Apple M2 Pro Archives - Gizmochina

Apple M3 chip could outperform M2 Max & M2 Pro despite having lower cores

Sean — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 11:12:35 +0000

Apple is gearing up to unveil its latest generation of silicon that will power its new smartphones and PC products, A17 Bionic & M3 chips respectively. But prior to an official announcement, a new leak has revealed the performance of the upcoming M3 chipset and it is quite impressive. So let’s have a look.

The latest leak arrives from a tweet that was shared by Vadim Yuryev, who shared the synthetic benchmark scores of the M3 chipset on the GeekBench 6 platform. Looking at these figures, the M3 chipset has apparently scored 3,472 points in the single core tests and 13,676 points in the multi core tests. Based on these scores, it is clear that the M3 chipset arrives with some notable improvements over its predecessor, the M2.

These upgrades put it in a league that makes them comparable to the high end MacBooks that feature the more powerful M2 Max and M2 Pro chipsets. In the multi core tests, the M3 is just 6 percent slower than the M2 Max in terms of multi core scores. But keep in mind, that the M2 Max has 12 cores, while the M3 is believed to feature just 8 cores. However, single test scores tell a different story, with the M3 showing an impressive 24 percent faster performance over the M2 Max.

On the other hand, it also beats the 10 core M2 Pro chipset by roughly 12 percent in both the single core and multi core tests. This basically means that the upcoming Apple M3 is quite capable and could potentially match the top silicon from the Cupertino based giant. Although, this is still just an unconfirmed leak, so take this news with a pinch of salt and stick around for more updates regarding this matter.

New 14-Inch M2 MacBook Pro Suffers From SSD Downgrade

Oğuz Çakır — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:18:28 +0000

MacBooks, especially those equipped with M-series processors, have long been praised by users. However, recent reports have indicated that this may not be the case when it comes to SSD performance. According to the latest tests he base level 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro reportedly has a slower SSD than its predecessor. Here are the details…

The base M2 14-inch MacBook Pro has an SSD downgrade

The base level 14-inch M2 (Pro) MacBook Pro reportedly has a slower SSD than its predecessor. In BlackMagic’s Disk Speed Test, the 512 GB SSD in Apple’s latest flagship achieved read speed scores of around 2,970 MB/s and write speed scores of around 3,150 MB/s, compared to 4,900 MB/s reads and 3,950 MB/s writes that the M1 Pro with a 512GB SSD was capable of.

This means that the base model of the M2 MacBook Pro has around 39 percent slower reads and 20 percent slower writes than the one released in 2021. The reason for the difference is likely because of to the chips used in the SSD. According to 9to5Mac, the 512 GB SSD in the previous-gen 14-inch had four NAND storage chip. However, the one on the M2 Pro seems to have only two.

These are higher-capacity chips, but they can’t parallelize reads and writes as much, resulting in slower performance. This is not a new strategy for Apple, as both the 256GB M2 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro had slower storage than the M1 versions of those laptops. It is disappointing to see that the base-level M2 Pro are measurably worse than their predecessors in terms of SSD performance. Especially considering the 14-inch MacBook Pro costs $2,000. It is worth noting that the SSDs in the new Macs will not be “that” slow. They will still perform well in daily tasks.

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Apple cuts orders for M2 Pro & M2 Max chips for 2022 MacBook Pros due to falling demand

Sean — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 08:48:09 +0000

Apple has apparently overestimated the demand for its M2 Pro and M2 Max series of chipsets for its 2022 MacBook Pro laptops and is now slashing orders for the new processors. The orders have been cut down by around 30 percent.

The news arrives from known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who stated that the Cupertino based giant has misjudged the demand for its 14 inch and 16 inch MacBook Pro models for this year. The analyst added that the brand has sent notes to its suppliers that to cut orders up to 30 percent. This is a sizeable fall in production orders even before the release of the 2022 MacBook Pros. Kuo added that the iPhone maker is seeing a fall in demand following the boost in demand caused by work from home.

In a note to clients Kuo said that “Apple cuts shipment forecasts for new 14″ & 16″ MacBook Pro by 20 to 30% before mass production, and it’s a structural risk to the high end ABF & Mini LED sectors. The only major upgrade for the new 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros is the new processor, and limited new selling points may also be the reason for the lower than expected demand.”

In simpler terms, it appears that the actual demand for the MacBook has been lower than expected recently, and it is not just limited to the higher end MacBook Pro models. As of right now, the company is expected to announced the 14 inch and 16 inch MacBook Pro 2022 models sometime next month in October. Although, the exact release date is still unknown at the moment.

