After months of rumors Apple finally revealed their MacBook Pro 2021 line, the first “Pro” Apple Silicon devices powered by the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.
After months of rumors, leaks, and speculation, Apple has finally revealed the first truly “Pro” Apple Silicon devices: 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by the new M1 Pro and M1 Max systems on a chip (SOCs). In one fell swoop, Apple has essentially undone all of its most controversial design decisions of the last six years and created a pair of laptops that professional users can really get behind. There’s a lot to unpack: from the new processors, to the new display, to the new and improved port configuration, the return of MagSafe, and the end of the touchbar. For the sake of clarity, let’s take the upgrades one at a time. At the heart of this new update are the latest Apple Silicon SOCs, the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Where the original M1 focused on providing a balance of performance and efficiency, with four high-performance cores, four high-efficiency cores, and up to eight GPU cores, the M1 Pro and M1 Max shift that balance towards high performance and really increase the GPU capabilities of these laptops. The entry-level 8-core M1 Pro packs in six high-performance and two high-efficiency cores, while the top shelf M1 Pro and M1 Max both offer eight high-performance and two high-efficiency cores, for a total of 10. Each configuration also boasts between 2x and 4x the number of GPU cores available in the original M1. The entry-level 8-core M1 Pro comes with 14 GPU cores, the 10-core variant of the M1 Pro comes with 16 GPU cores, and the M1 Max can be configured with a staggering 32 GPU cores. Each upgrade offers a significant improvement over the previous Intel- and M1-based MacBook Pros, with the 32-core variant peaking at an advertised 13.4x improvement in graphics performance over the former Intel-based 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 2.9x improvement over the Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro with discrete AMD graphics, all while sipping far less power from the built-in battery. In fact, both laptops can run at full speed while on battery power, something that no high-powered PC laptop with discrete graphics can claim. Finally, both of the new processors can now be configured with far more unified memory—the on-chip RAM that Apple uses in all of the Apple Silicon SOCs. The entry-level M1 Pro features the same 16GB of unified memory as the original M1, but it can be configured with up to 32GB, while the M1 Max starts at 32GB and can be configured with up to 64GB.
