We are seeing reports from reliable sources that Apple has plans to release a raft of M2-powered Mac computers over the next 12 months. In this article, we investigate what is coming from reliable sources.
Mark Gurman, who is now a tech reporter for Bloomberg started his career reporting on Apple rumours as a teenager at 9to5Mac, is now regarded as one of the best Apple leakers with an accuracy score from Appletrack of 86.5% from over a decade of Apple coverage. All of this means that his sources are reliable and so when Mark shares something, it is very likely to be correct.
In this week’s Power On Newsletter, Mark set out Apple’s plans for a raft of new products across the Apple product range including the iPhone 14, Watch Series 8, Watch SE, 10th-gen iPad, iPad Pro, AirPods Pro, HomePod, Apple TV, a mixed-reality headset, as well as more M2 powered Mac computers to add to the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, which Apple announced during the WWDC 2022 keynote address.
More M2 Powered Computers From Apple
Mark has been told to expect the following new Apple computers to build on the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air already powered by the new M2 chips…
An M2 Mac mini.
An M2 Pro Mac mini.
M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme Mac Pro.
What Can The M2 Chip Do?
The M2 System on a Chip (SoC) has the same number of cores as the original M1 chip (8) with 4 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores as does the M1 but on the M2, the shared L2 cache on the performance cores, has been increased from 12MB to 16MB, and the clock speeds have been increased a little too. When it comes to the efficiency cores, they have the same cache size as the M1 but have been given other architectural improvements, like higher peak clock speeds and faster memory access.
These changes mean that the M2 runs faster and comes with more graphics cores, with 9 or 10 GPU cores, up from the 7 or 8 that came with the M1. The M2 SoC has 24GB of unified LPDDR5 memory, up 8GB from the M1.
M1 To M2 Performance Boost
Built using second-generation 5-nanometer technology, TSMC’s next-generation N4P process is an enhanced version of the 5-nanometer process and is designed to deliver about 11% more performance and almost 22% more efficiency compared to the conventional 5-nanometer process used for the production of A15 and M1, M1 Pro and Max). Apple’s M2 takes their performance per watt of M1 even further with an 18% faster CPU, a 35% more powerful GPU, and the Neural Engine can process up to 15.8 trillion operations per second — over 40% more than the M1.
M1 To M2 Memory Boost
It also delivers 50% more memory bandwidth compared to M1, and up to 24GB of faster unified memory, up from 16GB with the M1. M2 brings all of this, plus new custom technologies and greater efficiency, to the completely redesigned MacBook Air and updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.
M1 To M2 GPU Performance Boost
M2 also features Apple’s next-generation GPU with up to 10 cores, which is 2 more two more than the M1. Combined with a larger cache and higher memory bandwidth, the 10-core GPU is designed to deliver a boost in graphics performance, bringing up to 25% more graphics performance than M1 at the same power level, and up to 35% better performance at its max power.
M2 Secure Enclave, Neural Engine And Media Engine
M2 brings Apple’s latest custom technologies to the Mac, enabling new capabilities, better security, and more…
The Neural Engine, while still 16 cores, can perform up to 15.8 trillion operations per second, more than 40% more than the 11 trillion operations of the Neural Engine in the M1.
The media engine includes a higher-bandwidth video decoder, supporting 8K H.264 and HEVC video, which the M1 chip didn’t have.
Apple’s powerful ProRes video engine enables playback of multiple streams of both 4K and 8K video.
Apple’s latest Secure Enclave provides best-in-class security.
A new image signal processor (ISP) delivers better image noise reduction.
M2 Pro, Max And Ultra
It will be interesting to watch how Apple develops the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra chips. It is expected that they might use TSMC’s more advanced 3 nanometer process technology and could feature some improvements expected in the A16 later this year when the iPhone 14 Pro is announced, which are likely to include an improved media engine and perhaps a new Neural Engine, too.
This has been given more credence with a report in DigiTimes, ( a daily newspaper for semiconductor, electronics, computer and communications industries in Taiwan and the Greater China region. It was established in 1998), which claims that Apple has “booked TSMC capacity for its upcoming 3nm M3 and M2 Pro processors.”
While it’s not a surprise that the M3 would use the 3nm technology, it has been a surprise for some that Apple will use 3nm tech for the M2 Pro, Max and Extreme chips whilst leaving the M2 base chip using the 5nm tech.
But why would Apple want to do this? The simple answer is performance. Back in 2020 when TSMC outlined the technology behind the 3nm process, it said the mode “promises to improve performance by 10-15% at the same power levels or reduce power by 25-30% at the same transistor speeds.”
If true, these changes could be the reason that there has been a delay in new Apple silicon powered models until 2023.
But there is no doubt that the M2 is a great start to Apple’s second generation of Apple Silicon for the Mac.
Let’s combine the data we know about the existing Apple silicon powered Mac computers with what is being predicted. In this table, we have added an asterisk (*) to any entry that is a prediction.
Now we have a better handle on the new features the M2 chip brings to the table and the expected M2 family specs, let’s look at what we know about each of the new M2 Powered Apple computers Mark has identified.
In our article Apple Test New M2 Chips In 9 Different Mac Computers, we shared that Mark Gurman had reported that from logs maintained by developers, together with what Bloomberg say has been “corroborated by people familiar with the matter”. Let’s start with what we know about a new M2 Mac mini…
[Updated]
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 11, 2022
2023: Mac Pro, iMac Pro and Mac mini https://t.co/NiloxXy0jv
M2 Mac mini
We know that Apple has been testing a Mac mini with an M2 chip codenamed J473, which is expected to have the same specifications as the M2 MacBook Air.
