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Apple skips Mac mini with M3 chip

Apple skips Mac mini with M3 chip

By April 22, 2024 Technology 0 Comments


Apple will not give the Mac mini an M3 upgrade. Tipster Mark Gurman predicts that the Mac mini will be ported directly to the Apple Silicon M4 chipsets.

Rumors about one surfaced several times last year Mac mini with M3 chip. The smallest Mac was expected to be released in the fall of 2023. Ultimately, only the iMac and MacBook Pro received the new M3 last year. Later the chipset also appeared in the MacBook Air, but we shouldn’t expect a Mac mini with M3 chips. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reports this in his PowerOn-newsletter. According to Gurman, the time between the release of the M3 and M4 chips is too short for this.

Mac mini met M4-chipsets

Apple is expected to unveil the Silicon M4 chips later this year. All Macs are also expected to be upgraded to the M4 platform later this year. In addition to the Mac mini, the Mac Pro and iMac would also receive M4 chips, Gurman expects.

The decision may be related to the limited speed gain that the M3 chipsets have to offer. The electronics group seems all too aware of this and deliberately compares the performance of the M3 chipsets with the first generation of Apple Silicon chips. It is possible that Apple wants to take bigger steps with the M4. It is known that it will be Apple’s first chip with a strong focus on AI. The integrated NPU will potentially power all kinds of AI features in macOS 15.

Gurman cannot yet provide specific details about the Mac mini with M4 chipsets. Apple’s AI developments also remain unmentioned. Apple is working on a series for iPhones, as emerged last week local AI features to protect user privacy. Apple has not yet decided whether it wants to collaborate with AI service providers such as Google and OpenAI.

The NPU in the upcoming M4 platform could potentially perform the necessary AI tasks locally. Which functions? We can only speculate about that for the time being.

M4 on M4 Pro

It also remains unclear which chips the upcoming Mac mini will have. Both the M1 and M2-powered Mac minis became available in standard and Pro variants. This will probably also be the case with the Mac mini, which will be released later this year or early 2025. In addition to the faster Pro chipset, the more expensive mini often gets some extra Thunderbolt connections.

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