Apple announced its nifty M4-based iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro models, complete with variants of the chip. As exciting as these are, the rumor mill has begun speculating as to when users can expect the M4 versions of the MacBook Air, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro towers.
Where notebooks are concerned, Apple launched its updated 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air notebooks. Per Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, an early 2025 launch seems likely. It's thought that no new design changes hved been planned for the MacBook Air models, and the focus will be on the M4 chip, but the base model will arrive with at least 16GB of RAM, after Apple updated the base M3 model to 16GB, up from 8GB. An M4 MacBook Air could also feature a new 12MP Centre Stage camera with Desk View support, an improvement over the current 1080p FaceTime HD camera, given that both the new M4 iMac and M4 MacBook Pro models also debuted with the upgraded camera. It's thought that the new machines will arrive next year between January and March.
Where the Mac Studio is concerned, Gurman has posited that the Mac Studio desktop will be released in early 2025 with either an M4 Ultra or M4 Max chip. Gurman has stated that the Mac Studio was on track to be updated alongside the M4 MacBook Air, but could see a refresh between March and June.
The Mac Pro was last updated in June 2023, complete with an M2 chip, with Apple officially completing its transition away from Intel chips. Gurman has stated that Apple will refresh the Mac Studio in the summer of 2025. Like the Mac Studio, the next Mac Pro will skip the M3 series. Instead it will be equipped with the highest-end version of the M4 chip, codenamed "Hidra." It's rumored that this M4 could be positioned as an "Ultra" or "Extreme" chip. Gurman has posited that the next Based on the description of the chip, it could be positioned as anMac Pro will "probably" have up to a 32-core CPU and up to an 80-core GPU, which would be double the M4 Max's up to 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU. It could also support up to 512GB of memory, and present a notable increase over the current 192GB limit.
The M4 itself is built on a 3nm production process, albeit with enhancements from Apple supplier TSMC, which has worked in both performance and power efficiency enhancements. The M4 also features an improved Neural Engine that also fuels accelerated AI workloads, and Apple has stated that the Neural Engine is capable of 38 trillion operations per second.
Per recent Geekbench 6 results, the M4 Pro and M4 Max chips in the new Mac min and MacBook Pro models have confirmed results wherein the chips proved 25 percent faster than the M2 Ultra in terms of peak multi-core CPU performance. Meanwhile, the M4 Max is up to 20 percent faster than the M4 Pro when it comes to peak multi-core CPU performance.
In terms of graphics performance, Geekbench 6 results indicate that the M4 Pro and M4 Max are up to around 40 percent and 25 percent faster for graphics than the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, respectively. Notably, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the highest-end M4 Max with a 40-core GPU has up to 85 percent as fast graphics as the Mac Studio with the highest-end M2 Ultra chip with a 76-core GPU, even though it has 36 fewer GPU cores.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.