Apple is reportedly planning to improve its next-generation Mac models with significant performance improvements, including M4 chips and increased memory. According to a Bloomberg report, Mac devices powered by the M4 chip are expected to have a minimum of 16GB of RAM, a notable upgrade from the base 8GB of RAM in the current M3 models.
The report suggests that Apple has begun intensive testing of four new Mac models to ensure compatibility with third-party applications. The developer test logs list these models as “16,1,” “16,2,” “16,3,” and “16,10.” While all four models are likely to be powered by the base-level M4 chip, they are expected to feature either 16GB or 32GB of RAM. If accurate, 16GB of RAM will be standard on M4-powered Macs, compared to 8GB on the previous-generation models. Additionally, M4-powered Macs can support up to 32GB of memory, up from the 24GB supported by the M3 models.
Apple has previously said that its set of artificial intelligence features, known as Apple Intelligence, requires more processing power and thus more RAM. This also suggests that the upcoming Mac devices will feature increased memory.
The report also states that one of the four models currently undergoing testing has an eight-core central processing unit (CPU) and an eight-core graphics processing unit (GPU), while the other three models have 10 cores each. The 10-core CPUs in these models mirror the configuration of the M4 chip found in the iPad Pro released earlier this year, which has four high-performance cores and six for efficiency. The eight-core CPU in the fourth model has an equal split of performance and efficiency cores.
It should be noted that these configurations apply to the base M4 chip; there is no information available yet about the more powerful M4 Pro and M4 Max chips.
The M4 chip-powered MacBook Pro and Mac Mini are expected to be launched in October, a month after the iPhone 16 series. The new MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models are expected to be released next year.
first published: 26 August 2024 | 12:38 pm First