by Jason Snell
Gurman: Forget the M3, the M4 is on the way
Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has another one of his excellent chip scoops, this time about the future of the Mac:
The company, which released its first Macs with M3 chips five months ago, is already nearing production of the next generation — the M4 processor — according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new chip will come in at least three main varieties, and Apple is looking to update every Mac model with it.
Apple’s moving through Mac chip generations fast—the M3 was introduced six months ago, but Gurman suggests that it will only be about a year before the cycle begins again.
Gurman’s report suggests that the biggest picture is what you might expect: There will be an M4 chip (code-named Donan) in the MacBook Air, low-end MacBook Pro, and low-end Mac mini; and an M4 code-named Brava in the high-end MacBook Pros and high-end Mac mini.
More intriguing is the destination of the Mac Studio: Gurman suggests that Apple is testing versions with both a “still-unreleased” M3 chip and a variation of the M4 Brava processor. This one’s tough to parse—it’s unclear if the M4 Brava chip is actually referring to both the Pro and Max class chips, or if there’s something changing in the product line. Gurman also doesn’t say if the Mac Studio might get an M3 Max and Ultra update this year followed by an M4 update next year, even though the idea of Apple offering a new model in both M3 and M4 variants seems pretty out of pattern.
On the topic of the Mac Pro, Gurman says it’s “set to get the new Hidra chip,” a “top-end” version of the M4, next year. Is that the Ultra, or is something different? Reply hazy, ask again later.
And for RAM fiends out there, Gurman also reports that Apple is considering a new memory ceiling of 512GB, up from the current high-end maximum of 192GB.
Generally Gurman’s reports are accurate, but of course he’s operating with limited information—hence the lack of clarity on some fronts. Regardless of the details, though, it seems that we might be seeing another generation of Macs starting this fall.