Apple MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips are under development; could launch this year

Jeet — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 01:07:21 +0000

Apple recently announced its second-generation Apple Silicon chips for the Mac devices, dubbed Apple M2, and has also launched a couple of devices powered by the new chip. Now, the company is gearing up to launch upgraded versions of the M2 chip.

Shedding more light on this, a new report from Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant is currently developing and testing new MacBook Pro laptops powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.

The MacBook Pro models that are being developed come in two different screen sizes. One of them has a 14-inch display while the other one features a 16-inch display. The report further adds that there’s a possibility that the devices could go official later this year.

Apple is reportedly planning to launch the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro as early as the fall of this year, but because of supply chain issues, the production could face a delay in mass production and the launch may be a bit later than what the company plans.

There were rumors about the upcoming M2 Pro and M2 Max chips being manufactured using the 3nm process, but recent reports have indicated that the company will stick to the 5nm process for the new chips. But, the company is expected to move from the N5 process of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips to the newer N5P process by TSMC.

As of now, there’s not much information available about the upcoming Pro models of the MacBook, but it’s likely that there won’t be any major changes in terms of design, and we’ll mostly see internal upgrades for better performance.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch models set to enter mass production this year

Jeet — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 05:40:00 +0000

Apple has already announced the M2 chipset under its Apple Silicon lineup and has also launched the first MacBook powered by the new processor. Now, the company is gearing up to expand the lineup of Mac devices with the M2 series chips.

In line with that, it is being reported that the Cupertino-based technology giant is all set to start the mass production of Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch models powered by the new chipset sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

The new report coming from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also adds that the company won’t be using the 3nm chipset produced by TSMC but will instead stick with the 5nm chip. This contradicts previous reports which claimed that the M2 Pro and Max would be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process.

The Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch models were launched by the company last year, powered by the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. So, we expect the upcoming refreshed version of the laptop to be powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max processors.

Whatever the case, it’s almost confirmed that TSMC will soon start manufacturing new chips for Apple based on the 3nm process, and it’s just a matter of time to see which MacBook device ends up being the first to come powered by the 3nm chips.

Apple will be TSMC’s first 3nm chip customer, but not for the iPhone 14

Sean — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 11:10:22 +0000

TSMC, the leading advanced chipmaker, will soon start shipping 3nm chip orders soon, with Apple being its first customer. But these cutting edge processors will not be for the upcoming iPhone 14 series.

The world’s largest contract chipmaker’s largest customer is also the Cupertino based giant as well. The latter will start received the 3nm chips, however, these are not for the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro series models. For those unaware, the iPhone 14 series will be arriving with the 4nm based A16 Bionic chipset for the Pro models of the iPhone 14 Pro models, while the base and Max variant will arrive with the last gen 5nm A15 Bionic chipset.

The new 3nm chips that Apple has ordered is basically for the next gen PC chipsets, which is the M2 Pro processor. It is the first 3nm process based chip that the brand will ship, with the first 3nm chip powered iPhone likely being the iPhone 15 series that will launch in 2023.

To put things simply, the jump in generation also means that the next gen chips will be more powerful as well as energy efficient while having a higher transistor count in the chips. Based on what TSMC said, the 3nm FinFET chips will reduce energy consumption by 25 to 30 percent while increasing power by 10 to 15 percent over the previous gen 5nm FinFET based chips.

Apple to reportedly launch 15-inch MacBook powered by M2 and M2 Pro chip next year

Jeet — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 06:43:26 +0000

Apple recently introduced two new laptop models at the WWDC 2022 — MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, both of which come powered by the latest Apple Silicon M2 processor.

Now, the company is expected to launch other models in the MacBook lineup refreshed with the new processor. Amid this, there are reports which claim that a new 15-inch MacBook could also get launched.

Apple MacBook Air 2022

As per the latest report from Ming-Chi Kuo, the technology giant could launch a new 15-inch MacBook powered by the M2 processor and the unannounced M2 Pro processor. The laptop is expected to go official sometime next year, i.e. in 2023.

The new 15-inch MacBook powered by an M2 chip could come dual-port 35W power adapter while configurations with the M2 Pro processor might come with a more powerful 67W adapter. These power adapters are already options for the new M2-powered MacBook Air launching next month.

Recently, there were reports about a new 12-inch MacBook but Kuo says that he has not heard anything about this. Previously, it was reported that Apple is planning to launch a new 12-inch MacBook at the end of 2023 or in early 2024.

