Apple Vision Pro M2 Chip Said to Have 10 GPU, 8 CPU Cores

[Crow_Servo]

I don’t see a killer app. Maybe watching content is the killer app? I have money to burn. But I’d need to see at least one killer must have app and I haven’t seen one yet.

Yeah, for me it would be for watching content or FaceTime (sometimes), but I also hope there’s more inventive ways for me to make use of it. It doesn’t seem like there’s an all-around great headset for me yet.

The PSVR2 is great for games, but has no real social aspect. The Quest is all wrapped up with Facebook’s Metaverse and also excels in gaming, but the Metaverse isn’t really catching on.

AVP could get the balance right, but that of course remains to be seen. They don’t really want a Metaverse angle involved, but the Apple ecosystem offers a lite version of the Metaverse in a more accessible way. The gaming will be lite too, I expect.

Apple is so not about gaming, unless it’s mobile gaming. They love those micro-transactions, except they also love their subscriptions, so they‘ve cut out micro-transactions for subscriptions with Apple Arcade. If Apple Arcade offers solid AVP games, expect a price hike on the subscription.

The killer apps for this device are primarily aimed at professionals at the time of launch, not consumers, but then you have the Apple simplicity and 3D movies. The consumer-oriented identity of AVP will have to evolve over time. This is not the iPhone. The mass appeal is not instantly recognizable. But the potential is all there from the start.

There are plenty of critics saying this will fail, but those who have experienced it are impressed. Time will tell when or if the general public will join the AVP fandom.

 

[svish]

Good to know the specific details. M2 chip will be more than enough to power Vision Pro.

 

[DFP1989]

just have a look at the base line M3 with 8 CPU and 10 GPU cores - it is barely faster than the iPad PRO with the identical CPU and GPU configuration - so you would have gained basically nothing

• iPad PRO with M2 ( 3.5 GHz ) 8x CPU and 10x GPU Geekbench results:
  • single core: 2527
  • multi core: 9578
  • metal: 45392
• MacBook PRO with M3 ( 4.1 GHz ) 8x CPU and 10x GPU Geekbench results:
  • single core: 3084
  • multi core: 11578
  • metal: 47386

That does not sound like a solid improvement over the M2 with identical configuration.

You say the M3 gains basically nothing over the M2, but those CPU numbers clearly show roughly 20% improvement.

That is hardly nothing, prior to the jump of M1 that would've been considered quite substantial, and frankly, it still is.

 

[jo-1]

I was just hoping that it was going to secretly (last minute) ship with an M3. That way it could at least do hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. That would be huge for games on it. (And most other things too since it’s all virtual images being portrayed)

I was hoping that too until I did the math and remembered, that in technology it's all about facts and not about sentiment.
Looking at the numbers you'll easily digest that there would be hardly any benefit in using the M3 vs the M2 in similar configuration. and there is no games available yet and there might be no games for the upcoming future.

Yes - there would be potentially a gain of lt's say +5 % in speed but that's the noise floor of things happening on the µIC and nothing to write home about.

I am surprised that many in the forum seem to feel that way rather than doing the math and getting over it.

It almost looks like looking for reasons to dislike the AVP.

Actually the whole forum seems to be more than sceptic about the AVP and not only here - after all the price tag seems to trigger this averse reaction and the only real reason I get is greed. Greed in the most annoying way. People spend thousands of USD for kids, car, house, music, vacation ... but when it comes to electronics it MUST be cheap.

I always state what else I am spending to give a hint that USD 3 or 4 k is really nothing compare e.g. to the cost my car causes every year.

Either you want such a toy => buy it - or you don't want to own it => don't buy it.

I need no reasons in my life to buy things - I buy 'em when the balance on my bank account allows it. Life is too short to spend it with greed.

And you're totally right - we all might have hoped that the number on the M-chip magically jumps one digit but as elaborated many times before - it would most probably not make amy tangible difference and there will be no attractive games on the App for quite some time - until then the AVP2 comes out and I will buy that too since version 3 or 4 might bee the one that I am targeting anyway.

Mind you - my maxed out M1 MAX MBP uses the M1 and exceeds my wishes to and extent that I cold live with this laptop for the upcoming decade and never have the feeling to be lacking speed or space - might be because it has 8 TB SSD space - something people were telling me that it's rubbish - actually this machine will work as a travel workhorse for at least 7 .. 8 years before I'll replace it with a larger one. ( hopefully 16 or 24 TB )

It's all about a realistic perception - realistic perceptions only occur if you let it happen. The M2 is virtually identical to the M3 except a few minor tweaks - the real boost happens in the M3 Max and neither the M3 Max nor the M2 Max have probably never been considered for being used in the Eye-Pad ( aka AVP )

Does anyone know the speed gain in games with the hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading? Which games on the MAC are using that? What are the title for the AVP would be using that? I guess the answer is No Games on the AVP yet and maybe not for a loooooong time to come.

( I intend to use the AVP for whatever makes sense - mostly work )

 

[jo-1]

You say the M3 gains basically nothing over the M2, but those CPU numbers clearly show roughly 20% improvement.

That is hardly nothing, prior to the jump of M1 that would've been considered quite substantial, and frankly, it still is.

