Apple’s M1-based chips have been a resounding success, attracting acclaim from both analysts and customers alike. According to recent reports, potential predecessors to the SoC will arrive at the 2022 Mac Pro, including a 64-core variant that is part of a $19,000+ scheme.
Speculation comes from @LeaksApplePro, which says that at least three Mac Pro configurations will launch next year, including Arm-based SoCs that mix performance and reliability cores, much like the M1. The alleged flagship comes with a monstrous 64 CPU cores (48 of which will be powered), 512GB of RAM, 128 GPU cores, and starts at $19,000.
Nineteen grand is a lot of money, but the Mac Pro is usual. You could spend more than $50,000 on a top-spec Xeon powered current edition, and that’s without the $5,000+ Pro Display XDR and $700 wheels.
The middle configuration includes 48 CPU cores (36 performance), 256GB of RAM, 64 GPU cores, and starts at $12,000. Meanwhile, the cheapest alternative is 32 core CPUs (24 performance), 64GB RAM, and 32 core GPUs. It starts at $5,499, which is around $100 less than the new Mac Pro base edition.
Apple has spent years seeking to reduce its dependence on Intel, and with the popularity of the M1, we would definitely expect its in-house chips to start appearing fast enough on more Macs; that’s partially why the iMac Pro has been discontinued. All the specs here are supposed to be treated with a large grain of salt. One Twitter user observed that a 64-core Mac Pro desktop is unlikely to need 16 performance cores, adding that all versions are likely to feature only four or eight of these low-power cores.