There were also reports about Apple working on a new 15-inch MacBook Air, which might be the same device that is now being referred to as MacBook. It remains to be seen how the company decides to name this new 15-inch MacBook model.

Apple plans to manufacture M2 Pro chips later this year: Report

Sean — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 10:25:12 +0000

During the WWDC 2022 event, Apple had announced its latest MacBook models that are powered by its new M2 chipset. This new chipset is the successor to the original ARM based M1 chip, which was the company’s first proprietary processor.

Now, a new report has suggested that the brand already plans on producing the new M2 Pro chip later this year as well. In other words, the Cupertino based giant already has plans to release more powerful notebooks in the market soon. For those unaware, the new M2 chips are already more powerful than their predecessor, offering up to 18 percent boost in CPU performance and 35 percent faster GPU performance as well.

So, we can expect the M2 Pro chips to be even more capable. The news arrives from a market analysis by Jeff Pu, who is the analyst and managing directory of tech research at TSMC, the iPhone maker’s chip supplier. He believes that the M2 Pro will start mass production later this year and will be based on the more advanced 3nm process. For those unaware, the M2 is still based on the 5nm process like the M1 chip.

The new M2 Pro might feature up to 12 cores in the CPU and would likely offer a more powerful GPU as well. Being the Pro model, it will likely also ship with products that sit above MacBooks that were just unveiled. So, it might be housed in new iMacs and other creator level products for professionals. Although, this is just speculation as of right now, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Apple working on several new Macs that will feature four M2 chip variants: Report

Sean — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 05:18:46 +0000

A new report has just revealed interesting information regarding the future PC plans of Apple. Apparently, the company is testing a number of new Mac models, which will be powered by different variants of its next gen M2 chipset.

According to a Bloomberg report, developer logs showed that the Cupertino based giant is currently working on at least nine new Macs that will be equipped with four new variants of the M2 chipset. For those unaware, the M2 chip is the successor of the M1, which was the iPhone maker’s first proprietary processor that was based on the ARM architecture. And now, it seems that the brand is developing a M2 chip, the M2 Pro, the M2 Max, and possibly even a successor to the M1 Ultra as well.

Out of the nine upcoming Macs, Apple might be working on a MacBook Air with an M2 chip that features an 8 core CPU and a 10 core GPU. Apart from this, a new Mac mini is also in the works that will house a variant of the upcoming M2 Pro chipset. Furthermore, the company is also internally testing a new entry level 13 inch MacBook Pro with M2 chip, along with 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro models that feature M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. The M2 Max CPU consists of a 12 core GPU and 38 core GPU paired with 64GB of memory.

The report adds that there is also a Mac Pro in the pipeline, which will house the successor to the M1 Ultra that made its debut in the Mac Studio. Notably, Bloomberg stated that the internal testing phase is a “key step” in the development process, so the new PCs might be released within the arriving months. Apple is due to refresh some of its Mac models, so stay tuned for more updates regarding this matter.

Apple tipped to launch 4nm M2 chips next year and 3nm M3 chips in 2023

Jeet — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 07:54:39 +0000

Apple started transitioning from Intel chips to its own in-house Apple Silicon chips last year with the MacBook series. So far, the company has launched three chips for Mac which are based on the ARM architecture.

Now, a new report claims that the Cupertino-based technology giant is working on a successor of all the existing three chips which will be named Apple M2, M2 Pro, and the M2 Max, and has also shared some key details.

Further, citing information from the supply chain industry sources, the report adds that the company will be updating the Apple Silicon lineup every 18 months in the future.

It is claimed that Apple will be launching the first M2 processor codenamed Staten in the second half of 2022 and in the first half of 2023, there will be a new M2X processor with the codename Rhodes. There will be M2 Pro and M2 Max chips with different graphic cores.

All the chips in Apple Silicon’s M2 lineup will be manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using the 4nm process. It is also speculated that the successor of the M2 series, which is likely to be the M3 lineup, will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process.

The upcoming M2 series chips from the tech giant Apple will be used across six products from the brand. It is said that the MacBook will be equipped with an M2 processor while the MacBook Pro lineup will have M2 Pro and M2 Max options.

Similarly, the iMac will be powered by the M2 chipset while the iMac Pro will come packed with the M2 Pro and M2 Max. There will also be Mac Mini with an M2 processor and a Mac Pro equipped with the M2 Pro and M2 Max.