Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the Mac Studio and Mac Pro won’t be upgraded to Apple’s M4 chip until mid-next year. This means these machines will remain on the M2 generation throughout this year, unlike all other Macs except the MacBook Air.
In 2024, however, all Apple laptops except the MacBook Air will transition to the M4 chip, which has already been introduced in the iPad Pro. Interestingly, this staggered upgrade cycle means that the iPad Pro currently holds the crown for single-core performance in Apple’s lineup, outperforming the Mac Studio and Mac Pro by a significant margin.
Geekbench comparisons reveal that the iPad Pro surpasses the M2 Ultra by approximately 25% in single-core performance. Even the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip rivals the M2 Ultra in single-core CPU power. Nonetheless, the M2 Ultra remains superior in multi-core performance, which is crucial for demanding tasks. For example, the M2 Ultra easily outperforms my M1 Max Mac Studio in multi-core benchmarks, despite the new iPad Pro’s impressive single-core results.
This comparison highlights the incredible capabilities of the current Mac Studio and Mac Pro, which offer more RAM, additional ports, and superior thermal management compared to the iPad Pro. Moreover, macOS does not limit the hardware’s potential, unlike the iPad’s operating system. High-end Mac users are accustomed to waiting longer between hardware revisions, and they will likely welcome the upgrades when they finally arrive.
