Apple has finally announced the new Apple M1 Pro, which we thought would be the Apple M1X, and Apple claims it’s the first time anyone has created an SoC design for a pro-level laptop.
It delivers up to 32GB of unified RAM and incredibly fast memory bandwidth, which should make it extremely powerful, especially when combined with the 10-core design.
These new chips should be available soon, though we’re still not sure which laptops will be supported right now. Although, Apple is claiming that the Apple M1 Pro, along with the more powerful Apple M1 Max will be the most powerful chips for pro laptops. We’ll have to put that to the test, but it’s looking promising.
We’ll keep updating this article as we learn more about the two new processors, along with our expert analysis.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Apple’s new pro-level processors, for the MacBook Pro and others.
- How much will it cost? Starts at $1699
- When is it out? Preorders starting today
Apple M1 Pro release date
We used to think Apple would launch just one pro-level M1 processor, called the M1X, but today Apple announced both the Apple M1 Pro and Apple M1 Max at its October hardware event.
The first laptop Apple has announced with these processors is the MacBook Pro. The two MacBook Pro devices with these new chips are available to order today, though we’re not quite sure when they’ll actually ship. We’ll play around with the store as soon as the page goes up to see if we can figure that out.
Apple M1 Pro price
You won’t be able to just buy the Apple M1 Pro or M1 Max, as they’re just the chips behind the next MacBook Pro devices. However, we do know how much the new MacBook Pro devices will cost. The new 14-inch Macbook Pro will start at $1,699 and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro will start at $2,499. We’ll dive a bit more into the different configurations for each, and how that affects the M1 Pro and M1 Max as soon as Apple reveals more information.
Apple M1 Pro specs and performance
The Apple M1 was such an incredible processor because it was able to do some high performance computing without consuming too much power, which meant it led to some incredible battery life, and it looks like Apple is trying to bring that same design idea to the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
This time, the Apple M1 Pro is a 10-core chip, but while that’s just two more cores than the original Apple M1, it’s double the amount of high-performance cores. The M1 Pro has 8 high-performance cores, and 2 efficiency cores, compared to the 4 high-performance cores and 4 efficiency cores in the original chip. That means that the M1 Pro is going to be way faster than the M1, but we might start to see battery life start to take a loss, but we’d expect that with a larger chip either way.
But that lower efficiency will probably be worth it for creative users, as Apple is claiming 70% better CPU performance.
The GPU is also getting a huge bump. In the Apple M1 Pro, you’re getting 2,048 Execution Units (EUs), which is a massive increase over the 128 EUs found in the original M1. But because Apple is putting so much focus into power efficiency, Apple found a way to put this in a GPU that apparently only peaks at around 30W, but is exponentially faster than what’s found in the integrated GPUs you’d find in an Intel processor.