There are some caveats:

1. CPU - yes - a minimal gain potentially - but the CPU is doing mostly housekeeping - the main visual impact comes from the GPU
2. The Metal score is virtually identical - that's the bottle neck for the visual appearance and thus there is no tangible gain
3. The speed comparison in Geekbench is synthetic - to my best knowledge a difference of 15 % in Geekbench is barely tangible in real world tasks - except you're constantly doing FCP renderings of lengthy films - something nobody will do with the AVP when consuming films or iPad APPs
4. The comparison to the LapTop version has a speed bump of 3.5 to 4.1 GHz - thus the speed gain is mostly driven by increase in CPU clock - but we don't know whether the AVP would have used the very same 4.1 GHz - the new iPad PRO will give us the proof point which µIC would have been potentially used in the AVP - it might be a throttled down version - we'll find out soon ( I am very keen on buying the maxed out 11.1" iPad PRO )

So many unclear things and yet many seem to be convinced that the higher number would automatically mean more perceivable and snappier behavior of the AVP.
I am totally convinced that the AVP will be a stunning device and I hope I can buy it in my area as soon as possible.
The sooner the better.

For my intended use cases it will just fly through the tasks without even warming up the CPU - I guess the GPU portion will get much more tasks to crunch and in this respect the two M2 and M3 are virtually identical except the hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading - which is something I really can't get my head around since there are no games or applications that strictly demand this functionality. By the time games will benefit from such a feature an AVP2 will be out and it will have the M4 or M5 in it and the 2nd generation OLED displays and many other things Apple and the users will find out while brining the current AVP to it's maximum utilization.

I own the M1 MAX and feel no need to replace my MBP with a new model since it does everything I need in virtually no time. My MBP with the M1 Max is faster than my 10C iMP with the Vega 64 in it - fast enough for me.

( I do a lot with LRC and FCP and it runs though the thing I do in reasonable time - cutting it by ⅒ would be my next step I am after but shorting a redering job by a few minutes is nothing that I would personally pay for considering it still takes a few minutes to finish a job on the faster machine. Your personal mileage may vary - but then people buy a 2 TB SSD configuration and seem to forget that internal store will be at least 2x faster.
I guess it all comes down to a realistic view on things.

Apple must have had many thoughts about the right µIC and they decided to go the M2 route - probably for very good reasons we don't know.

It is what it is and I always look at opportunities and not at potential problems that might turn out as chances.

Am I too optimistic for a forum seeking in reasons to avoid buying the AVP ? 🤣

 

[twocents]

M2 vs. M3 doesn’t seem like much of a computational difference … but I’m still baffled that they didn’t use the M3 just to get GPU ray-tracing.

Great point, as one of the three selling points per the PR was in gaming. Even with the general UX-UI interacting with the scenic environments would stand to benefit.

I am really curious about what Vision features are covered at WWDC 2024. Should be safe to say that what is announced is what was imagined for the current 1st Gen, but could not be delivered by the 2/2 deadline. Four months of data gathering can help prioritize which software features to prioritize, but this has all been long in the making.

 

[FlyingDutch]

256GB of storage on a $3500 device… that’s ridiculous even for Apple

 

[sifpilsen]

See, it can drive 2 displays.

Wouldn't surprise me if the eye output is referred to as 'internal' and 'external' somewhere deep in the coding

 

[Silver78]

Expect all apps to subscription based… your virtual pet will be more expensive than the real one. In app purchases with the blink of an eye

 

[windowsblowsass]

All these high-end specs in an AR headset, and I still can't see regular people buying them in large numbers. 😵

(I'm sure there are plenty of wealthy tech workers and several oil princes who'll snap them up though? 🤔)

People routinely spend money on things they don’t absolutely need. This is a first gen product that will have a relatively limited initial production run and will sell out. It’s absurd to think that people wouldn’t spend money on something like this. Go to a Best Buy and you’ll see plenty of TVs that cost this much just for the aisle from ones that cost 25% kd that. People other than oil princes and tech workers are buying them. Go to any retailer and you will see expensive products that could easily get the same “job done” by something else at a fraction of the price. An iPhone is $1000 why aren’t only tech bros and oil princes buying them? You cna get the same base functionality out of a mid line android phone for a third of the price.

 

[sphark]

Best overall guess: GEN 2 is 2025 at best, probably still constrained supply regardless of demand. GEN 3-5 may have some breakthrough where supply can be ramped way up. I believe this whole thing is about to go down like the PS5 launch in Covid: scalpers grab up a lot of the supply and manufacturer can't clamp that down with a lot of additional supply. If this becomes a very desirable product, it's probably hard to get for the next few years... unless one overpays the scalper premiums. Think $3500 retail is sky high? Brace yourself for scalper pricing on Ebay. I recall PS5 markups of at least 30% to as much as 150% during that almost-2-year span of short supply from Sony.

I've heard 2027 for gen 2

 

[sphark]

Yeah, for me it would be for watching content or FaceTime (sometimes), but I also hope there’s more inventive ways for me to make use of it. It doesn’t seem like there’s an all-around great headset for me yet.

The PSVR2 is great for games, but has no real social aspect. The Quest is all wrapped up with Facebook’s Metaverse and also excels in gaming, but the Metaverse isn’t really catching on.

I have no doubt that 3rd party devs will make some great apps and experiences. For me, $3500 with no interest on the Apple Card is justifiable for a device when the 2nd gen won't be released until probably 2027.

 

[Hillstones]

So it’s using a CPU that is a year and a half old. And Apple is asking $3500 for it. They replaced the M2 with M3, and they can’t even put the M3 in it. The AR space is already dead anyway. This is an answer looking for a question. No one wants this. No one wants to wear goggles, not for $3500. They’ll have a very hard time convincing anyone.

 

[duffman9000]

So it’s using a CPU that is a year and a half old. And Apple is asking $3500 for it. They replaced the M2 with M3, and they can’t even put the M3 in it. The AR space is already dead anyway. This is an answer looking for a question. No one wants this. No one wants to wear goggles, not for $3500. They’ll have a very hard time convincing anyone.

with those powerful market insights you should try to work for Apple.