According to a report from Mark Gurman, Apple is planning a shift in its chip release strategy. The upcoming M6 family of chips will skip the Pro and the Max variants in favor of expediting the M7 series. That means we will only see the base M6 chip running inside iPads and entry-level Macs.
Due to the increased demand for AI-capable devices, Apple is forced to change its roadmap and will try to make a quick transition from M6 to the AI-focused M7 series. The M7 chips are also said to offer considerably more powerful GPUs.
As a result, the standard M7 chip will likely debut in early 2027, followed by the M7 Pro and M7 Max by the end of 2027, while the Ultra version, which is usually twice as powerful as the Max, will land in early 2028 alongside the high-end Mac Studio models.
The M6 performance leap from the M5 line is no trivial matter, though. It’s expected to deliver updated memory architecture, higher memory bandwidth, faster CPU, better GPU with up to 12 cores, not 10, enhanced video encoding and decoding and enhanced Neural Engine for AI applications.
The report also mentions that the M5 Ultra chip is still in the cards. Apple won’t be skipping this one, but it got postponed due to supply chain and cost challenges.