AI-powered M4 is coming! Apple is preparing for a major upgrade with the strongest 3nm chips for Mac

Author: Li Dan

Source: Hard AI

Recent news shows that just five months after the global debut of the 3-nanometer (nm) chip M3 in personal computers, Apple is preparing for a major upgrade by introducing the new generation chip M4 for Mac computers, with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities being the highlight of M4.

On Thursday, April 11th, Eastern Time, media reports citing sources revealed that Apple is preparing to completely transform the entire Mac product line with a new self-developed processor aimed at highlighting AI. Currently, Apple is close to producing the M4 chip with AI capabilities. Apple's goal is to release multiple Mac computers equipped with M4 from the end of this year to early next year, including the new iMac, low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.

However, the media also mentioned that Apple's release plans may change in the future. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on this news.

If the news is true, it will be a significant effort by Apple to reverse the declining sales trend of Mac. After reaching its peak in 2022, Mac sales have been declining for a year, with a 27% decrease in Mac sales revenue for the 2023 fiscal year ending in September last year. After the launch of Mac computers powered by the M3 chip in November last year, there was a slight improvement in Mac revenue in the fourth quarter, with a small year-on-year increase of 0.6%.

Following the news, Apple's stock price continued to rise on Thursday afternoon, with a gain of over 4% at the close, up 4.3%. After falling to a low since October 26th last year on Wednesday, it rebounded to the highest closing level since March 20th this year.

Apple's stock price rose over 4% at the close, marking the largest intraday gain in a year

M4 Chip to be Available in Entry-level to High-end Three Versions, Emphasizing AI Processing Power and Integration with the New macOS

At the end of October last year, Apple released the M3 chip using 3nm technology, which includes three versions: M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, all of which have significantly improved performance compared to their predecessors.

The entry-level M3 has 250 billion transistors, 8 CPU cores, 10 GPU cores, and supports up to 24GB of unified memory. The CPU speed of M3 is 35% faster than M1 at its highest, and 20% faster than M2 at its highest, while the GPU speed is 65% higher than M1 at its highest, and 20% higher than M2 at its highest.

The M3 Pro has an increased transistor count of 370 billion, with 12 CPU cores, 18 GPU cores, and a maximum of 36GB unified memory. Compared to M1 Pro, M3 Pro offers a maximum performance increase of 20% for CPU and 40% for GPU, and compared to M2 Pro, a maximum GPU performance increase of 10% The number of transistors in the M3 Max reaches 92 billion, with a 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, and support for up to 128GB of unified memory. Compared to the M1 Max, the CPU and GPU performance of the M3 Max have increased by up to 80% and 50% respectively, and compared to the M2 Max, the CPU and GPU performance have increased by up to 50% and 20% respectively.

This Thursday, the media learned that the M4 chip will have at least three main versions, and Apple hopes to use it to update every Mac model.

Reportedly, the M4 chip series includes an entry-level version codenamed Donan, a more powerful version codenamed Brava, and a top-end version codenamed Hidra. Apple plans to highlight the AI processing capabilities of these components and how they will integrate with the next version of macOS.

After Apple officially announced that the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held from June 10th to 14th, Wall Street News mentioned that this WWDC is expected to showcase new versions of operating systems such as iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, with a focus on Apple's AI strategy, and may also reveal details about the collaboration between the iPhone and Google's Gemini.

From the news on Thursday, it is seen that different levels of M4 chips will be used in Mac computers with different positioning.

Among them, the Donan chip will be used in entry-level MacBook Pro, new MacBook Air, and low-end Mac mini, the Brava chip will run high-end MacBook Pro and high-priced Mac mini, and the highest-end Apple desktop Mac Pro will be equipped with the Hidra chip. For the Mac Studio, Apple is testing versions using unreleased variants of the M3 chip and M4 Brava chip.

The media also mentioned that as part of the upgrade, Apple is considering allowing the highest-end Mac desktop to support up to 0.5 TB of memory. Currently, the maximum capacity for Mac Studio and Mac Pro is 192 GB, much lower than the capacity of the Mac Pro when Apple used Intel-produced chips. Early computers could expand up to 1.5 TB on existing memory, but after switching to Apple's self-developed chips, memory is more deeply integrated into the main processor, making it more difficult to add memory.

After news of Macs being equipped with the M4 chip surfaced, some netizens believe that this is an attempt to boost Apple's stock price with the mention of AI. Some netizens are confused, saying that any standard performance improvement will enhance AI capabilities, is this unique to neural networks? Some netizens claim that based on the current pricing of Apple's RAM in the UK, supporting up to 512GB of unified memory would cost as much as £4000. Some netizens also believe that the preferred choice is the MacBook Pro.