Hey guys it’s vadim with max tech and a lot of you guys were asking for this video, so here it is.
As you guys know, we’ve been testing Apple’s new M1 Macs for about 3 weeks now,
and it’s clear that Apple is revolutionizing the computer industry by giving us incredible
performance while getting even more impressive battery life than we expected.
For example, we compared the M1 MacBook Pro to the base 16” Intel model and when the 16” went
down to 3% of battery life remaining, the M1 was at a staggering 67% battery life.
We then compared the M1 Mac Mini to our $2,550 iMac
and the most impressive part was the performance per watt
being over 6x higher on the M1’s CPU and over 9x higher in terms of the graphics.
Results like this are extremely exciting
because we know that Apple’s gonna be transitioning the rest of their Mac lineup
over to their own M-series of chips, and that’s exactly what this video is all about.
Yes, I’m talking about the Apple M1X chip
that is rumored to be going into next year’s higher-end Macs like the 16” MacBook Pro.
I’m not only gonna discuss the performance and features that we should expect in the M1X,
but I’ll also talk about which other Macs that chip will be going into,
and how those Macs should be getting fully redesigned as well, so let’s get right into it!
Way back in April before Apple even announced the transition to their own Silicon, it was reported
that Apple’s first ARM chip would be a 12-core 5nm SoC, but that obviously didn’t happen since
the M1 chip has a total of 8 cores including 4 efficiency cores and 4 performance cores.
But now, it’s pretty clear that the 12-core chip that they were reporting on
is actually still coming next year in the form of the M1X chip, or at least that’s the most probable
name for it since the M2 chip won’t come until at least a full year after the release of the m1.
This matches up to recent rumors of two redesigned MacBook Pros coming in 2021,
more specifically the 14” and 16” models, and of course, there are rumors of a redesigned 24” iMac
coming early next year as well, and I’ll talk about all of that in just a couple of minutes.
Now next year’s M1X chip will pack the same 4 efficiency cores,
but it will come with double the performance cores, 8 instead of 4.
And keep in mind that the cores themselves will stay essentially
the same, so the single-core performance shouldn’t change much at all on the M1X.
However, the multi-core performance should be drastically improved because of the extra 4
performance cores, so we should expect a score of around 12,000 points in Geekbench 5’s Multi-core
test, essentially outperforming the current 12-core Mac Pro, which is absolutely insane.
On top of that, we should definitely expect Apple to include more graphics cores in the M1X as well,
but I’m not sure if it’s gonna come with 12 or 16 of those GPU cores.
But if we do see 16 cores, that would be insane because it’ll give us around
44,000 Metal score in Geekbench 5, which is more graphics performance than
the crazy powerful and expensive 5600M dedicated GPU in the current 16” MacBook Pro.
Now one thing that we could see is Apple selling two versions
of the M1X. They could sell the base model with a 12-core GPU,
and give you the option to upgrade to a 16-core GPU for a couple hundred dollars more.
To do this, Apple would use silicon binning to disable the GPU cores that didn’t pass
quality standards, and then marketing that chip as having a 12-core GPU for a lower price
meant for the base models instead of just tossing that chip out altogether.
If you think about it, Apple is already doing this with the M1 MacBook Air.
The base model comes with a silicon binned 7-core GPU and you have the option to upgrade
to an 8-core, so Apple could do this again with the M1X.
Now as far as the features, I fully expect the M1X to support four Thunderbolt ports
just like we currently have on the higher-end 13” and 16” MacBook Pro models, compared to the M1
which seems to be bandwidth limited, only supporting two ports.
That reason alone is why Apple kept selling the high-end Intel 13” MacBook Pro
as well as the Intel Mac Mini instead of moving everything over to Apple Silicon.
The answer to that, is of course, the M1X chip,
which WILL support four ports, and it will support 10Gb ethernet on the Mac Mini, if
and when Apple chooses to add the M1X chip as an upgrade for the Mac Mini.
I also believe that the M1X will come with 16GB of RAM at the base price,
with the potential to upgrade to at least 32GB of RAM,
which is currently the limit for the high-end Intel 13” MacBook Pro.
Now I want to get into exactly which Macs will come with this new M1X chip,
and this brings us to some recently released rumors.
Ming-chi Kuo says that redesigned 14.1 and 16.1” MacBook Pros will be released
during the first half of 2021, both of them with Mini-LED displays and Apple Silicon chips.
Now in my personal opinion, those displays will feature rounded corners,
just like you get with both the iPad Air 4 and iPad Pro,
and I know this because windows on MacOS Big Sur are now rounded much more than before.
On top of that, these Mini-LED displays will be much thinner than previous displays,
which will allow Apple to finally upgrade the webcams to 1080P sensors.
Other than that, I don’t really know what else to expect from these redesigned MacBooks,
except potentially an even thinner chassis due to the space savings from switching to Apple Silicon.
As far as the prices, I expect the new 14” MacBook Pro to stick with the same $1800 starting price,
as well as the same $2400 for the new 16” MacBook Pro.
Now there’s only one doubt that I have, there’s a chance that the 14” MacBook Pro will
actually come with an M1 chip at the base price instead of the M1X, and Apple could just find
a way to get an extra two ports on that model, potentially adding another I/O chip externally.
In that case, Apple could easily add the M1X as an upgrade option, but I’m really hoping
that it’ll come with the M1X at the base price, giving it exceptional value.
Ming chi kuo mentioned that a new MacBook Air is expected in
2022, so Apple could be skipping a full year before upgrading it again.
Moving onto the iMacs, we already know that a fully redesigned 24” iMac is expected as soon
as the first quarter of next year, so here’s how I think the iMac release will happen.
If the 24” iMac is released before the M1X MacBooks,
then I fully expect that Mac to simply come with the regular M1 chip,
since the starting price of the current 21.5” iMac is only $1100, which is perfect for the M1.
Now if Apple decides to release this new 24” iMac at the same time or after the MacBooks,
then we should expect it to get the M1 chip at the base price, with an added option
to upgrade to the M1X with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
But on the other hand, Apple could be saving the M1X for the 27” iMac replacement,
which could come with a larger display size between 30 and 32”, and according to China Times,
that larger iMac should be launching in the second half of next year, but with a MAJOR twist.
Apple is working on a custom dedicated GPU
for that iMac which is going to greatly boost the graphics performance, and it’ll
be our first taste of an Apple SIlicon graphics chip, which will be extremely exciting to see
since the performance per watt of the M1 chip’s graphics is absolutely insane.
And of course, this custom GPU technology will be improved upon even more to eventually go
into Apple’s Mac Pro with Apple Silicon, which in my opinion,
won’t be coming out until some time in 2022, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
So there you guys go, let me know if you agree with my thoughts on Apple’s roadmap
for their future custom Silicon Macs down in the comments, and if you agree with my estimates
for the M1X’s performance, click that circle above to subscribe and definitely watch those
M1 Mac videos right over there. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video!