Apple has announced a refresh of its entry-level iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro, both now powered by the M6 chip, which had already debuted in the Mac mini. According to Ars Technica, the two-port MacBook Pro configuration tops out at 24 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, while the four-port model goes up to 32 GB and 2 TB.
The M6 arrives in a single configuration on the MacBook Pro, with a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU. Engadget reports that the chip includes two 16-core neural engines and that Apple claims up to five times the on-device AI performance of the 2024 iMac, which ran the M4, for Siri, Apple Intelligence and local models. For everyday tasks, the company says the chip delivers up to 1.5 times the performance of the M4.
The iMac also gets the new N1 wireless networking chip, according to The Verge, which frames the update within Apple's hardware event this week. These figures come from the manufacturer itself and have not yet been verified independently.
For anyone managing fleets of machines or building software that runs locally, the key point is the claimed gain in on-device inference, which could reduce reliance on the cloud for certain workflows. The entry model's maximum memory capacity remains limited, however, and that will weigh on sizing decisions for larger models.
Our take is cautious: the refresh matters for buyers of Apple hardware for local AI work, but the claimed fivefold gains should be treated as the manufacturer's promise until independent tests on real workloads are available.