Apple Reportedly Working on a 20-Core iMac Pro

If the rumor mill is to be believed, Apple is prepping to launch a next-gen 27″ iMac Pro with a bespoke SoC: the M1 Max Duo. Now, we’ve already covered this oh-so-powerful architecture, but the most interesting thing here is that Apple will reportedly combine two M1 Max dies into just a single chip. This will result in an SoC with a whopping 20 CPU and 64 GPU cores — an astounding number, no doubt.

This report came from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, so it’s about as sound as it gets. This, in addition, means that the iMac Pro will support up to 128GB of RAM, all of which will be unified and, therefore, blazingly fast. This, if true, would no doubt be the most powerful and most energy efficient chipset on the market, and it would also run circles around whatever Intel and AMD have to offer in both single- and multi-core performance.

The existing 24″ iMac will still be sold as an “entry-level” all-in-one machine, a computer fit for basically any but the most demanding of needs. The iMac Pro, on the other hand, will be geared towards creative professionals who need every modicum of power they can get. The M1 Max Duo will prove best-in-class performance while also drawing a meagre amount of power when compared to its direct competitors and, well, if Apple pulls it off, they’ll no doubt have an absolute winner on their hands.

Spec’d Out Across the Board

According to Gurman, the Cuppertino-based giant will also equip the iMac Pro with a 120Hz ProMotion display, a mini LEC panel and, perhaps the most requested change of them all: black bezels. It’ll no doubt be a machine of both staggering beauty and astounding power, and we cannot wait see it revealed.

In terms of I/O, it’ll reportedly have an SD card slot, three USB-C ports (all of which will have their own separate Thunderbolt 4 controllers), and an HDMI port. A 3.5mm headphone jack will once again show up on the side of the display, with a Gigabit ethernet port built into the included power brick. All in all, a modest array, but that was to be expected given Apple’s track record. Still, for those who’ve become accustomed to using dongles and Thunberbolt docks, this is more than sufficient.

The M1 Max is about as powerful as AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT, which means we could possibly get a most tremendous generational leap in terms of GPU power. Machines such as this one are only for the select few, but we’re nonetheless interested in seeing how well it’ll perform.