Which Macs will skip M5 and wait for M6?

[tenthousandthings]

An all-new Mac Pro Cube with an all-new M6 Extreme using the all-new 2nm process would make an amazing halo product for the high-end personal workstation market...

Perhaps they would call that the Mac Studio Pro?

 

[XboxEvolved]

Mac Studio, iMac, MacBook Air, Mac Mini I'd bet are all going to be nearly decade-long designs. Studio display may get slightly smaller bezels if they ever update it to 90hz, but I'm skeptical that'll even happen.

I'd guess the MBP M5 will get a design refresh just because OLED will be a driver for upgrades on its own, and the Pro Display XDR and Mac Pro are also due for a refresh to meet their updated design language introduced with the M4 iPad Pro so it would make sense to update their entire "Pro" lineup by the end of 2025 / early 2026.

Whatever Mac has the configurable silicon more in line with chiplets (ideally stacked) will be as important to them as M1 was, but they need to (and will) overcome issues that AMD still has with core-to-core latency if you spread things too much.

Whatever they make at that point will probably tie or beat even nVidia at the highest-end since they won't have to waste a ton of space combining 2 Max to make whatever Halo chip they want, or deal with the probably less than stellar yields and enormous expense a "Hidra" (if it exists and is coming out) will suffer.

It wouldn't surprise me if this takes all the way until M7 for them to accomplish since I don't think AI exploding like it is (for better or worse) was on their radar and they thought they could get by using the same number of compute cores in their $7,000 laptop as their $599 mini. Once that is separated out and latency is dealt with things will become very interesting toward the end of the decade, 160 GPU cores and 64 Neural Cores on a die would really be something quite useful and performant for inference, particularly if they keep the unified memory design which I think is a core requirement for their team.

Mac mini won't get a redesign no, but Mac Studio certainly will, if nothing else to match the footprint of the Mac mini. The iMac while true they could stick with that design, I don't think it's farfetched to say they come out with a "iMac Studio" with a bigger, 5k to 6k screen. I've seen a few rumors with the studio displays along with the XDR, they are generally sparse rumors since those are very low volume products, but I could realistically see them refresh both simultaneously at a WWDC, make the Studio 6K at 90-120Hz, and the XDR 8k at 120-240Hz, with the Studio going to mini-led and the XDR going to their tandem OLED tech. Obviously no price drops for either.

With the Mac Pro, I do think they -could- update it but I don't think it really goes against their current design language so we will see on that one. Also I am not as bullish on AI as a lot of people seem to be and I still suspect Apple doesn't see it as big as the markets tried to make it out to be as well.

 

[Boil]

Perhaps they would call that the Mac Studio Pro?

Nope, Mac Pro Cube...

1. Because it is an eight inch cube in format
2. Because it has a Mn Extreme, which the Studio does not
3. Because it is a callback to the cubes that proceeded it

 

[novagamer]

Mac mini won't get a redesign no, but Mac Studio certainly will, if nothing else to match the footprint of the Mac mini.

I’ll take that bet . Time will tell, I believe they need the thermal headroom the current form factor affords and designed it with future silicon in mind.

The iMac while true they could stick with that design, I don't think it's farfetched to say they come out with a "iMac Studio" with a bigger, 5k to 6k screen. I've seen a few rumors with the studio displays along with the XDR, they are generally sparse rumors since those are very low volume products, but I could realistically see them refresh both simultaneously at a WWDC, make the Studio 6K at 90-120Hz, and the XDR 8k at 120-240Hz, with the Studio going to mini-led and the XDR going to their tandem OLED tech. Obviously no price drops for either.

Agree that the next XDR will get 120hz / “Promotion” and be Thunderbolt 5, but support 60hz backward compatibility. I hope the iPad OLED tech makes it in but it wouldn’t shock me if it was a scaled up version of the most recent Laptop XDR screens. A slight price cut for XDR antiglare and stand is possible but minimum $5k for the screen + stand.

Studio display may see a refresh for 90hz and HDR but I think this is a while away, a lot of people want one this coming year but I think it’s a 2026 product at the earliest if even then, Apple is very slow updating standalone displays. What they could do is remove the stand options, keep the basic version in the lineup, and introduce a Pro Studio Display with the height adjustability as an option (+90hz and HDR) at an even higher price tier.

With the Mac Pro, I do think they -could- update it but I don't think it really goes against their current design language so we will see on that one.

Same thoughts here, if they don’t have an obviously better option they’ll keep the Ive designs, but if the monitor is redesigned I expect the Mac Pro case to be just to match it since it would look wildly out of place in product shots.

Also I am not as bullish on AI as a lot of people seem to be and I still suspect Apple doesn't see it as big as the markets tried to make it out to be as well.

Me neither, I have a couple very long posts that go into some detail about this if you care to look them up, particularly around Apple Intelligence.

That said, If IDEs could run large local models very fast on a Mac Pro with better quality than ChatGPT 4o / Claude Sonnet I’d sell whatever I could to get one immediately. I think programming is the one specific niche Generative AI will be useful for day-to-day, especially once formal methods and verification are better integrated. There are also some esoteric scientific computing uses for the neural cores once they get more RAM in the machines and more GPU cores will be widely applicable from 3d work to gaming to parallel tasks.

Normal users won’t see any real benefit from most of the ultra high-end technology though and won’t need to spend the $8k or whatever Apple will charge for it.

 

[kiranmk2]

Seeing all the press that the Mac Mini has had since launch about how it is such a high performance bargain in the Apple line-up makes me think that Apple will hold it back on the M4 until the M6. They don't want people buying a Mini rather than an iMac...