While we covered how Apple is planning to move on to its in-house custom CPUs we also noted that it will be a gradual process. So the first few years both the traditional x86, as well as the ARM variant will co-exist. The traditional Apple Macbook Pro will have a 28W Intel CPU, up to 32gigs of RAM, and a massive 4TB SSD.
Although AMD Renoir APUs are dominating the laptop space Apple seems to be skipping it this year. According to the 3DMark bench found by @_rogame, this year’s 14-inch MacBook Pro will be powered by an i7-1068NG7. It is also expected to feature the redesigned Magic Keyboard.
The Ice Lake-U chip, i7-1068NG7 clocks at 2.3 GHz base, and 4.1GHz boost. The CPU has 8MB of L3 Cache and Intel Iris Plus G7 integrated GPU. The iGPU can also boost up to 1100MHz to match AMD’s Vega 10 performance. All of this at TDP of just 28W but we aren’t sure if Apple will use a cooling fan though.
We are fairly certain that this is a fully specced model with the i7, 32GB RAM, and the 4TB SSD which should cost north of $4000. So we can expect a more wallet-friendly entry-level model equipped with an i5 and less RAM. The CPU in question might be the i5-1035NG7, the i7-1068NG7’s sibling.
These newer Ice Lake-U chips from Intel would provide a healthy boost over the ones in the current MacBook Pro. But will still fall short of the performance that AMD is offering. But when you command such a premium when it comes to pricing, you should expect nothing but the best.