Apple is about to make one of its most aggressive desktop moves in years: skipping the base M5 chip on two desktop Macs and jumping straight to the upcoming M6 silicon. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the next Mac mini currently in testing pairs a new M6 chip with an M5 Pro option, and the iMac looks set to follow a similar path. In practice, that means the base M5 generation may never reach some of Apple's most popular desktop machines.
Why the Mac mini is skipping M5
Apple's laptops have moved on to M5, but its desktops have not. The Mac Studio, Mac mini, and iMac are all still running on the M4 generation. Gurman's latest years-long roadmap suggests Apple does not intend to give every one of them a base M5 refresh first.
The clearest signal comes from the Mac mini. Apple has reportedly been testing the new mini with M6 and M5 Pro chips, rather than the M5 and M5 Pro pairing that rumour-watchers were expecting. That change points to Apple leapfrogging the base M5 entirely and taking the miniature desktop straight to M6.
The timing is telling. Gurman connects the decision to the ongoing memory crunch that has already pushed back release plans for the new Mac mini and Mac Studio. When components are scarce and expensive, skipping an entire chip generation on lower-volume desktops lets Apple concentrate its best silicon where it matters most.
What to expect from the new desktop wave
There is a second candidate for the same treatment. Gurman's report places the iMac alongside an M6 MacBook Pro as two machines that launch early in the refresh wave, which strongly suggests the all-in-one will also land with an M6 chip rather than a base M5.
- The new Mac mini is expected to ship with M6, with an M5 Pro option, in the existing chassis.
- The iMac could also jump from M4 straight to M6 instead of pausing at base M5.
- The wider wave begins with a refreshed low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro among the first M6 machines.
For buyers, the takeaway is straightforward. If you are still running an M4 Mac mini or iMac and thinking about an incremental upgrade, the roadmap argues for waiting. The desktops hitting shelves this fall are shaping up to be a much bigger jump than a single-generation refresh, and the memory-driven skip means Apple is concentrating its most capable chips on exactly these machines.
The memory crisis is the quiet engine
It is easy to read the skip as a design preference, but the economics are doing a lot of the work. A persistent DRAM and NAND shortage has pushed memory prices sharply higher through 2026, raising the bill of materials on every new Mac.
Skipping the base M5 on desktops lets Apple avoid tooling, testing, and stocking an entire chip tier on volume products that would otherwise compete for the same scarce memory supply. The same logic is stretching Mac release calendars across the board.
It also explains why Apple is testing a mixed M6 and M5 Pro pairing in the mini rather than a cleaner base-and-Pro split. When demand for the premium part is strong and supplies are tight, paired SKUs give Apple flexibility to ship what is actually available.
None of this is official, of course. Apple has not confirmed any of Gurman's reporting, and plans can always shift before launch day. But the combination of tested hardware and a roadmap that repeatedly points the same direction makes the leap-from-M4-to-M6 scenario a strong bet for the company's desktop line this fall and into 2027.
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