Apple has just launched two new Macs, the M4 MacBook Air and a new Mac Studio. The Mac Studio comes with two chip options: M4 Max or M3 Ultra. Here’s everything you should know about the new M3 Ultra chip.
M3 Ultra chip in Mac Studio hits new standard for performance
Apple today announced M3 Ultra, the highest-performing chip it has ever created, offering the most powerful CPU and GPU in a Mac, double the Neural Engine cores, and the most unified memory ever in a personal computer. M3 Ultra also features Thunderbolt 5 with more than 2x the bandwidth per port for faster connectivity and robust expansion. M3 Ultra is built using Apple’s innovative UltraFusion packaging architecture, which links two M3 Max dies over 10,000 high-speed connections that offer low latency and high bandwidth. This allows the system to treat the combined dies as a single, unified chip for massive performance while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading power efficiency. UltraFusion brings together a total of 184 billion transistors to take the industry-leading capabilities of the new Mac Studio to new heights
M3 Ultra offers a ton of power and flexibility in Apple’s new highest-end chip.
Here are some of the highlights:
- up to 32-core CPU, with 24 performance and 8 efficiency cores
- 80-core GPU
- 32-core Neural Engine
- 96GB starting RAM, but configurable up to 512GB
- Thunderbolt 5 support for up to 120 Gb/s data transfer speeds
M3 Ultra also can drive a whopping eight Pro Display XDRs thanks to its display engine. That’s more than 160 million pixels being driven.
Apple’s M3 Ultra chip uses a custom UltraFusion packaging technology to connect two M3 Max dies across more than 10,000 signals. This process results in “making M3 Ultra appear as a single chip to software.”
Here’s how the new M3 Ultra stacks up against its predecessors, per Apple:
- up to 1.5x better CPU performance than M2 Ultra, and 1.8x over M1 Ultra
- up to 2x faster GPU performance over M2 Ultra, and 2.6x over M1 Ultra
9to5Mac’s Take
It seems very odd that Apple would launch a new Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra.
It’s been suggested that this is a way Apple will differentiate the Mac Studio from the upcoming Mac Pro revision, as the Mac Pro may offer an M4 Ultra.
In any case, the new M3 Ultra remains a beast of a chip. With big gains over the M2 and M1 Ultra, the most RAM ever supported, Thunderbolt 5 support, and more, users shouldn’t feel like they’re missing out because it’s an M3 rather than M4.
What do you think of the new M3 Ultra chip? Let us know in the comments.
Best Mac accessories
- AirPods Pro 2 (now only $199 for limited time)
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- Twelve South aluminum laptop stand for MacBooks
- Anker USB-C 8-in-1 hub with Ethernet, HDMI, SD, more
- Baseus 10ft USB-C cable for extended reach
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