Apple Launches M1 Pro Chip - Faster Performance

Apple Unveils M1 Pro and M1 Max Chips

Today, Apple officially introduced a new system-on-a-chip (SoC), though its nomenclature differed from expectations. The unveiling centered around the M1 Pro, a significantly enhanced iteration of the M1 chip initially released last November.

Performance Enhancements

Apple asserts that the M1 Pro delivers performance gains of up to 70% when compared to its predecessor, the original M1. This increased capability is now integrated into a range of Apple’s product lineup.

Furthermore, the company also launched the M1 Max, representing an even more potent variant building upon the foundation of the M1 Pro. Detailed specifications regarding the M1 Max are available elsewhere.

Positioning within the M1 Family

The M1 Pro isn't positioned as a direct successor to the M1, but rather as a more powerful alternative within the same chip family. Apple CEO Tim Cook described it as “the next chip in the M1 family — and it’s a game-changer.”

The architecture of the chip was redesigned to substantially increase bandwidth to 200 GB/s. It supports a maximum of 32 GB of unified memory, a specification that may not fully satisfy all professional users.

Technical Specifications

Built on a 5-nm process, the M1 Pro incorporates a total of 10 cores. This configuration includes eight high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores.

The chip also boasts 16 GPU cores, a doubling of the eight cores found in the original M1. The total transistor count reaches 33.7 billion – twice the number present in the initial M1 chip.

Apple’s Neural Engine is, of course, integrated into the M1 Pro, facilitating accelerated performance for artificial intelligence applications.