With Apple WWDC 2024 on the way in a couple of months, a lot of expectation is building that Apple will announce its last SoC for this generation, the Apple M3 Ultra, a powerhouse chip that will run high-end Mac Studio and Mac Pro workstations.
Apple surprised everyone at the end of October 2023 with its Scary Fast event, where we got not just the expected Apple M3 chip, but also the Apple M3 Pro and Apple M3 Max.
These chips were socketed in the new iMac 24-inch (M3), MacBook Pro 14-inch and MacBook Pro 16-inch models, as well as the new MacBook Air 13-inch and MacBook Air 15-inch.
The last Mac products expected to launch before the whole Mac lineup gets refreshed for Apple M4 is the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, both of which are still using the Apple M2 Max and Apple M2 Ultra chips. With the strong industry and developer focus at WWDC, it would make a lot of sense for these two products to get a spec refresh with a new Apple M3 Ultra, and it's something that we're eagerly anticipating, even though Apple has been rather quiet on this front, per usual. So what do we know about this upcoming SoC? Let's dig in and find out.
Apple M3 Ultra: Cut to the chase
- What is it? Apple's next workstation-class SoC
- How much does it cost? It won't sell on its own, but a Mac Studio with M3 Ultra will likely cost about $4,000/£4,000/AU$6,000 to start, with higher level configurations costing much more.
- When can I get it? There is no official release date, but if Apple announces at WWDC, you will likely be able to pre-order the Mac Studio with M3 Ultra starting on June 7, 2024, with delivery later that month.
Apple M3 Ultra: Latest news
- The M3 Ultra could debut this year – but is Apple leaving the Mac Pro out in the cold?
- Apple M3 Ultra CPU might blow away M3 Max – but we won’t find out for a long time yet
- Apple’s M3 Ultra chips promise a huge performance jump - if rumors are true
Apple M3 Ultra: Possible Release date
There is no official release date for the Apple M3 Ultra, but it is likely to be announced as early as June 7, 2024, at WWDC 2024. If so, we can expect preorders for Mac Studio and Mac Pro units with M3 Ultra to start that day, with delivery starting a few weeks after that.
Apple M3 Ultra: Specs & Performance
While we don't have anything official from Apple about the Apple M3 Ultra, we do know that the Ultra series SoCs are traditionally two Max chips stitched together with high-speed interconnects, so we can speculate about the M3 Ultra based on what we know about the Apple M3 Max.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | M3 Max | Possible M3 Ultra (2 x M3 Max) |
|---|---|---|
| Transistor count | 92 billion | 184 billion |
| CPU | 16 cores (12 performance/4 efficiency) | 32 cores (24 performance/8 efficiency) |
| GPU | Up to 40 cores | Up to 80 cores |
| Max memory | 128GB | 256GB |
| Clock rate | Up to 4,056MHz | Up to 4,056MHz |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 78W | 156W |
In terms of performance, we absolutely expect that this will be one of the most powerful workstation chips on the market, but with the Apple ecosystem, its not apples-to-apples comparing the chip to, say, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX.
The software ecosystems for different workstation chips can be very different, and there may be Apple-specific or Windows/Linux-specific apps that you run, so your options for switching between the two chips will be much more limited than choosing between an Intel Xeon and AMD Threadripper.
That said, we can get a sense of the performance jump for the M3 Ultra over the M1 Ultra, since the M1 Ultra effectively doubled the performance of the M1 Max. And since the M3 Max is nearly twice as powerful as the M1 Max (Apple claims up to 80% faster), we can expect the M3 Ultra to mirror that performance jump.
Apple M3 Ultra: What to expect
You can definitely expect a lot of performance from this chip, no question, but it won't be cheap. You also might question whether you'll truly need this level of performance. Maybe if you're a Mac Pro buyer with an industry of money supporting the purchase, but this won't be for prosumers, who might be more inclined to check out a Mac Studio.
In that case, an M2 Ultra Mac Studio might be the better option, since it is still going to be a very powerful workstation and will almost certainly come down in cost.
That still remains to be seen, of course, and we'll have to wait for an official announcement from Apple before we know more. Stay tuned!
