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When to Expect New M4 MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro Models
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I hope we get a USB-C port on the right, even if the total stays at two. It's annoying to having to bend the cable around when the outlet is on the right side.
I suspect products that don't have M4 by now will be moving to M5 built on the newer A18 architecture. The M4 is almost a year old and the A17 architecture is even older and doesn't support Wi-Fi 7.
Apple has been pretty consistent with the release cycle, plus putting Wi-Fi 6E in a product (Mac Pro) they already seldom update would be a miss. I use ethernet over wireless for networking but that's not the only use case for Wi-Fi.
The Mac Pro needs more differentiation from the Mac Studio. An M4 Extreme chip would provide that, though I think that it it is possible, Apple should look at adding support for upgradable memory to Apple Silicon Macs — at least the Mac Pro. Support for eGPUs, whether from nVidia or AMD, or from Apple itself, would be a nice addition. It also occurs to me that, while it would be expensive, Apple could consider offering the option of dual CPUs (i.e. two separate M4 Extremes mounted on a single motherboard) as they did with the Intel Mac Pro of yesteryear. I’m not sure how this would fundamentally differ from Apple’s current practice of creating the M2 Ultra by fusing two M2 Max chips, but I assume that there would be some performance losses and some engineering savings inherent in this approach.
The M4 and the A18 already share a common architecture, they are both based on being fabricated from the N3E production line. The A17pro is based on the older N3B production line, which also produced the M3 chips.
Thanks pksv. Insightful..
Anyone else have any experience/knowledge of memory performance in classic Mac Pros, and how it stacks up against M series memory?
Just want to know if a smaller amount of memory than what I currently have, is likely to be adequate in the new Macbooks.
A new battery in your iMac will make it go 10% faster. Promise. Could have sworn we were talking MBA and MBP, but I digress. Why your Macs slow down after two years I have no idea. Perhaps try a clean install.No mention of battery in my comments. Never had an issue with any Mac battery.... especially not in iMacs, Minis
Apparently the moderators found "frivolous" that I told you that I think the same as you (I literally said "same"), so let me rephrase this.
As a satisfied owner of the same computer as you, dear colleague of the MacRumours forum, I echo your sentiment of being happy with your current computing machine and the desire of keep it in my property for some more years to come. However, your waiting for the M7 processor may not be the same for me, since I do not know whether to change my computing machine in the M7 or M8 generation.
I can tell you from my experience regarding AS vs Intel, go as much RAM as possible.
Watching various testing videos you may get the impression that you will be ok with a smaller amount, except that they usually test one program at a time. Get 64GB or better yet more. RAM will start to limit you much earlier than any other aspect such as CPU or GPU. I understand that you have limited funds, so instead of M4 I would look at machines with M3 with more RAM.
I ordered a 14" MacBook Pro M4 Max (Nano display, 64GB Ram and 4TB SSD) for my wife and a 16" MacBook Pro M4 Max (Nano display, 128GB Ram and 8TB SSD) for me. They both will be here on Monday, 18 November. We also both got a new iPhone 16 Pro Max (1TB) yesterday. We decided to beat the proposed "tariffs) that will be in place shortly after 20 January since these are made in China.
We will also order in a new Brother color laser printer, loaded Mac Mini 4 Pro and a Studio Display for our summer place new office in December to beat the surcharges.
We will also order in a new Brother color laser printer, loaded Mac Mini 4 Pro and a Studio Display for our summer place new office in December to beat the surcharges.
It appears that upgrading memory in Apple Silicon is technically possible, though difficult: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/06/m1-mac-ram-and-ssd-upgrades-possible/. We already know that the SSD in the current Mac Pro is upgradeable. In addition to, or instead of eGPU support, it would be interesting if Apple allowed motherboard or chip upgrades, without replacing the entire Mac Pro chassis. Some may be likelier to upgrade from M2 to M3 or M4 every 1-3 years than to replace the entire computer, especially when there are no (or only minor) changes besides the SoC. I know this is very unlike Apple and likely not to happen, but it would be useful.
Surprise! Both laptops arrived on 12 NOV 2024 and were ordered on 1NOV 2024. Makes me think that sales of the top models might not be too robust yet.
The increase in single core performance in the 16" M4 MBPro Max (nano, 128GB & 8TB SSD) vs the 14" M1 MBPro Max (64GB & 4TB SSD) is very discernible during the boot up process.
Really pleased with the larger screen for my old eyes!
The increase in single core performance in the 16" M4 MBPro Max (nano, 128GB & 8TB SSD) vs the 14" M1 MBPro Max (64GB & 4TB SSD) is very discernible during the boot up process.
Really pleased with the larger screen for my old eyes!