Macs May Finally Be Getting AMD Processors: APU Code Names Spotted in macOS Beta Code

You won’t find an AMD processor in any of Apple’s current Mac products, but that could be changing. Multiple references to AMD chips have been discovered in the latest beta of MacOS Catalina (10.15.4).

More specifically, there are four code names alluding to various Ryzen APUs: “Picasso,” “Raven,” “Renoir,” and “Van Gough.” Otherwise known as Accelerated Processing Units, these are microprocessors that combine the functionality of a CPU and GPU.

MacOS 10.15.4 Beta 1

NAVI12_A0
NAVI21_A0
PICASSO_A0
RAVEN2_A0
RAVEN_A0
RENOIR_A0
VANGOGH_A0 😳 pic.twitter.com/qFBHg5L0q0

— _rogame (@_rogame) February 6, 2020

The mention of Ryzen 4000 (“Renoir”) is particularly exciting. AMD launched these 7 nm APUs last month, blending the performance of Zen 2 and Vega graphics into a neat little package. MacBooks could certainly benefit from that level of power.

There was also a rumor going around back in December that Apple was working on a gaming Mac for the e-sports market. The APUs hinted in MacOS 10.15.4 could be a part of that puzzle.