Apple's 10-Core M1 Pro, M1 Max CPUs Pack Up to 32-Core GPU, 64GB RAM Apple has revealed their new high end laptops that will compete against Intel and AMD. They've got 60 billion transistors in one, with your average laptop today containing about 12 billion. Part of the extra transistors is their gpu, but part of it is the fact they are leveraging more cpu cores. As costs have gone up for squeezing more transistors onto a chip, there's less advantage to using high performance chips such as Intel and AMD specialize in, and all the reason in the world to produce your own ARM chips. Intel has been making noises about winning Apple back into the flock, but these results imply that's not going to happen. The 5nm node is not the most advanced, not the end of the road, and these high end laptops already have enough power for almost any business application. Unfortunately, the demand is still far outstriping the supply, and one reason Apple has no incentive to use Intel again is that prices can't go any higher, and Intel is charging as much as the market will bear. The idea Apple would fork over more of their profits to Intel out of sentimentality is absurd, while Intel has nothing to offer Apple in the way of laptop chips. The upcoming VR metalenses may require something better than ARM chips, and Apple may want to use Intel for those, but even Intel has moved all their research funding into AI, and nobody has a clue where that's going.
Thank you for that info Wool. Being the owner of two Imac 27" and an Apple Air laptop plus various IPads I just LOVE the Apple brand and I wouldn't buy any other. Yes they cost more but like everything you buy in this world generally speaking the more you pay the better you get. No bother at all with Mac for over 12 years with anything I have purchased I am not tempted to buy any of the new stuff though as those 60 billion transistors in one is more than I will ever need anyway.
Apple really specializes in assembling parts, rather than making things from scratch, but making their own chips means they can make their products even more reliable. Intel and Microsoft have exposed everybody to way too many security threats over the years, and the fact that cheap alternatives are coming on the market could put serious dent in their market share. Unfortunately, prices won't be coming down anytime in the foreseeable future,
