New M5 chips appeared in Apple Release Candidate – macOS 26.3 on the way
M5 Pro, M5 Max, and perhaps also M5 Ultra: Apple is finally preparing new chips for the Mac. The release likely won't be long now.
Something is opening up: Here's an (old) MacBook.
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New Apple Silicon chips ahoy: In the just-released Release Candidate of iOS 26.3, there are indications that Apple is on the verge of rolling out new M5 processors. As developer Nicolas Alvarez has discovered, two previously unknown SoCs are mentioned therein, T6051 and T6052. These are associated with the platform names H17C and H17D. The “17” stands for M5 processors, with H17G being the standard variant (letter “G”). A “C” has so far stood for Max chips, and “D” for Ultra processors. “S” should be the Pro variants, but these are confusingly missing.
Confusion about missing M5 Pro
Alvarez, who shared his findings with Macrumors, assumes that M5 Max and M5 Ultra (for Mac Studio and/or Mac Pro) are in the pipeline. Why the reference H17S (or T6050) is missing cannot be said. iOS is known not to be intended for Macs but often contains references for the chips there. What is contained in the release candidate of macOS 26.3, which is also now available, remained unclear at first.
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Ultimately, according to Macrumors, there are only three possibilities: the chip is simply missing in iOS 26.3 RC, Apple is changing its internal numbering, or the company is planning an M5 Max and an M5 Ultra for the MacBook Pro, omitting the M5 Pro. An Ultra chip in a portable Apple computer would be sensational, but the question is how cooling could be implemented. Ultra chips are two M variants directly connected to each other.
Operating systems are ready
New operating systems will be released before or at the same time as the new Macs. As mentioned, Release Candidates in version 26.3 are available for iOS and macOS, as well as for iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. Such RCs can already be the final version, but don't have to be if errors are still found.
The updates bring bug fixes, but on the iPhone also a better transfer of data towards Android. The long-awaited, improved Siri will not come before iOS 26.4 and Co., but these systems are not expected until April.
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