Apple’s new M6 chip gets more cores and more AI compute

<figure> <img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/Apple-M6-and-M5-Ultra-hero.png?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> </figcaption> </figure> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Apple has announced a new M6 chip for Macs, along with an M5 Ultra that it says is its "most powerful chip ever," designed for tasks like 3D rendering and running frontier AI models. The M6 is Apple's first 2nm chip, which Apple says will bring improvements in performance and power efficiency, and it also has a Dual 16-core Neural Engine for on-device AI workloads.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">The M6 has a 12-core CPU, up from 10 in the M5, and it includes two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores. (Apple's "super" core terminology used to refer to performance cores, but it introduced a new type of performance core starting with <a href="https://www.apple.com/cm/newsroom/2026/03/apple-debuts-m5-pro-and-m5-max-to-supercharge-the-most-demanding-pro-workflows/">the M5 Pro and M …</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/984118/apple-m6-m5-ultra-chip-mac-mini-studio">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>