Apple could already be in the middle of testing its next-generation silicon, ready for a new wave of MacBook Pros. According to Mark Gurman, in the latest edition of his Power On Newsletter, Apple has begun testing the upcoming M3 Pro chip — and the specs sound out of this world.
Gurman managed to get hold of an App Store developer log, which reveals details about this unannounced chip. Apparently the new M3 Pro will feature a 12-core CPU, a 18-core GPU and support for up to 36GB of memory. For reference, the M2 Pro chip features an 10-core CPU, an 16-core GPU and 16GB of RAM.
So that is a very noticeable upgrade, with two extra CPU and GPU cores, plus double the amount of memory. The only downside is that this chip is said to be in the testing phases, and Gurman doesn’t expect it to arrive for some time.
The M3 Pro isn’t going to arrive until a little while after the launch of the standard M3 chip, which is still unannounced. Plus the M2 Pro and M2 Max-powered MacBook Pros arrived back in January, which means we’re not likely to see the next generation for at least another year — possibly longer.
In the meantime Gurman is expecting the M3 to arrive later this year, alongside a new iMac, MacBook Air and lower-end MacBook Pro. We don’t know what sort of specs to expect from this chip, but it’s likely to offer more cores and RAM support than the M2. The M2 chip had 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores and 8GB of RAM — alongside major improvements to performance and energy efficiency.
Even closer to that is the launch of the 15-inch MacBook Air. Gurman says that will be arriving this summer, and will come packing an M2 chip. That machine is rumored to offer the same specs as the current MacBook Air M2, which offers a 13.6-inch display, and could launch with the upcoming macOS 14 installed right out of the box.
So it’s going to be a while before we see any MacBooks offering some hardware-infused performance. But there’s always room for software to come along and offer some benefits of its own. And with WWDC 2023 just weeks away, we are going to hear an awful lot about what macOS 14 will bring to the current crop of Macs and MacBooks.
