The M4-based Macs are coming, albeit a bit later this year.
Per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has ramped up testing of four new Mac models equipped with an M4 chip. Apple is said to be planning to refresh the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac with M4 chips this year, and we could see the new models sometime in October.
According to developer logs, the four Macs feature base-level M4 chips. Three of the Macs have a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. The fourth machine has an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU, which is not an M4 configuration that we’ve seen so far. All four of the M4 Macs have either 16GB or 32GB of Unified Memory.
The M4 used in Apple’s current 256GB and 512GB iPad Pro tablets uses a 9-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, while the chip used in the 1TB and 2TB models has a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. The high-end iPad chip is the same chip that will be in some of the Mac models.
Gurman’s recent newsletter doesn’t mention the M4 Pro or M4 Pro Max chips, which would be found in a higher-end Mac mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro, or 16-inch MacBook Pro. The M4 Pro and M4 Max chips would have a higher number of CPU and GPU cores, as well as more maximum memory.
It’s unknown as to whether Apple will only be introducing the base-model M4 chip, if there are plans for an M4 Pro or M4 Pro Max chip, or if units with these higher-end chips weren’t referenced in the developer logs.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.