There’s no guarantee whether Apple would ditch Intel chipsets completely in favour of AMD CPUs.

Don’t be surprised to see the next-generation of Apple Macs running on AMD processors, instead of Intel chipsets. References found in the macOS 10.15.4 beta suggest that Apple may have plans to use AMD chipsets in the future versions of Mac computers.

Every Macbook or iMacs Apple currently sells are powered by Intel processors. For example, the top-end 16-inch MacBook Pro is powered by Intel’s 9th generation Coffee Lake processors. The Mac Pro, which starts at $5999, uses Intel’s Xenon processors.

But the new references found in code for macOS 10.15.4 beta 1 hint at Apple could be internally testing the next wave of Macs with AMD chipsets. A Reddit and Twitter user named @_rogame first spotted the code snippets, which alludes to AMD’s Navi 21, Renoir and Van Gogh.

The references to Navi 21, in particular, seems interesting for a number of reasons. That’s because the graphics card could be twice as fast as the Navi 10 processor that can be found inside AMD’s 5700 XT GPU. However, this graphics card is likely reserved for high-end Mac machines such as Mac Pro and iMac Pro.

Over the past few months, the rivalry between AMD and Intel has intensified. AMD has repeatedly claimed that it can beat Intel on performance, power, and price. Many believe AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series, which is based on the new seven-nanometer design, can seriously challenge Intel’s CPU dominance.

Right now, this is purely speculation and nothing else. There’s no guarantee whether Apple would ditch Intel chipsets completely in favour of AMD CPUs. But speculation of Apple might drop Intel as a lead chipset supplier isn’t new. Last year it was reported that Apple hired a lead engineer at ARM in what could be a major step towards dropping Intel chipset from its laptops and desktops. According to a Bloomberg report from 2018, Apple had planned to drop Intel chips in Mac as early as this year.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 features custom AMD chipset

Microsoft, which is known for making high-end Surface laptops and 2-in-1s, recently launched the Surface Laptop 3. Interestingly, the laptop uses the AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition chipset. Microsoft says it’s the fastest chipset on any laptop of its class, as well as the fastest mobile processor AMD has made. The Surface Laptop is available in both Intel and AMD variants.