We got our first taste of Apple's silicon-powered Macs last year with the introduction of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, all to great acclaim And now an even more powerful sequel may be on the way in the coming months

This comes from tipster LeaksApplePro, who predicts a 12-core silicon Mac will arrive in March This could be a big leap in performance from the 8-core Apple M1 in the MacBook Air with M1 and MacBook Pro with M1

The current 8-core M1 is a strong choice for users who want a powerful Mac, but it pales in comparison to other high-end Ryzen setups that utilize four performance and efficiency cores If the new Mac brings the specs that LeaksApplePro claims, the 12-core M2 will help it compete with Zen-based architectures

We have heard reports before that Apple is looking to increase the number of cores in its new Mac chips Last month, a Bloomberg article heralded the idea that Apple is testing a Mac Pro with a 32-core chip, but that product will not be ready until 2022 According to the same article, more direct plans include a 12-core chip

A tweet from LeaksApplePro puts the date of that announcement as March, and the new chip would include eight performance cores and four high-efficiency cores and could power a 16-inch MacBook Pro Unfortunately, the tweet thread does not provide any further details

At this point, seeing a more powerful "M1X" version of Apple's chip is exciting enough news for buyers looking for a step up from previous iterations; as LeaksApplePro indicates, however, M1X is not yet the final name What Apple has in mind is still undecided

We will have to wait and see what Apple announces in the coming months as the transition to a full lineup of Macs built on Apple silicon moves toward its 2022 end date