The MacWorld resource decided to compare all the current Apple M and Apple A platforms in one big test.

Unfortunately, there are only results in Geekbench, albeit including the GPU. These results do not always correspond to the alignment of forces in real tasks, but at least we have a comparison of two dozen SoCs.

As you can see, the difference in single-threaded performance is very small, even when comparing the 2020 A14 Bionic to the latest M2 Pro/Max. Multi-threaded mode puts everything in its place. The undisputed leader remains the M1 Ultra, as it contains a 20-core CPU. The base M2 Pro with a 10-core CPU performs almost on par with the M1 Max, and all other platforms are already far behind. It is immediately clear at the same time that there is actually quite a big difference between the SoC for the iPhone and for the Mac, although the A16 Bionic is still not catastrophically behind the base M1.

As for the GPU, the difference between the platforms is even greater, which is logical, given the difference in the number of GPU cores. Here, too, the M1 Ultra in the top version has no competitors, although the M2 Max with a 38-core GPU outperforms the base M1 Ultra with a 48-core GPU. It should also be noted that the M1 Max in any configuration is faster than the M2 Pro. The result of the M2 in the iPad Pro also looks interesting, where the GPU is not much slower than in the base M2 Pro.

The new Mac Pro model due this year will not support discrete graphics cards.

Well-known Bloomberg journalist and insider Mark Gurman claims that with the transition to Apple Silicon, the most expensive and powerful PC of the Cupertino giant will lose support for discrete 3D cards and will only use GPUs in single-chip systems.

The GPU itself, apparently in the top configuration, will have 76 cores. This is a lot, since even the M2 Max with a 38-core GPU is able to compete with mid-range GeForce RTX video cards at least in benchmarks. However, it is worth remembering that the current Mac Pro, if desired, can be equipped with two dual-chip Radeon Pro W6800X Duo with a total performance of over 30 TFLOPS. True, only for these adapters you will have to pay almost $ 10,000.

In any case, it will be very interesting to see if the top-end Mac Pro can compete with its predecessor in GPU-intensive tasks.

Gurman also says that the new Mac Pro will not get replaceable RAM. Actually, both statements are quite logical, since all PCs with Apple Silicon do not have external RAM and do not support discrete graphics cards. Now the Mac Pro allows you to install up to 768 GB of RAM, and the new model may well lose on this indicator.

With the transition to its own Apple M platforms, Apple has made it so that there are simply no weak PCs in its assortment now. According to recent tests, the $600 Mac mini outperforms the base Mac Pro, which costs an order of magnitude more!

So far, there are tests only in Geekbench, where the novelty scores 1944 and 8790 points in single-threaded and multi-threaded modes, respectively, while the $6000 Mac Pro on the eight-core Intel Xeon scores 1019 and 8037 points. That is, the single-threaded performance of the Mac Pro is almost half that!

At the same time, of course, it is still unclear whether the Mac mini is faster in real tasks, but here we need to wait for the tests. Also, do not forget that Mac Pro not only allows you to update the configuration, but also install various 3D cards, expansion cards, etc., in Mac mini, nothing can be replaced at all.