Apple M3 Ultra Mac Studio:
The CPU in Apple’s top-of-the-line M3 Ultra processor will likely get a higher boost than the GPU, which is probably good.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On email, Apple is testing an M3 Ultra processor with a big CPU jump from 24 cores in the M2 Ultra to 32 cores in the next generation version of the chip. According to developer logs, Apple’s large desktop chip will also include a base configuration with 64 GPU cores and a top-end variant with 80 GPU cores.
Right now, you can obtain an M2 Ultra Mac with a 60-core or 76-core GPU, making the next generation of the CPU a more moderate boost in terms of graphics processing compared to last year’s leap. The M2 Ultra’s top configuration saw a 12-core increase from the 64-core GPU of a fully loaded M1 Ultra Mac Studio.
That is not to argue that computers equipped with the new processor will be shaky. Even M2 Max-equipped MacBook Pro notebooks outperform the M2 Ultra Mac Studio, and the costly 2023 Mac Pro is failing to find its place in the market.
According to Bloomberg, Apple will release M3 Macs in October, including a new iMac, but we won’t see laptops with the M3 Pro or M3 Max until next year. Based on Apple’s previous release timetable, Gurman estimates an M3 Ultra processor will be released in late-2024 “at the earliest.”
