M1X benchmarks spotted

[Fomalhaut]

They didn’t... the two-port Intel 13” never supported over 16GB...

No they didn't. The 2 port 13" MacBook Pro could only be bought with 16 GB of RAM (and 2 TB of SSD). Apple is very unlikely to produce a lesser Mac with an M1 to replace an existing Intel version. Bad optics. They are already getting killed for only having 1 external display on the MacBooks.

Oops...my bad! I assumed all the current MBP13s could be upgraded to 32GB. Sorry about that!

I still think it possible that we will have both an M1X (32GB max) and an M2 (64GB max) this year, with the former used in the MBP14 and the latter in the MBP16.

 

[leman]

I still think it possible that we will have both an M1X (32GB max) and an M2 (64GB max) this year, with the former used in the MBP14 and the latter in the MBP16.

That’s what I think as well... only that entry-level Macs will also get an M2 - it will just come in many more variants.

 

[Freida]

The problem with M1X vs M2 is that M1X must be much better than M1 times 2. It also has to be much better than M2 that comes out 6 months or so later. Otherwise, what would be the point to have M variants in lowend devices and then high end devices getting the X variant which would be later surpassed by next get M variant.

I think people are approaching this wrongly. I think M1 (and M variants) will be improving just like A variants but M1X (and X variants) will be entirely new chips that will not be like A and AX. I would go as far to even say that we will get P chip family (P for performance) which will differentiate it from the M (mobile) and P will have Lifuka (and other GPUs) that will be overall on completely different levels.

So, I don't expect iMac, Mac Pro etc. to have M1X chip but entirely new chip. That would also fit the Apple's way of things. (everyone is expecting M1X so boom, here is P1 chip)

 

[Gudi]

Ask yourself, would Apple really replace the Intel 16" MacBook Pro with an Apple Silicon notebook that couldn't address as much RAM as Intel? It doesn't seem likely.

Of course they would. Why do you even ask? Nobody cares what stinking Intel does.

 

[Fomalhaut]

The problem with M1X vs M2 is that M1X must be much better than M1 times 2. It also has to be much better than M2 that comes out 6 months or so later. Otherwise, what would be the point to have M variants in lowend devices and then high end devices getting the X variant which would be later surpassed by next get M variant.

I think people are approaching this wrongly. I think M1 (and M variants) will be improving just like A variants but M1X (and X variants) will be entirely new chips that will not be like A and AX. I would go as far to even say that we will get P chip family (P for performance) which will differentiate it from the M (mobile) and P will have Lifuka (and other GPUs) that will be overall on completely different levels.

So, I don't expect iMac, Mac Pro etc. to have M1X chip but entirely new chip. That would also fit the Apple's way of things. (everyone is expecting M1X so boom, here is P1 chip)

I think the final nomenclature is that important, but rather what it actually is, and can do.

It is likely that there will a scaled-up M1 SoC that uses the same 5nm features, just with more of the same CPU/GPU cores, and then a new generation that offers improved internal architecture and featues (e.g. optimized IPC, faster/wider memory etc.) using the same improvements as in the A15. Whether we call the former an M1X, M2 or P2 doesn't matter.

If Apple Silicon for Macs shares the design improvement of the A-series chips, then we might hope to see a new version every year, with a number of size/performance variations available at one or two points during each cycle. It's easier to think these might follow the A-series chips with the "X" and "Z" variants being scaled out versions of the base SoC with the same version number.

Lithography improvements will probably happen every "few" years - I think a move to 4 or 3nm TSMC processes will take time, and further reductions in size will become increasingly challenging.