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Mac Pro prototype with 24-core Apple silicon is in ‘active testing’ and could launch in 2023

Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro | Photo credit: Nana Dua / Unsplash

Apple is expected to launch several Mac products in the coming months, but a new report suggests tech fans may have to wait a little longer for the new Mac Pro. The tech giant is said to be actively testing a prototype of its high-end workstation, expected to ship with a much more powerful version of the M2 chipset.

Weeks after the launch of new iPads, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company is continuously working on a new Mac Pro. The journalist said in the Oct. 23 edition of the Power On newsletter that Apple has “ramped up” the testing of the product’s prototypes.

The Mac Pro is the remaining product on Apple.com that has yet to include the company’s in-house chips. Its currently available model is powered by Intel Xeon W with CPU configurations between 8 to 28 cores.

The first Apple silicon-powered Mac Pro, on the other hand, is expected to be sold with two options of powerful M2 SoCs speculated to be named M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme. Apple has only launched the baseline M2 SoC, but it is expected to introduce the M2 Pro and M2 Max with the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

As for the upcoming Mac Pro, one of the prototypes reportedly “in active testing” runs on macOS Ventura 13.3 and uses an M2 variant with 24 CPU cores (combining 16 performance and 8 efficiency cores), 76 GPU cores, and 192GB memory. Gurman expects Apple to introduce an even more powerful chip with 48 CPU cores and 152 GPU cores.

When Apple first announced its transition from Intel-based chips to in-house SoCs, the company made it clear that it plans to apply it to all its Mac hardware. The tech giant has been silent about a new version of Mac Pro. But it could be just a matter of time before a new model launches, given that it is the only Mac with an Intel processor in Apple’s store.

The iPhone maker could make another series of announcements in the remaining months of 2022 that would include the new MacBook Pros. But Gurman said he does not expect the M2-powered Mac Pro to enter the market anytime before 2023.

Photo by Nana Dua on Unsplash

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