Apple’s Mac lineup is about to run on two chip generations at once. The touchscreen MacBook Pro is expected to keep the M5 Pro and M5 Max, the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 24-inch iMac are expected to move to the M6, and Apple is not making an M6 Pro or M6 Max at all.
The lineup comes from Mark Gurman’s reporting ahead of Apple’s Pro and Tell launch on October 28. The M6 itself is already official, since it debuted in the M6 Mac mini that reached customers on September 22.
| Mac | Chip | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Touchscreen MacBook Pro, 14-inch and 16-inch | M5 Pro or M5 Max | Expected October 28 |
| Entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro | M6 | Expected October 28 |
| 24-inch iMac | M6 | Expected October 28 |
| Current MacBook Pro | M5, M5 Pro or M5 Max | On sale |
| Mac mini | M6 or M5 Pro | On sale since September 22 |
| Mac Studio | M5 Max or M5 Ultra | On sale since September 22 |
The touchscreen MacBook Pro stays on the M5 Pro and M5 Max
Gurman says the 14-inch and 16-inch OLED models use the same chips as today’s MacBook Pro, which Apple introduced in March. The M5 Pro has up to an 18-core CPU, up to a 20-core GPU and up to 64GB of unified memory, and the M5 Max has an 18-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory.
Both chips come with Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 on the MacBook Pro. The 14-inch model is the only size that also comes with the base M5, so the 16-inch model starts at the M5 Pro.
The M6 is a bigger base chip and not a replacement for the Pro chips
The M6 is Apple’s first 2nm chip, with a 12-core CPU made of two super cores, four performance cores and six efficiency cores. It also has a 12-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in every core, a dual 16-core Neural Engine and up to 170GB/s of memory bandwidth, up from 153GB/s on the M5. The M5 has 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores.
In the Mac mini, the M6 supports up to 32GB of memory, while the M5 Pro version supports up to 64GB and 307GB/s of bandwidth. That gap keeps the M6 in the entry-level slot. Apple has not listed M6 MacBook Pro configurations, so anyone who needs more than 32GB of memory should wait for the specs on Wednesday before assuming the base chip will do.
The 24-inch iMac currently runs the M4, so the M6 version jumps over a generation. It is expected to arrive with new colors and no redesign.
M6 Pro and M6 Max were skipped for the M7 generation
Gurman says Apple is “pretty much done” with M6 chips, and the company is not making an M6 Pro, M6 Max or M6 Ultra. Apple is reportedly putting that effort into the M7 generation, which is aimed at on-device AI work, and the M6 Pro and M6 Max skip was first reported in June.
Apple is expected to stage the M7 generation over two years, with the base M7 in the first half of 2027, the M7 Pro and M7 Max in late 2027 and the M7 Ultra in the first half of 2028.
