Apple Macbooks: Do You Know The Difference Between M1, M1 Pro And M1 Max Chips?
Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) newest 14" and 16” MacBook Pros feature the just-introduced M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, while the 13” Macbook Pro comes with the M1 chip. Here is what you should know about the difference between them.
The Architecture: The “M1” series of processors from the Tim Cook-led tech giant is based on the Acorn Risc Machine (ARM) architecture.
With the adoption of these chips, Apple began moving away from Intel Corporation’s (NASDAQ: INTC) x86 CPU architecture in November last year.
The introduction of M1 Pro and M1 Max chips is yet another step in that direction.
See Also: How To Buy Apple (AAPL) Shares
M1: Apple uses the M1 Chip on its Mac Mini, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro (13”), iMac (24”), iPad Pro (11”), and iPad Pro (12.9”) devices.
This chip has eight CPU cores and up to eight GPU cores and comes with a unified memory of up to 16 GB. There are 16 billion transistors on board.
M1 Pro: The M1 Pro can be found in Apple’s 14” and 16” Macbook Pro computers. The company may choose to put it on other devices like desktop computers at a later date.
The newly introduced chip has 10 CPU cores and up to 16 GPU cores and comes with a unified memory of up to 32 GB. It features 33.7 billion transistors.
M1 Max: This top-of-the-pro-line of chip delivers up to 400 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is double that of M1P ro and six times that of M1. M1 Max can be found in the 14” and 16” Macbook Pro models.
Apple said in a statement that the M1 Max is the “world’s most powerful chip for a pro notebook.”
The M1 Max has 10 CPU cores and up to 32 GPU cores. The chip comes with a unified memory of up to 64 GB and has 57 billion transistors.
The Cost: Here are the costs for some of the base-model Macbook Pro computers as listed on the Apple website.
13” MacbookPro: A base-model M1 Macbook Pro 13” is listed for $1,299.
14” MacbookPro: An 8-core M1Pro 14” Macbook Pro is listed for $1,999, while a 10-core Macbook Pro 14” is priced at $2,499.
The addition of the Max chip ramps up the price by an additional $500 in case of a 24-core GPU. A 32-core GPU is an extra $700.
16” MacBookPro: A 10-Core Macbook Pro 14” will set you back $2,499 while one with the top-end Max chip will cost $3,499.
Price Action: On Monday, Apple shares closed nearly 1.2% higher at $146.55 in the regular session and rose 0.14% in the after-hours trading.
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