Intel Launches Haswell Processors Ahead of WWDC Mac Updates

haswell_chipIntel today officially announced the launch of its latest family of Core processors, formerly known as "Haswell". The new processors are making their way into a number of new computers, and are expected to be included in Apple's next-generation Macs, some of which are likely to make their debuts at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

The new chips offer significant improvements in integrated graphics performance, as well as modest CPU performance improvements and a major effort toward increasing battery life in notebooks.

Delivering Intel's largest generation-over-generation gain in battery life enablement in company history, 4th generation Intel Core processors can bring an 50 percent improvement in battery life over the previous generation in active workloads when watching movies or surfing the Internet, and two to three times improvement in standby battery life. For some systems coming to market this year, over 9 hours of active use battery life or 10 to 13 days of standby with fresh data on a single charge is expected.

Ars Technica has been providing overviews of the new chips, beginning with the quad-core desktop and notebook chips that were unveiled over the weekend. That group included six Core i7 and six Core i5 chips for desktop machines, as well as ten varieties of Core i7 notebook chips.

All of the mobile parts being announced today belong to the i7 family and, like their desktop counterparts, they're all quad-core chips with Hyperthreading enabled. The differences here come in the suffixes: the MX and MQ parts (reversed from Ivy Bridge's QM and QX suffixes) come with the Intel HD 4600 GPU, while most of the HQ parts come with the faster Iris Pro 5200 GPU.

With today's announcement of dual-core Haswell chips highlighted by AnandTech, the picture for Apple's notebook lineup comes into more focus. Intel has emphasized mobile chips for this round of dual-core launches, a move that will likely see the chips showing in updated MacBook Airs and 13-inch MacBook Pros as soon as next week.

A notebook refresh is expected to be the hardware highlight of WWDC alongside previews of OS X 10.9 and iOS 7. The latest rumors suggest that Apple may even be able to slim down the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which is currently slightly thicker than its 15-inch sibling. Less substantial tweaks are expected for the MacBook Air, although the move to Haswell should offer significant performance improvements in certain areas.

Related Forums: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro

Top Rated Comments

Pentad Avatar
141 months ago
Can't wait for the Apple ARM version of the MacBooks

:rolleyes: Do you realize the disaster this would be?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GREEN4U Avatar
141 months ago
Haswell is such an ugly name. It sounds like a high school principal or something.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
barkmonster Avatar
141 months ago
Can't wait for the Apple ARM version of the MacBooks

I can't really see any sense in them switching to proprietary chips significantly slower than Intel and designed as integrated CPU/GPUs for tablets and phones :-)
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheHateMachine Avatar
141 months ago
Can't wait for the Apple ARM version of the MacBooks
Yea I cannot wait for under powered chips that will introduce a myriad of software compatibility issues for a small power advantage and to stick it to Intel.

:rolleyes:

The latest rumors suggest that Apple may even be able to slim down (https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/02/slimmer-13-retina-macbook-pro-dual-mic-macbook-air-expected-at-wwdc/) the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which is currently slightly thicker than its 15-inch sibling.
This is really stupid if this rumor is true. Instead of increasing battery longevity due to the decreased power draw, they might cut the battery down to make the laptop slimmer and have the current battery life?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
charlituna Avatar
141 months ago


PS i hope apple has been listening to their customers, bring us raw power as well as the magic of apple!
And RIP to stupidly overpriced upgrades to our MAC - like charging 200% on SSD is criminal!

After what 35 years, you expect Apple to start listening to customers.

Thanks for the laugh
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
milo Avatar
141 months ago
Well then this news will not please you. Haswell will have nothing to do with the Mac Pro this year. If the Mac Pro is updated this year it would be with the Ivy Bridge Xeons when they are available.
Haswell (v3) is the generation after ivy bridge (v2, and ivy bridge xeons have been available for a while). In fact, if you click on the intel announcement, it actually mentions Xeon E3-1200 v3 as part of today's introduction.

The E5 needed for dual cpu Mac Pros is still a couple months off, but next week Apple could announce new MP with E5/dual versions shipping later but E3 quads shipping immediately.

The one downside to the new generation of chips is that so far they don't have a version of the single socket xeon that's more than four cores. Are those expected later? Or will people have to buy the dual versions even for single socket 6 (or more) core?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 16 Camera Lozenge 2 Perspective Gray

Five Key Upgrades Coming to iPhone 16

Friday March 15, 2024 1:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone is Apple's top-selling product, and it gets an update every year. In 2024, we're expecting the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineup, with an arguably more interesting feature set than we got with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Capture Button All four iPhone 16 models are set to get a whole new button, which will be...
When To Expect New iPads Feature 1

Apple to Announce New iPads on March 26, Rumors Claim

Monday March 18, 2024 4:02 am PDT by
Apple is widely expected to release new iPad Air and OLED iPad Pro models in the next few weeks. According to new rumors coming out of Asia, the company will announce its new iPads on Tuesday, March 26. Chinese leaker Instant Digital on Weibo this morning 日发布%23">claimed that the date will see some sort of announcement from Apple related to new iPads, but stopped short of calling it an...
airpods 3 orange

Two New AirPods 4 Models Expected to Launch in September or October

Sunday March 17, 2024 7:56 am PDT by
Apple suppliers will begin production of two new fourth-generation AirPods models in May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Based on this production timeframe, he expects the headphones to be released in September or October. Gurman expects both fourth-generation AirPods models to feature a new design with better fit, improved sound quality, and an updated charging case with a USB-C...
iphone se 4 modified flag edges

iPhone SE 4 Expected to Depreciate Heavily

Tuesday March 12, 2024 9:04 am PDT by
Resale value trends suggest the iPhone SE 4 may not hold its value as well as Apple's flagship models, according to SellCell. According to the report, Apple's iPhone SE models have historically depreciated much more rapidly than the company's more premium offerings. The third-generation iPhone SE, which launched in March 2022, experienced a significant drop in resale value, losing 42.6%...
iOS 17 Passkey With Apple ACCOUNT Feature

'Apple ID' Expected to Change to 'Apple Account' Starting With iOS 18

Sunday March 17, 2024 7:13 am PDT by
MacRumors was first to report that Apple was planning to rebrand "Apple ID" to "Apple Account" across its software platforms and websites like iCloud.com as early as this year, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has corroborated this change. A mockup of the new Apple Account branding In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the new "Apple Account" branding will start to be used later this...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

iOS 17.4.1 Update for iPhone is Imminent

Monday March 18, 2024 5:27 am PDT by
iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 should be released within the next few days, with a build number of 21E235, according to a source with a proven track record. MacRumors previously reported that Apple was internally testing iOS 17.4.1. As a minor update for the iPhone, it will likely address software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. It is unclear if the update will include any other changes. ...
M3 iPad Feature 3

New iPads Likely to Begin Shipping in April

Monday March 18, 2024 9:52 am PDT by
Apple's new iPad Pro models with OLED displays will likely begin shipping to customers in April, according to information shared today by Ross Young, CEO of display industry research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also said the new iPad Pro models might not ship until "deeper" into April in his Power On newsletter on Sunday:I've repeatedly said that new...