A New Mac Pro Is Coming This Year, But Not With The Processor We Expected
A new Mac Pro is expected to arrive this year but it might not come with the Apple processor that many have expected. The Mac Pro is Apple's top-of-the-line desktop computer and is meant for the most intensive individual computing needs. The most recent Mac Pro is so powerful that even though it hasn't been updated for two years, it still places near the top of benchmark charts that measure raw performance. Now Apple is planning to upgrade it to Apple Silicon.
At the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple shared the news that it was replacing Intel CPUs with its own chip design, designating the new processors as Apple Silicon. The M1 series was the first of the new chips and proved that Apple made the correct decision, at least for its low-power devices. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac are all running variations on the M1 design and offer great CPU and GPU performance.
The one area lacking for Apple Silicon is high-end desktops. The 2019 Mac Pro with Intel Xeon processor still crushes Apple's latest 2021 MacBook Pro which is powered by the very best chip Apple has, the M1 Max. That is expected to change in 2022 and many were looking forward to Apple's M2 pushing the envelope once more and powering the Mac to new speed records. However, according to a recent Tweet from Apple leaker Dylan, the M2 will not be placed in the 2022 Mac Pro and an M1 variant will be used instead.
While an M2 Mac Pro might not arrive in 2022, Dylan indicated that Apple will complete its transition away from Intel chips this year and the Mac Pro will be the last computer to be upgraded with Apple Silicon. As previous reports have suggested, Apple's M2 processor is actually expected to be a relatively small upgrade over the M1, adding a few more cores and possibly improving efficiency even further. Dylan claims that a new M1 chip variant will be the basis for the 2022 Mac Pro and while somewhat surprising, that doesn't really conflict with some of the most solid leaks to date about Apple's top-tier computer.
Early reports from Bloomberg suggested that Apple was planning for its Mac Pro chip to boast a 40-core CPU and 128-core GPU but a chip family was not mentioned in that prediction. Being Apple's very best computer, the company might have chosen to take more time on the development, starting earlier and building out a super-powerful M1 variant before the M2 chip was in progress. The M1 Max is incredibly powerful with its 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU, suggesting that a further boost to central processing and a huge leap in graphics performance will push the Mac Pro to new heights.
Source: Dylan/Twitter