Apple announced two new processors on Tuesday, which power the new Mac Mini and Mac Studio: the M5 Ultra and M6 Chip.
The M5 Ultra, which Apple claims is “the most powerful chip ever,” combines two M5 Max chips to form Apple’s first quad-die chip, designed to handle heavy AI tasks. The chip includes a CPU with up to 36 cores and a GPU with up to 80 cores and 1.2 TB/s of total memory bandwidth, which is more than 50% of the M3 Ultra, which Apple released about a year and a half ago.
While the M5 Ultra is designed for professionals doing more computing-intensive work such as complex 3D rendering, visual effects, and boundary-pushing AI models, Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra is sure to appeal to hobbyist AI developers as well. But Apple’s M6 chip is aimed at these everyday users, according to the company.
“Created using a state-of-the-art 2 nm process, the M6 combines a new CPU, dual CPU and GPU cores, Dual 16-core Neural Engine, and highly uniform memory bandwidth to power through tasks with amazing power efficiency,” Silicon Engineering Vice President Sri Santhanam said in a press release.
With the M6’s 12-core CPU, which is 2 more cores than the M5, the M6 chip can provide almost a 30% increase in the maximum GPU for AI compared to the M5, which immediately improves the processing speed when using LLMs on the device.
“With these frameworks and new chips, developers can run and customize large-scale AI models locally on their Mac,” Apple wrote in a press release. “Apple’s developer tools and frameworks will automatically optimize across CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, and let developers use Apple Foundation Models, App Intents to tap into Apple Intelligence features, or their own proprietary AI models to build and run powerful AI across all devices.”
Apple follows its rivals when it comes to building its own AI models – the long-awaited Siri upgrade is powered by Google’s Gemini. But Apple excels at using on-device technology to allow users to securely use tools like Face ID and Touch ID, which would be a privacy nightmare if processed through the Cloud. Similarly, Apple’s emphasis on adding AI power to devices may be where the company has a chance to shine, offering a more secure, controlled environment for developers to experiment with new AI tools.
Apple’s newest Mac Mini device is now available for pre-order, starting at $899. They will ship after September 22nd.
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