This would suggest like the M2 MBA, the M2 Mac mini would start with an Apple M2 chip with 8‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine with 8GB of unified memory, and a 256GB SSD, with two USB-C Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports.
But will the new Mac mini have a new design? Last year, Apple leaker Jon Prosser suggested that a new Mac mini could have a “plexiglass” top, although it has to be said Prosser is not as reliable as Bloomberg’s Gurman. In August 2021, Mark reported that a new Mac mini “will have an updated design and more ports than the current model”.
I think the new Mac mini in 2023 will likely remain the same form factor design.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 12, 2022
On March 11th 2022, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that a new Mac mini would ship in 2023, “[Updated] 2023: Mac Pro, iMac Pro and Mac mini” updating a tweet posted on March 6th “2022: More powerful Mac mini” suggesting the new Mac mini would be released in 2022. On March 12th Ming-Chi Kuo followed up this update with another tweet saying “I think the new Mac mini in 2023 will likely remain the same form factor design.”
So although they agree that there will be a new Mac mini in 2023, there is disagreement as to whether it will have a new design or not.
M2 Pro Mac mini
Apple has also been testing an M2 Pro variation of the Mac mini, codenamed J474. We can expect the M2 Pro to have double the performance cores of the M2 and half the number of efficiency cores just like the M1 and M1 Pro did.
We would also expect that the number of USB-C Thunderbolt and USB4 ports would go up to at least 3 ports, just like the M1 Pro offers on the 14 and 16-inch MBPs.
There is the same debate in terms of design for the Pro version as there is with the predicted M2 Mac mini.
As to a release date, at the time of writing there is no information on when Apple might release the M2 Pro Mac mini, but it could be at the same time as the M2 Mac mini in 2023.
M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch MacBook Pros
We know that Apple has been testing a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips codenamed J414. The M2 Max chip is expected to have 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores, up from 10 CPU cores and 32 graphics cores in the current model, and has 64 GB of memory.
M2 Pro and M2 Max 16-inch MacBook Pros
Similarly, they have been testing a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips codenamed J416. The 16-inch MacBook Pro’s M2 Max is expected to have the same specifications as the 14-inch MacBook Pro version.
M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme Mac Pro
At the Mac Studio launch event back in March 2022, Apple made it clear that the Studio was not a Mac Pro replacement. Apple senior vice president of Hardware Engineering John Ternus went as far as confirming that there is a Mac Pro coming "another day" to clear up any confusion about the continuance of the Mac Pro product line.
We know that Apple has been testing a Mac Pro, codenamed J180. This machine is expected to include a successor to the M1 Ultra chip used in the Mac Studio computer. The M2 Extreme is predicted to be two M1 Ultra chips combined, in the same way that the M1 Ultra is 2 M1 Max chips put together, giving a beast of a machine with the following spec…
40-core CPU (32 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores)
Up to 128-core GPU
Up to 64-core Neural Engine
Up to 256GB of RAM
1,600GBps memory bandwidth
Now, this last number warrants some unpacking. But before we do, what is memory bandwidth? Wikipedia defines memory bandwidth as…
“Memory bandwidth is the rate at which data can be read from or stored into a semiconductor memory by a processor. Memory bandwidth is usually expressed in units of bytes/second, though this can vary for systems with natural data sizes that are not a multiple of the commonly used 8-bit bytes.
Memory bandwidth that is advertised for a given memory or system is usually the maximum theoretical bandwidth. In practice, the observed memory bandwidth will be less than (and is guaranteed not to exceed) the advertised bandwidth. A variety of computer benchmarks exist to measure sustained memory bandwidth using a variety of access patterns. These are intended to provide insight into the memory bandwidth that a system should sustain on various classes of real applications.”
When Apple announced the M2 chip during the WWDC 2022 keynote, it made a big thing of doubling the memory bandwidth from the M1 to M2 with a memory bandwidth of 100GB/s, up from 50GB/s with the M1, which had a memory architecture that was 128 bits wide and used LPDDR4x, whereas the M2 uses LPDDR5x, which increases memory bandwidth to 100GB/s.
For comparison, the M1 Pro already uses LPDDR5x with a 256-bit memory interface giving it 200GB/s of bandwidth. The M1 Max doubled that with a 512-bit interface, giving a memory bandwidth of 400GB/s.
As the M1 Ultra is 2 M1 Max chips strapped together then that gives the Ultra a memory bandwidth of 800GB/s and as it is expected that the Extreme chip will be two M2 Ultra chips strapped together then that figure of 1,600GB/s makes sense.
[Updated]
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) March 11, 2022
2023: Mac Pro, iMac Pro and Mac mini https://t.co/NiloxXy0jv
When it comes to design, it is being suggested that the new Mac Pro will only see a few design changes, with the main change from Apple getting rid of the current Intel Xeon chips to make the entire range of Mac computers powered by Apple silicon.
As to when to expect the new Apple silicon-powered Mac Pro, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted that a new Mac Pro would ship in 2023.
Beyond The Apple Silicon M2 Series Of Chips
Mark Gurman has more to say on the next generation of Apple Silicon, the M3 series of chips, and what computers might be powered by them…
“Apple is also already at work on the M2’s successor, the M3, and the company is planning to use that chip as early as next year with updates to the 13-inch MacBook Air code-named J513, a 15-inch MacBook Air known as J515, a new iMac code-named J433 and possibly a 12-inch laptop that’s still in early development”.
There you have it. Which of these new machines are you looking forward to? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.