So there is no way a M2 is coming out on a Macbook Pro this year folks. M2 will come out on a Mac Pro First. There is whole line of Macs that still need to get in the M1 world first.
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There's a New 13-Inch MacBook Pro Coming, Here's What We Know
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It isn't about user workloads. It is about telling the SoCs apart when the information flowing in is "Telephone game" rumors reports about unreleased SoCS.
The M1 CPU cores go from 8-8 and the Pro/Max cores go from. 8-10 Those have a count intersection at 8.
The M1 GPU cores go from. 7-8 and the. Pro and Max GPU cores go from 14-16 and 24-32 . There are no intersections between any of those sets.
To distiguish between two unamed products is to tell the difference between the two. If someone says 8 CPU cores can you pick which M-series it has to be? No. If someone says. 14 GPU cores can you uniquely pick out the SoC? Yes. Mean you can distinguish on GPU count and can not necessarily distinguish on CPU count.
If someone says 6P cores you get into the Pro/Max range but could dismiss the M1 (and probably M2).
Similar thread where someone said there was a 12P iMac coming. Is that two 6P dies or on 12P die that doesn't have as good of a boilerplate in a Max die. Can't really tell. If someone say that was. 12P+48GPU then could clearly make the distinction . Likewise if. 12+32GPU could also clearly tell.
The biggest , non overlapping change between the M-series dies so far is on GPU cores; not CPU core count.
All of that has little to do with utility on a subset of user workloads. Distinguishing is an identification not a utility property.
Indeed there is, and it’s very likely that all these pending announcements are related to redesigned desktop products, such as the larger iMac and Mac Pro. There has been constant speculation of a headless Mac product of something in between a Mac Mini and a Mac Pro also that could be useful for businesses and creative types. IMHO current laptop solutions from Apple covers most needs, but desktops is slim pickings. External displays also!
So? As far as Apple is concerned, they can stop paying for N5 capacity they don't need, and start paying for N4 capacity that they do. Whether that's the same physical plant or not, whether TSMC switches the freed-up capacity to other customers (heaven knows, the demand is there at the moment) or tears it down and starts replacing it with N4 is TSMC's problem. That's why Apple didn't buy their own chip fab. There are no other customers for M1, but there are plenty of other customers for whatever capacity Apple doesn't need to pay for right now.
You're right insofar as, if TSMC hasn't already got enough of the right sort of "capacity" today, dropping M1 isn't going to solve that overnight - but we're most likely talking about a transition that has been planned for a couple of years in advance.
I'm not saying the GPU 7/8/9/10/14/16/24/32 counting doesn't make it easier to tell them apart - I'm saying you shouldn't
It's just not universally performance relevant for most people and apps, just a "secondary number", however linear and nicely distinguishing it might seem.
This is one weird a$$ rumor...
Why keep the Touch Bar around when it's clearly been EOLed? Especially on a low end machine when it adds significantly to the cost of the machine.
Why does a 13 inch MacBook Pro even exist? It's physically the same size as a 14 inch machine, yet offers next to nothing extra compared to a MacBook Air.
I call bull on this rumor.
Why keep the Touch Bar around when it's clearly been EOLed? Especially on a low end machine when it adds significantly to the cost of the machine.
Why does a 13 inch MacBook Pro even exist? It's physically the same size as a 14 inch machine, yet offers next to nothing extra compared to a MacBook Air.
I call bull on this rumor.
It would probably get the 2019 16 inch treatment. Smaller bezels and that kind of thing.
Regular M2 won't be any good for the Mac Pro. That'll either have to wait for packages containing 2-4 Mx Max dies (as rumoured) unless Apple has some new "Xeon-killer" Apple Silicon chip up their sleeves.
The M2 may be, what - 50% faster, at most, on single-threaded tasks than the M1, but speed on some video/audio/scientific computing work almost scales with the number of cores, so the M1 Pro/Max with twice as many CPU/GPU cores will still outperform the M2 on such tasks - let alone the dual/quad M1 Max chips that are being rumoured for the Mac Pro replacement. Then there's "pro-level" RAM capacity, I/O and display support, which needs the extra physical hardware included in the M1 Pro/Max chips.
It's already happened with the M1 and M1 Pro - the lower-end Macs - Air, 13" MBP and Mini got Apple Silicon first, the higher-end MacBook Pros had to wait nearly a year until the Pro/Max versions came along. The same thing will likely happen with low-end M2 machines coming out before the availability of "Pro" and "Max" chips based on M2 tech.
It was also pretty common with Intel for the Workstation/Server class Xeon chips to be based on an older generation of the core technology/manufacturing process than the latest Core-i chips.
I think everyone’s getting this computer confused.
I don’t think it’s going to be a MacBook Pro.
I think it’s going to take the same place in the lineup as what the budget $329 iPad takes in its lineup.
Think about it, the budget iPad uses an old design, an old Display, an old camera… where as The iPad Air is $599 but is colorful, thin, light, and looks just like the iPad Pro.
I think that’s what we’re going to see here.
