[News] Apple Reportedly Reshapes M-Series by Skipping M6 Pro and Max, Shifting High-End Chips to M7 in 2027
As Apple rolls out price increases across its iPad and MacBook lineup amid soaring memory costs, the company may also be preparing a major shake-up to its M-series roadmap. Citing Bloomberg, Wccftech reports that Apple plans to debut the M6 later this year without Pro or Max variants—marking an unprecedented break from its established chip rollout pattern.
Instead, the company is now expected to defer its high-end silicon roadmap to the M7 generation, launching the base M7 alongside M7 Pro and M7 Max, rather than shipping M6-tier premium chips, Bloomberg notes.
The move would represent a structural shift in Apple’s chip strategy. Bloomberg explains that since the M1 era, each generation has typically launched with Pro and Max variants, with earlier families such as M1, M2 and M3 also extending into Ultra-tier chips aimed at the highest-performance Macs. The reported change would, for the first time, limit an initial generation release to only the base processor.
Wccftech further highlights that the timing of the shift comes shortly after Apple signaled broad price increases across its product lineup, raising the possibility that the M6 Pro and M6 Max were removed later in the development cycle.
If the report proves accurate, the standard M6 would be confined to the refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the redesigned OLED MacBook Pro lineup could slip to late 2027, aligning with the expected M7 Pro and M7 Max rollout, according to Wccftech.
Apple’s M-Series: A Two-Step Reset with M6 and M7
Notably, Bloomberg suggests that Apple could introduce the base M6 chip as early as this year, targeting its entry-level Mac lineup. This would then be quickly followed by the M7 family, which is expected to include next-generation Pro and Max variants slated for 2027.
The M6 is set to deliver a notable performance uplift, with memory bandwidth expected to rise to around 200 GB/s from roughly 153 GB/s on the M5, Bloomberg reports, adding the gain is particularly significant as memory throughput becomes increasingly critical for AI workloads that depend on fast data movement.
Beyond bandwidth improvements, the chip is also said to feature a redesigned memory architecture, a more powerful Neural Engine, and broad CPU gains, alongside upgraded video encoding and decoding capabilities. Apple is additionally reworking the GPU, with internal test designs reportedly scaling up to 12 cores, compared with a maximum of 10 on the M5, according to Bloomberg.
Beyond performance upgrades, Apple is also expected to introduce major changes at the manufacturing and packaging level. The M6 is said to mark Apple’s first move to a 2nm process, shifting away from the 3nm node used in recent generations, with TSMC’s N2 technology expected to be used, as noted by MacRumors.
On the packaging side, TSMC is also said to be moving from InFo (Integrated Fan-Out) to WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module), which brings key components—including the CPU, GPU, DRAM, and Neural Engine—into closer physical integration, reducing latency and enhancing interconnect efficiency between different chip elements, MacRumor adds.
Looking ahead, Bloomberg indicates that the base M7 is aimed for launch as early as the first half of next year, followed by the M7 Pro and M7 Max in late 2027. The flagship M7 Ultra is expected in 2028 and, as in previous generations, is likely to deliver roughly double the performance of the Max chip while powering Apple’s highest-end Mac Studio configurations.
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(Photo credit: Apple)
