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What to Expect From Apple's M4 Ultra Chip Next Year

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Apple last week debuted its latest M4 Pro and M4 Max chips in the Mac mini and MacBook Pro, and the highest-end M4 Ultra chip should follow next year.

M4-Mac-Pro-Feature-Cool-2.jpg

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the M4 Ultra chip in the next Mac Pro will "probably" have up to a 32-core CPU and up to an 80-core GPU, which would be double the M4 Max's up to 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU. That would be unsurprising, as the M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra chips both have up to double the number of CPU and GPU cores compared to the M1 Max and M2 Max chips, respectively.

Not all patterns at Apple carry on forever, so it is still noteworthy that the M4 Ultra chip will likely follow the same doubling scheme as usual.

When will the M4 Ultra chip be available? In a report last month, Gurman said the next Mac Studio will likely "debut between March and June" next year, and higher-end configurations of that computer should be available with the M4 Ultra chip. He expects a new Mac Pro desktop tower with the M4 Ultra chip to follow in the second half of next year.

Given the Mac Studio and Mac Pro were never updated with M3 series chips, the M4 Ultra chip would give these computers an improved Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence and ray tracing for improved graphics rendering for the first time.

A few years ago, Gurman said that Apple had tested a so-called "M2 Extreme" chip that would have offered even greater performance than the M2 Ultra chip, but he later said that the chip's release was canceled. Apple could choose to revisit an "Extreme" chip for the Mac Pro in the future, but there are no "M4 Extreme" chip rumors as of now.

Article Link: What to Expect From Apple's M4 Ultra Chip Next Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/11/03/what-to-expect-from-m4-ultra-chip/
Looks like the M4 is a great foundation for a whole family of chips, although the presence of two Mac 17.x points towards the possibility of the Ultra and Extreme being based on a future M5? Just speculation of course.

I’m wondering if, given how powerful the M4 is compared to the predecessors, maybe I’m fine with an M4 and I don’t need an M4 Pro…
 
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Any M4 Max x-rays yet? That should tell us if the M4 Ultra is once again just two Maxes connected to each other.

Even if it is a separate design, though, it’s unlikely the Ultra would offer more than double the core counts and RAM ceiling as the Max. There’s simply no need to go that high-end; even the Max is already quite high.

One exception might be PCIe lanes, but that’s mostly a Mac Pro problem.
 
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I wish Apple would just update the “pro” desktops with the latest silicon on a yearly schedule. There doesn’t always have to be some big fanfare or major redesign. At this rate, by the time the Pro and the Studio get M4, Apple will be on the cusp of rolling out the M5.
 
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It will be interesting to see if Apple will release an updated Apple Studio display alongside the M4 Mac Studio.

The release of the Mini and Macbook Pro supporting Thunderbolt 5 will ensure a large enough population of Thunderbolt 5 enabled devices by the time a new display might be released next year that will make use of the increased bandwith.

I hope for a larger than 27" display. It would be an instant buy for me. In any case, I hope that both the Studio and the display will be released rather earlier than later next year....March would be ideal.
 
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iSandrotto said:
It will be interesting to see if Apple will release an updated Apple Studio display alongside the M4 Mac Studio.

The release of the Mini and Macbook Pro supporting Thunderbolt 5 will ensure a large enough population of Thunderbolt 5 enabled devices by the time a new display might be released next year that will make use of the increased bandwith.

I hope for a larger than 27" display. It would be an instant buy for me. In any case, I hope that both the Studio and the display will be released rather earlier than later next year....March would be ideal.
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With the proposed specs for such a display it will prob costs as much as the pro display
 
chucker23n1 said:
Any M4 Max x-rays yet? That should tell us if the M4 Ultra is once again just two Maxes connected to each other..
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This is my big question, too, but I think that even if they don’t have the interconnect yet, I would be less surprised by a later version of the M4 Max with an interconnect than an M4 Ultra built without one. I wonder what their production success rate on the Max actually is?
 
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Rychiar said:
With the proposed specs for such a display it will prob costs as much as the pro display
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Maybe such a display will be the successor to the Pro Display XDR rather than the Studio Display. Or they will release a Studio Display successor with 27" and a Pro Display XDR successor with 32" but both with 120Hz refresh rate.

I will buy the M4 Studio no matter what. And as I don't have a display yet (still using a 2017 iMac), I will buy whatever display will be available then. I'm just hoping I won't have to spend a lot of money on a slightly outdated display in case no new display will be unveiled....
 
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In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the M4 Ultra chip in the next Mac Pro will "probably" have up to a 32-core CPU and up to an 80-core GPU, which would be double the M4 Max's up to 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU.

Given the Mac Studio and Mac Pro were never updated with M3 series chips, the M4 Ultra chip would give these computers an improved Neural Engine for Apple Intelligence and ray tracing for improved graphics rendering for the first time.
Click to expand...
An 80-core GPU... is this Apple's way of (trying to) address one of the complaints of the current Mac Pro and its lack of ability for expansion and upgradability (e.g. memory, storage, GPUs) vs Intel-based Mac Pros?
 
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sw1tcher said:
An 80-core GPU... is this Apple's way of (trying to) address one of the complaints of the current Mac Pro and its lack of ability for expansion and upgradability (e.g. memory, storage, GPUs) vs Intel-based Mac Pros?
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Can it be upgraded...NO
Repaired............... Hmmmmm...NO

BUT We can recycle it when you trash it.
 
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McWetty said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple kept the Ultra for Mac Pro and left the Studio in the middle with the Max. Then leave the Base and Pro for the Mini.

They have to keep some kind of compelling reason to spend $5k on a desktop.
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Makes no sense from a business perspective. One if not the reason why Apple has these insane profit margins are bto upgrades. Selling you $2 memory chips for $200 or $100 CPU/GPU cores for $1000.
 
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MacRumors said:
Apple could choose to revisit an "Extreme" chip for the Mac Pro in the future, but there are no "M4 Extreme" chip rumors as of now.
Click to expand...

If they don't, the Mac Pro will be a completely pointless product again. Even more so than the M2 Mac Pro, considering that the M4 Mac Studio will have Thunderbolt 5.
 
sir1963nz said:
AWESOME, I will be able to open "Books" even faster to see it is still an unloved bastard child that was abandoned as a Window 3.1 project.
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Preach brother. That app is a cluster****. They took the most buggy app Apple has ever made, completely remade it, and stripped it completely of logic and UX sense - At least most bugs are gone. But god darn…
 
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may-june looks like a huge amount of time for releasing the mac studio. Its pretty clear Apple doesnt want to release it sooner because it would cannibalizing Macbook Pro sales. Which is understandable but very disappointing.

But desktop pro users at apple are very used to be the latest in the line
 
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