The new 13.3 inch MacBook which uses an old design from 2016, an old LCD, only comes in space gray and silver, pretty much all old components… except for the new processor. And it can be priced somewhere around $999-1099. I don’t think it’ll have a touchbar, much like Mark is saying. So same old design, but with no touch bar.
And then the new MacBook Air which will be thin, light, colorful, with a mini LED display with a notch, mag safe, all of the fancy bells and whistles will be somewhere around $1299.
That’s what I think this thing is. Not a replacement for the old MacBook Pro, but a new MacBook SE if you will, putting a new processor in an old design, bringing the price down and selling it as the basic, default, cheapest model.
I don’t think it’s going to be a MacBook Pro.
I think it’s going to take the same place in the lineup as what the budget $329 iPad takes in its lineup.
Think about it, the budget iPad uses an old design, an old Display, an old camera… where as The iPad Air is $599 but is colorful, thin, light, and looks just like the iPad Pro.
I think that’s what we’re going to see here.
The new 13.3 inch MacBook which uses an old design from 2016, an old LCD, only comes in space gray and silver, pretty much all old components… except for the new processor. And it can be priced somewhere around $999-1099. I don’t think it’ll have a touchbar, much like Mark is saying. So same old design, but with no touch bar.
And then the new MacBook Air which will be thin, light, colorful, with a mini LED display with a notch, mag safe, all of the fancy bells and whistles will be somewhere around $1299.
That’s what I think this thing is. Not a replacement for the old MacBook Pro, but a new MacBook SE if you will, putting a new processor in an old design, bringing the price down and selling it as the basic, default, cheapest model.
T2 was there on 2018-2021 MBP 13“ intel units because Intel’s cpu didn’t have a Secure Enclave which the iMac M1, MBA M1, iPhones and iPads all have. I see no reason to worry about a non required chip for a touch bar when the SoC is capable of taking on the T2’s duties.
Unless you ordered directly from Apple, in EU expect those 2 months to keep being push back, until who knows…So in my case I really want to see what’s announced in March, as I might cancel my forever impending order.
For the price of the average Macbook Pro, one would expect more cutting edge technology.
Put a 120Hz AMOLED display on it. Take out the garbage camera and put a good one in.
The only innovative piece of hardware on the Mac in the last 10 years is the M chip.
Put a 120Hz AMOLED display on it. Take out the garbage camera and put a good one in.
The only innovative piece of hardware on the Mac in the last 10 years is the M chip.
Please don’t change the MBP 13“ pro. It’s perfect! (Except the camera ? )
The M1 Pro is a much larger die than the M1 hence more expensive. Expect the M2 to be a similar sized die to the M1. Now do you see why Apple would release a low-end MacBook Pro with an M2?
Apple needs all the N5 capacity they can get right now. They aren’t even done releasing high-end M1 macs yet. The N4 process is too new to move everything over to it. Making an M2 SoC for a modestly selling 13” MBP and freeing up that amount of N5 fab space for more high-end M1 SoCs makes perfect sense.
Not that much larger when you look at the huge MBP 13" logic board and much smaller "almost the same" MBA M1 - once they optimize the MBP a bit, shouldn't be a problem for a larger die. Not to mention they might probably just shrink it a bit from the MBP 14" and have just one fan with more binned M1 Pro GPU for example.
What actually is a big problem for Apple is that people don't buy the MBP 13" much because it's so close with performance to Air M1 and almost every review and Air M1 owner will simply say it's not worth it. So going the same lowest non-Pro chip route, even if they announce Air M2 later, doesn't solve that.
Comparing the SoC die size to the logic board is a non sequitur. Larger dies mean less chips per wafer start and lower yields. It definitely matters on the price of the SoC.
You implied it's going to have M2 because of the die size & price. I'm just pointing out that die size doesn't matter and the price of the die alone too, in a Pro machine at higher price level that would go with it.
Also when we talk yields - how better to use current sub-par M1 Pro dies that you already have, that not only won't make 10 CPU cores but more importantly not 14 good out of 16 GPU cores? You bin it to 10/11/12 GPUs (M1 Max GPUs are binned to 75% too), cool it a bit less and put it into smaller/lower tier, but still a Pro macbook, solving all those price level and MBA comparisons at once.
The M1Pro, even the 8 core version, would be an absolute power-hungry beast. It would reduce the battery life dramatically, unless Apple were to completely re-engineer the product, which they are not going to do.
I don’t think this computer being discussed is an actual “MacBook Pro.”
Look at the rumors for the new MacBook Air. It’s reportedly supposed to be thinner, lighter, colorful, redesigned, with a mini LED display, a MagSafe port, 1080P camera in a notch… that’s gonna come with a price increase.
Meanwhile this computer being rumored is the old 2016 design, the old LCD, the old thick bezels, and according to Mark Gurman, no Touch Bar. The only thing new in this computer is the M2.
To me, this sounds like some sort of MacBook SE, to take over the $999 price that the old MacBook Air currently has, because the new MacBook Air most certainly will not be $999. It will probably be closer to, curiously enough, $1299, The price of the current M1 MBP.