Apple Inc. is testing a pair of new high-end Macs and their accompanying processors ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, suggesting that it\u2019s nearing the release of professional-focused desktop computers.<\/p>\n
The company is planning two new Mac models \u2014 labeled internally as Mac 14,13 and Mac 14,14 \u2014 that run the M2 Max processor announced in January and a yet-to-be-unveiled M2 Ultra chip.<\/p>\n
That second processor would replace the M1 Ultra model currently featured in the Mac Studio, a high-end desktop\u00a0announced<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in March 2022.<\/p>\n The new computers are part of an effort to overhaul the Mac line and attract consumers during a sluggish stretch for the computer industry.<\/p>\n Powerful desktop models remain key to Apple\u2019s appeal among professional users, such as video editors or graphic designers.<\/p>\n The company also is just days away from WWDC, its annual gathering of developers who rely on such machines to build apps.<\/p>\n A representative for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment.<\/p>\n The first desktop computer in testing is running an M2 Max processor with eight high-performance cores \u2014 components for the most demanding tasks \u2014 as well as four efficiency cores and 30 graphics cores.<\/p>\n Those are the same specifications featured in the\u00a0MacBook Pro with the M2 Max<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n This particular machine also includes 96 gigabytes of memory and is running macOS 13.4, the version of the Mac operating system that was just released earlier this month.<\/p>\n The second machine in testing has what is labeled as an M2 Ultra chip, which the company\u2019s hasn\u2019t yet announced.<\/p>\n That component, which sports 24 processing cores, doubles the performance of the M2 Max model.<\/p>\n The chip includes 16 high-performance cores and eight efficiency cores, as well as 60 graphics cores.<\/p>\n The company is testing it in configurations with 64 gigabytes, 128 gigabytes and 192 gigabytes of memory.<\/p>\n The M2 Ultra chip will also\u00a0include<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0a more powerful option, with as many as 76 graphics cores, doubling the 38-core maximum found in the current M2 Max chip, Bloomberg has reported.<\/p>\n The M2 Ultra chip was initially designed for a future version of the\u00a0high-end Mac Pro<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0desktop. That machine currently still runs Intel Corp. chips \u2014 a holdout in\u00a0Apple\u2019s three-year effort<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>to use homegrown processors in its computers.<\/p>\n Apple has been vague about when a new Mac Pro is coming. It said more than a year ago that an updated model would arrive \u201canother day.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside Apple, the future Mac Pro with in-house chips has been labeled Mac 14,8.<\/p>\n That suggests that the latest desktops in testing are different machines, such as new versions of the Mac Studio, which is currently offered in M1 Max and M1 Ultra configurations.<\/p>\n Bloomberg\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0in April that two new Mac Studio updates are in the works.<\/p>\n Apple has also been developing a\u00a015-inch version of the MacBook Air<\/a><\/strong>, along with future iterations of the 13-inch MacBook Air and 15-inch model with a\u00a03-nanometre M3 processor<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s planning a low-end 13-inch MacBook Pro and an\u00a0iMac<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0with the next-generation chip.<\/p>\n Next week\u2019s developer expo kicks off Monday with the debut of Apple\u2019s much-anticipated\u00a0mixed-reality headset<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The company also will unveil\u00a0updates to the software<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that runs on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.<\/p>\n The presentation will include\u00a0multiple new Mac models<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n In another sign that new machines are coming soon, Apple is planning to start letting customers trade in more types of Macs for a gift card next Monday.<\/p>\n The Macs that Apple will begin accepting: the M2 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, as well as the current Mac Studio.<\/p>\n Such a move typically heralds that new versions are on the way.<\/p>\n The new computers are part of an effort to overhaul the Mac line and attract consumers during a sluggish stretch for the computer industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":494195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[605,84411,67956,82157,82159,82667],"class_list":["post-494155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-apple","tag-apple-macs","tag-apple-silicon","tag-m2-max","tag-m2-ultra","tag-macs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Apple patches Microsoft-reported MacOS flaw that lets attackers install \u201cundeletable\u201d malware<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"