Apple announced the M1 Pro and M1 Max for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro at its ‘Unleashed’ event today. The company highlighted that the M1 Pro and M1 Max feature a 10-core CPU and offer exceptional performance improvements. It is also possible to configure the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip.
However, the base model of the 14-inch MacBook Pro ships with a cut-down variant of the M1 Pro chip featuring an 8-core CPU and 14-core GPU. In all other models, the M1 Pro chip features a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU.
The two fewer CPU and GPU cores should lead to the base 14-inch MacBook Pro performing a bit slower than other models, though there should not be any noticeable performance issues.
Apple does offer the option to upgrade to a 10-core M1 Pro variant with a 14-core GPU by paying $200 extra. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the M1 Pro with a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU by paying an additional $300. Apple will also automatically upgrade the 67W USB-C power adapter to the 96W model if you upgrade to any of the more powerful M1 Pro variants.
Additionally, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro ships with a 67W USB-C power adapter, while all other 14-inch M1 Pro/Max models ship with a 96W adapter. The 16-inch MacBook Pro ships with an even more powerful 140W USB-C power adapter, up from the 96W power adapter used by the Intel-based models.
The new MacBook Pros are already available for pre-order and will hit retail stores starting October 26.
