Many have been wondering how Apple would approach the design of the Apple Silicon chipsets when it came to its more powerful computers. After all, previous benchmarks for the A-series chipsets have already shown it to be as capable, if not more so, than some of Intel’s processors, so when Apple first introduced the M1 to its lower-end computers, it made sense.
It turns out Apple’s plan is to introduce “Pro” and “Max” versions of its chipsets, which we expect will be the case moving forwards. For 2021, this came in the form of the M1 Pro and the M1 Max.
According to Apple, they claim that the new chipsets offer 70% faster CPU performance compared to the base M1, and up to 4x better GPU performance compared to the M1. The M1 Pro will feature 8 and 10-core configuration options, with a 14 or 16-core GPU, while the M1 Max is what Apple is saying is the largest chip they’ve ever built with 57 billion transistors on a 5nm process.
It will feature a 10-core CPU and can also be configured to come with a 32-core GPU. During the company’s presentation, they claimed to have tested it against one of the most powerful GPUs found in PC laptops and found that the M1 Max’s GPU performance was on par, but actually consumed less power and offered up similar performance levels whether it was plugged in or not.
Both chipsets also feature a 16-core Neural Engine for on-device machine learning and improved camera performance, and will also come with a new display engine that will support multiple external displays.
Assuming these claims are true, it sounds like Apple’s new M1 chipsets are more than capable of leaving Intel in their rear view mirror, but we’ll have to wait for real world tests and reviews to see if it lives up to these claims.
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