If you’re among the growing number of users hoping to see updated MacBook Pro versions with new M5 chips sooner rather than later, today’s macOS 26.3 RC brings some great news. Here are the details.
M5 Max and M5 Ultra referenced
As reported by MacRumors, today’s macOS 26.3 Release Candidate build includes references to what are very likely two new M5 chips for upcoming MacBook Pro updates.
More specifically, macOS 26.3 RC includes internal references to two new SoC IDs, T6051 and T6052, which are tagged with platform codes H17C and H17D.
To make sense of these codes, here are the SoC IDs and platform codes Apple has used so far for all other M-series Apple Silicon chips:
Chip SoC ID Platform code M1 T8103 H13G M1 Pro T6000 H13J or H13S M1 Max T6001 H13J or H13C M1 Ultra T6002 H13J or H13D M2 T8112 H14G M2 Pro T6020 H14S M2 Max T6021 H14C M2 Ultra T6022 H14D M3 T8122 H15G M3 Pro T6030 H15S M3 Max T6031 or T6034 H15C or H15M M3 Ultra T6032 H15D M4 T8132 H16G M4 Pro T6040 H16S M4 Max T6041 H16C M5 T8142 H17G
Based on this standard, it is likely that the T6051/H17C IDs refer to the upcoming M5 Max chip, while the T6052/H17D IDs refer to the M5 Ultra.
Interestingly, there seem to be no references to the M5 Pro chip (which should carry the T6050/H17S identifiers) yet, even though, at least in theory, the RC should be the exact same build that will roll out publicly when the release candidate becomes the final release.
What that means for the release timeline of the next MacBook Pros, we’ll likely find out sooner rather than later, as Bloomberg recently reported that the new models are “slated for the macOS 26.3 software cycle”.
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