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Which Macs Will Get an M6 Chip and Which Won't?
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Bug-Creator
macrumors 68000
It's a math question, at it's original price it undercut any other cheap laptop while not being build cheap. So the only way for there to be a margin worth Apple is if the SoC were "free". Apple also sold far more IPhone16Pro then they planned to sell Neos and there was no other product/SKU shipping with these "failed" SoC.
If they had made extra A18Pro for the Neos they could have offered an higher SKU with an unbinned one.
So all the evidence points to all the SoC being discard unless Apple widely underestimated the demand for the Neo.
JPack
macrumors P6
There is clear teardown evidence the chips in Neo are brand new, not from iPhone 16 Pro. That myth has long been disproved.
Apple can make a cheap notebook because they have a firehose called iPhone helping with margins. Other notebook manufacturers like Dell, HP, Acer need to pay Intel, who has to eat first. Apple does not.
Nothing is stopping them shipping un-binned ones with the extra core turned off.
We potentially have evidence of that: in the newest round of SoC for Neos, Apple didn't introduce a newer high-end SKU. They are almost certainly shipping SoCs with working cores turned off.
Haiku_Oezu
macrumors 6502a
Interesting
Assuming this is true (Bloomberg) I wonder what the reason for skipping the Pro and Max variants is
Assuming this is true (Bloomberg) I wonder what the reason for skipping the Pro and Max variants is
johnsawyercjs
macrumors 68000
It's explained in the article:
"Instead of manufacturing M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, Apple is speeding up its chip development timeline to bring the M7 Pro and M7 Max to market more quickly. The M7 Pro and M7 Max will have technologies that support on-device AI and GPU-intensive software, so they [will] better meet growing demand for processors with those capabilities."
That is "an explanation", but there might be more technical details not shared. Something might not have been going well in the M6 Pro and M6 Max development.
JPack
macrumors P6
It's the only logical explanation. Johny Srouji said:
"When we design our chips, which are like three or four years ahead of time, Craig and I are sitting in the same room defining what we want to deliver, and then we work hand in hand."
Do the math and it's clear M6 requirements and design were locked down immediately before ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022. It's not a coincidence M6 Pro/Max were cut just as OpenAI rocketed to success.
M6 is the last pre-GenAI chip from Apple.
“anti developmental trouble makers”
Also known as people who dont want their local water supply, electrical grid, and noise pollution floor dominated by a AI company generating pointless compute literally intended to put those same folks out of work but in reality just a massive waste of resources that will leave blight in its wake because the worst of the tech bros and VC have gone all in and cant stop now or the cyclical money will stop and everything will crash down on them.
Why do you think they're so desperate to get AI companies and private equity into index funds and through that 401ks? They need that backstop because there is literally no way to make back their AI spending, they need to externalize the cost and either make everyone else eat the crash or make themselves too big to fail and get a govt bailout
Professionals will be able to afford a Studio for "the heavy work", the average consumer not so much. There is more demand for something like an MBA that won't be doing AI to any great extent.
You are fundamentally right though, the sort of CPU demand for the sort of AI you are talking about is going to be beyond a laptop's capability, or they are going to end up like an original Mac Portable, luggable, not really a laptop, and only fit for short bursts of activity when not plugged in. You'll need those noise cancelling Airpods to cancel out the fan noise.
Macintosh Portable - Wikipedia
So the M6 is more like an M5.1.
That means the upcoming M7 range is actually M6 - I expect the base M7 would offer a bigger jump in performance, if you can wait for it.
The increased prices mean the value proposition is much worse - since the M6 performance increases are modest, even from Apple, it means this is a holdover SoC until M7 can be launched.
That means the upcoming M7 range is actually M6 - I expect the base M7 would offer a bigger jump in performance, if you can wait for it.
The increased prices mean the value proposition is much worse - since the M6 performance increases are modest, even from Apple, it means this is a holdover SoC until M7 can be launched.
M5.1? If Apple restricts Apple Intelligence features to the M6 in future operating systems, then it would be more than just an M5.1. It would be an M6.
Haiku_Oezu
macrumors 6502a
No yeah of course, I meant more along the lines of why did they go this route instead of holding onto the M5 a little bit longer
Almost all nonsense. The vast majority of urban people live within a few miles next to datacenters and don’t even know it. It has been like that for years.
Anti datacenter hysteria is just like anti 5G hysteria. It’s a deliberate misinformation campaign generated by a botnet and activists. It’s economic warfare by competing nations who want to be number one in AI.
TruthAboveAllElse
macrumors 6502a
So, not the Mac Studio, nor the MacBook Neo? None will get M6 Pro, Max, or Ultra because those don't and won't exist, but every Mac line that gets entry level M-series chips is getting the M6... (According to this article, although it does not come out and say that clearly.) I would say this is less complicated than some of the past generations, if this is true, as we aren't really skipping any Mac.
What I wonder is exactly how many Mac users need more computing power than the M1 chip provides. I shudder to think of my mini and iMac being sidelined next year. I was mightily impressed when the m1 would boot up in 18 seconds or less.
I certainly do not. My desktop has an AMD CPU of about the same performance as the M1. The desktop outperforms the M1 only on sustained throughput that causes the MBA to thermally throttle.
Most of the time either CPU is running at less than 10% load.
PS, the AMD is using its built in graphics too, no video card needed. That saves one howling fan on the desktop. The case and CPU fans are quite quiet.
This feels kinda ridiculous.
The M6 is the first 2N process node.
The M6 is the first time we've seen 3 levels of cores on a Mac.
Lot of new and interesting things.