With fresh rumors appearing about a new Mac Pro, we have to wonder if Apple silicon will be able to step up.
Fresh rumors have predicted that we’re going to get as many as seven new Apple Mac models this year, but it isn’t the number of releases that’s surprised me – it’s that the Mac Pro has been included in that list. Rumors about upcoming Apple product releases are hardly unexpected, given the success and popularity of its ecosystem. But with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman anticipating that the mighty Mac Pro desktop will be upgraded with Apple silicon alongside, well, the entire Mac family, a whole new can of worms has just been opened. Most of this current batch of speculation started when several supply chain leaks gave us some insight into a likely 13-inch MacBook Pro refresh. Gurman, a recognized Apple analyst, has since suggested that we can expect up to seven new Mac models in 2022 that will all feature some version of the M1 SoC (system-on-a-chip), one of which being the powerful Mac Pro desktop workstation. Specifically, Gurman predicts that „a half-sized Mac Pro, the first with Apple Silicon, with the equivalent of either two or four M1 Max chips“ could be announced this year alongside „super-powered versions of the M1 Max“. These chips will come in two varieties: one that doubles the M1 Max’s capabilities to 20 CPU cores and 64 graphics cores, and one that quadruples it to a whopping 40 CPU cores and 128 graphics cores. Before we jump the gun, we really want to drill home that this information is purely speculative for now, even if it comes from a trusted source. The capabilities of the M1 SoC are well documented, having impressed us so much that we stuck the M1-powered MacBook Air at the top of our list of the best laptops you can buy right now, but there’s still an issue that makes its inclusion within a Mac Pro desktop a little perplexing.
