, white points.
Only if you want to. Apple has been releasing upgraded Macs every year for decades. Most people wait until the computer they have is no longer adequate for running the apps they require.
If your needs are so high-end that you always require the latest and greatest (or if you just like spending money for bragging rights), then I guess you will be buying new models every year. But how is this any different from Macs with Intel or PowerPC chips?
Unless you work for Apple (and are violating your NDA), you have no way of knowing this. We know nothing more than rumors (and not even much there) about the M2.
If you know more than what's already been reported, please share the links with us.
Dammit - I just bought this Macbook Air. It's now obsolete and worthless!
Makes sense. I think that was the A*X iPad chip schedule. I wonder, with M1 in the iPad Pros, does that mean the that there won't be anymore A*X chips?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Hmmmm, maybe skip to numbering in the tens then: from M1 to M10 to M20. That way just 2 generations from now when new Macs have M20, the M1 people can feel wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy behind.
How about hundreds: from M1 to M100 to M200, etc.
How about just add a zero at the end: from M1 to M10 to M100 to M1000 etc. Just think how much pull new Mac with M1000 will have on the M1 or M10 crowds.