Apple headset: At its heart beats an M2 chip with 16 GB of RAM
Apple’s first VR / AR headset has been the protagonist of rumors for some time, but recently the rumors have intensified demonstrating that the debut may not be far off. The latest information speaks of the possible launch as early as January 2023, and Mark Gurman also thinks the same way.
We have dealt with most of the news covered by the Bloomberg journalist in a dedicated article, here let’s focus rather on Apple’s first VR / AR viewer and its technical data sheet which, as time passes, is increasingly defined and credible. Let’s find out what is hidden under the body.
According to Gurman, the hardware platform of the viewer should now be well defined and clear. The latest rumors talked about a chip derived from M2, while previously there was even talk of the possibility that Apple had even considered the very powerful M1 Ultra, the latter solution certainly very interesting in terms of power as an end in itself, but which certainly it would have led to big compromises in terms of autonomy and heat dissipation.
The version currently being tested, according to Gurman’s rumors, is instead equipped with a more realistic and still very performing hardware configuration, given that it is the basic version of M2 and well 16 GB of unified memorythus offering a platform capable of managing even complex 3D scenes with relative simplicity.
To make a comparison with another standalone viewer already on the market, just think that the Snapdragon XR2 equipped on Meta Quest 2 (here our review) is equipped with a GPU capable of producing up to 1.3 TFLOPS of power, while M2 achieves 3.6 TLOPS in its 10-core GPU configuration and comes down to 2.88 TFLOPS in the 8 core variant. It is therefore at least double the graphics power, without considering all the advantages offered by the CPU of M2, come on 16 GB of RAM (the Quest has 6) and from the new Neural Enginein addition to the potential of Metal 3.
In short, even if the Apple headset were to adopt the basic version of M2, there would still be enough power to offer a first-class AR and VR experience. At this point we just have to wait for the official presentation of the viewer to understand a more important detail: what are the use cases for which Apple intends to propose its product? We will find out only at the official event.
