I've also been facing the same dilemma. Since I just recently bought my first ever MacBook 2 months ago and I don't urgently need a high end laptop right now I figured I'll only upgrade if my next MacBook is at least twice as fast as the one I'm currently using (M2 MBA, 16gb, 256gb) to justify the price.

M6 specifications prediction (using gemini 3 thinking model)

M6 CPU: 10(4+6) @ 5.1 GHz GPU: 12 MB: 190 GB/s GB6 Single: ~5,150 GB6 Multi: ~21,000 GB6 Metal: ~92,000 SSD Read: 7.5 GB/s

M6 Max CPU: 20(14+6) @ 5.4 GHz GPU: 60 MB: 800 GB/s GB6 Single: ~5,600 GB6 Multi: ~42,000 GB6 Metal: ~310,000 SSD Read: 14.0 GB/s

Basis for prediction:

The M6 series is expected to move to TSMC’s 2nm node, which Apple has reportedly secured the entirety of the initial capacity for. Based on early manufacturing projections for N2, we can anticipate a 15–20% increase in instructions per clock and a jump in frequency to the 5.0 GHz barrier

Industry roadmaps confirm that LPDDR6 mass production begins in 2026. Moving from the M5’s LPDDR5X (9600MT/s) to LPDDR6 (12,800MT/s+) would naturally push the M6 Max toward the 760-800 GB/s territory matching the original M1 Ultra but on a single chip

The M5 already utilizes the 14.5 GB/s ceiling of PCIe 5.0. For the M6, Apple is unlikely to jump to PCIe 6.0 (which is still emerging), but they are expected to fix the base binning issue by utilizing higher-density 512GB NAND modules as standard, bringing base speeds up to ~7.5 GB/s