Apple’s Next-Gen Mac Pro to Stick With Intel CPU, Claims Leaker

According to a tweet from leaker YuuKi_AnS (@yuuki_ans), Apple’s upcoming Mac Pro update will feature Intel’s Ice Lake Xeon W-33XX series of workstation processors (via MacRumors).

It looks like we haven’t seen the last of Intel CPUs on Apple’s Macs. Last month, a developer found a reference to scalable support for Intel’s Ice Lake Xeon processors in Xcode 13 beta 1.

The reference alluded to Intel’s Ice Lake SP processors, which is the company’s latest lineup of scalable workstation processors. The last Intel workstation CPUs used in a Mac were Intel’s Xeon W processors — an older generation.

YuuKi_AnS now reports that the next Mac Pro, slated to launch in 2022, will feature configurations led by an Intel Xeon W-33XX Ice Lake System on a Chip (SoC) with up to 38 cores and 76 threads.

“Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 Workstation family will offer support on the LGA 4189 socket platform with up to 270W TDP CPU support, 64 Gen 4 PCIe Lanes, and 8-channel DDR4-3200 memory with up to 4 TB capacities,” says WCCFTech

Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported back in May that Apple was working on successors for the entirety of its Mac lineup and that all of them, including the next-generation Mac Pro, would feature Apple Silicon.

Gurman hinted at Apple-made workstation CPUs with 20 and 40 cores, as well as GPU options with 64 and 128 cores. He also said that the next Mac Pro is “expected to look like a smaller version of the current design.”

Could Apple’s current focus on producing the M1X and M2(X) processors to succeed its M1 SoC have forced the development of a high core-count workstation CPU to the back-burner?

Apple could end up releasing two versions of its next Mac Pro, one with an Intel CPU and one with Apple Silicon under the hood. Alternatively, the tech giant could also launch an Intel-powered Mac Pro next year as a successor to the 2019 Mac Pro, and hold off on an Apple Silicon successor until it gets the situation with its own workstation CPUs figured out.

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