Fully specced best-case-scenarios for every Apple Silicon Mac through 2021

[iPadified]

But I am "so last century"...!

And Pro means high Pro-formance computing... ;^p

I am from the last century as well . "Pro-formance"that is a new word. Usually "pro" means professional or "for work" which is not associated with the performance of the computer. I can accept reliability and longevity but not as discussed here CPU/GPU computing power.

Exactly where is the cutoff in performance between an Pro device and a consumer device? Excepts for the extreme points, I cannot say.

Whatever processors that goes into the MBP16 can also go into the 24 inch iMac as the latter can actually utilise a high performance processor far better due to less thermal and no power restraints. This would be a prosumer device. "Prosumer" - the tech industry feeble effort to hold on to a meaningless classification system.

Say instead:
High performance : CAD/3D modelling/8-16k video editing, ML
Medium performance: photo al other video editing, software development
Low performance: office, using web apps

 

[Boil]

I am from the last century as well . "Pro-formance"that is a new word. Usually "pro" means professional or "for work" which is not associated with the performance of the computer. I can accept reliability and longevity but not as discussed here CPU/GPU computing power.

Exactly where is the cutoff in performance between an Pro device and a consumer device? Excepts for the extreme points, I cannot say.

Whatever processors that goes into the MBP16 can also go into the 24 inch iMac as the latter can actually utilise a high performance processor far better due to less thermal and no power restraints. This would be a prosumer device. "Prosumer" - the tech industry feeble effort to hold on to a meaningless classification system.

Say instead:
High performance : CAD/3D modelling/8-16k video editing, ML
Medium performance: photo al other video editing, software development
Low performance: office, using web apps

No, I don't think I will...

 

[iPadified]

No, I don't think I will...

OK

 

[EntropyQ3]

There seems to be some confusion over what memory configuration the current iPad Pro uses.
It utilizes a 128-bit wide bus with LPDDR4x at 4266Mbit/s for a total systemRAM bandwidth of just under 69 GBytes/s.
A straightforward first order assumption is that this will shift to LPDDR5 (at 6400Mbits/s) for the A14x, and a total RAM bandwidth of just over 100GB/s, (required for improving performance correspondingly as 5nm lithography allowes a wider design.)

I would use the A14x iPad Pro chip and memory system as a base line for Mac speculation.

 

[thingstoponder]

The only possible clue that’s been hinted is the Bloomberg report that they are working on 3 12-core chips. Looking over the thermals for the entire Mac lineup, my guess is the MBP, iMac 24” and Mac Mini are all going to use the same 12-core chip (they will just be clocked slightly differently). Traditionally the 21.5” iMac and Mac Mini share the same processor options. It’s just my speculation of course.

The Bloomberg report never said it was three 12 core chips. They just said there were 3 chips and would start at 12 core.

 

[Woochoo]

12" MacBook Air (entry-level)
14" MacBook (mid-range)
16" MacBook Pro (high-end)

If they follow the iPad logic (and the actual Macbooks performance status) it should be:
12" Macbook
14" Macbook Air
16" Macbook Pro

But we know Apple loves complicating themselves with the product lines so it will probably be:
12" Macbook
13" Macbook Air
13" Macbook Pro
14" Macbook Pro
16" Macbook Pro

 

[thenewperson]

But we know Apple loves complicating themselves with the product lines so it will probably be:
12" Macbook
13" Macbook Air
13" Macbook Pro
14" Macbook Pro
16" Macbook Pro

You did just point out the simpler ASi-based iPad line vs the Intel-based Mac line so I don't know why you'd go with the Intel-based complexity for a prediction. As we've seen from when Apple actually is in more control of performance they don't tend to go with something akin to the Intel-based line-up. We could end up with this line-up in the interim as they release ASi Macs but we likely will have a merging of the 1st 3 at some point I think.

 

[thingstoponder]

If they follow the iPad logic (and the actual Macbooks performance status) it should be:
12" Macbook
14" Macbook Air
16" Macbook Pro

But we know Apple loves complicating themselves with the product lines so it will probably be:
12" Macbook
13" Macbook Air
13" Macbook Pro
14" Macbook Pro
16" Macbook Pro

There won’t be a 13” and 14” Pro. They’ll unify the two 13“ models for a single 14”, or they’ll keep two 14” (hope not) but there won’t be a 13” and 14”.

I hope they just do 12, 13, 14, 16.

12" Macbook - Entry level specs, ultraportable.
13" MacBook Air - Basically same thing as the MacBook but with another port like it is currently.
14" Macbook Pro - Big performance boost over the Air, more cores and bigger GPU, more RAM in base model, Touch Bar
16" Macbook Pro - Same as 14” but even more performance, Touch Bar

I think they need to truly differentiate the small MacBook Pro from the Air With Apple Silicon. Make it closer to the 16” inch than the Air. A higher price than 1299 would be fine.

 

[aeronatis]

I think we would see minimal fragmentation within the same product configuration:

	iPad Air​	iPad Pro​	MacBook Air​	MacBook Pro 14"​	MacBook Pro 16"​
CPU​	2P + 4E​	4P + 4E​	4P + 4E​	8P + 4E​	8P + 4E​
GPU​	4-Core​	8-Core​	8-Core​	16-Core​	24-Core​
RAM​	4 GB​	8 GB (Hopefully)​	8 GB / 16 GB​	16 GB / 32 GB​	16 GB / 32 GB / ...​
Authentication​	TouchID​	FaceID​	TouchID​	FaceID​	FaceID​

Therefore:

• MacBook Air would basically have the iPad Pro SOC so that the device could be fanless as it should be, which would already be a performance level the current model cannot compare to.
• 14" & 16" MacBook Pro would have similar CPU performance with 16" having higher GPU option, thus providing small device option for those who do not need higher graphical performance.
• Assuming iPad Pro is already comparable to the likes of MacBook Pro 16", MacBook Pro with 8P+4E CPU will have no trouble providing higher performance than the current model. Graphics is still a mystery, though.
• I assumed Neural Engine would have the same number of cores across the same architecture. If it could be higher for higher end SOC, nobody's gonna say no, of course.
• I think the configuration option for each product would be much simpler to the point of only RAM & SSD being configurable.