An alleged benchmark for the M6 Pro has surfaced on Geekbench, calling into question earlier rumors about a shorter Apple Silicon generation that skips the Pro and Max variants altogether.
Before the introduction of the M6 Mac mini, the rumor mill was dead set on the idea that Apple will be shortening the M6 generation of Apple Silicon in favor of moving to M7 faster. After the launch, a benchmark result may have indicated that there will be more to the M6 generation than previously expected.
A Geekbench 7 score surfacing on Reddit for a "Mac18,6" dated September 18 2026 is claimed to run on an "Apple M6 Pro" with one processor and 18 cores. This is apparently split into two clusters of six cores and 12 cores, which may refer to "Super" performance core and efficiency core counts.
The listing adds there is a base frequency of 4.78GHz, which would correlate to the Super cores in use. The version tested also has 48 gigabytes of memory.
If genuine, the posted results for the M6 Pro include a single-core score of 4,150 and a multi-core of 37,565.
The M6 Mac mini results that were leaked earlier have a similar single-core score of 4,071, which would be expected here. It would be a result based on the fastest available core.
The alleged M6 Pro single-core benchmark against the leaked M6 Mac mini and the M5 Pro
It is an improvement on the M5 Pro included in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which scores 3,692.
For multi-core, the number of cores matter for the result. That would explain how the M6 Pro figures are far higher than the 22,783 from the M6 Mac mini and its 12 CPU cores.
Multi-core benchmarks of the M6 Pro against the M6 and the M5 Pro
It is more in the ballpark of the M5 Pro, which also has 18 cores and has a slightly smaller 33,595 score. The generational difference here is expected due to the M6 Pro having better, faster cores.
Despite its plausibility, it's entirely possible that someone faked the result and posted it to Geekbench. True or not, it's something that will cause some observers to consider how Apple will be treating the rest of the M6's lifespan.
Reports in June and July, chiefly from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, insist that Apple will only run the M6 era for a mere six months. This is an ultra-short lifespan compared to other Apple Silicon generations.
Gurman also said that there won't be an M6 Pro, M6 Max, nor M6 Ultra release in the generation.
Instead, Apple is supposedly planning to bring the M7 out in the first half of 2027, so that Macs can benefit from the AI-centric chip designs. In that generation, M7 Pro and M7 Max chips would come out later in the same year.
If true, the benchmark may be a precursor to the launch of other Mac models under the M6 generation. It may also be a sign that we have a bit of a longer wait before M7 comes along.
