macOS beta contains references to AMD processors

References to multiple AMD processors were found in code from the beta of macOS Catalina. Until now, Apple has only purchased GPUs from AMD for its Mac systems, but the company has only purchased the processors from Intel.

Twitter user _rogame found in beta 1 of macOS 10.15.4, among others, the AMD codenames Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh. For example, Renoir is the codename for AMD’s 7nm laptop and desktop APUs based on the Zen 2 and Vega architectures. Renoir is the successor of Picasso, which is still produced at 12nm and based on Zen+.

Little is known about Van Gogh. According to Twitter users Komachic, which often publishes information about upcoming processors, it is an apu with the RDNA 2.0 based and 7nm produced Navi 23 GPU. This would be an upcoming high-end GPU that would make Van Gogh a sizeable apu. The code in the test version of macOS does not seem to mention Navi 23 but does mention Navi 21. This is also rumored to be a 7nm produced RDNA 2.0 GPU, which is also known as ‘Big Navi’ and can be used, for example. for video cards that AMD can release as Radeon 5900 and 5900 XT.

In an earlier test version, then beta 3 of macOS 10.15.2, indications for ‘Van Gogh’ and Navi 21 were also found last November, by Steve Moser. Details about Apple’s plans with AMD chips are not known. The Cupertino company has been using AMD GPUs for its Mac systems for years, but has not yet purchased any APUs or processors from AMD.