The first benchmark results for Apple's new M2 Ultra chip have surfaced on Geekbench 6, providing a closer look at CPU performance improvements. The high-end chip is available in the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro models launching next week.
There is currently some variance in the results, but the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip appears to have single-core and multi-core scores of up to approximately 2,800 and 21,700, respectively. As expected, these scores confirm that the M2 Ultra chip offers up to 20% faster CPU performance compared to the M1 Ultra chip, as Apple advertised. This also means the M2 Ultra is now the fastest chip that Apple has ever released.
Geekbench 6 result for Mac Studio with M2 Ultra chip
More interestingly, the scores reveal that the new Mac Pro should have around 2× faster overall CPU performance than the fastest Intel-based Mac Pro with a 28-core Xeon W processor. This feat is even more impressive given that the new Mac Pro starts at $6,999, while the 28-core Intel-based model started at $12,999, nearly double the price. During its WWDC keynote, Apple said the new Mac Pro is up to 3× faster than the Intel-based model, but that only applies to select "real-world pro workflows like video transcoding and 3D simulation."
The primary reason to consider the Mac Pro over the Mac Studio is for the desktop tower's six available PCIe expansion slots. Otherwise, customers should consider the Mac Studio, as it can be configured with the M2 Ultra for $3,000 less than the Mac Pro. For a more detailed comparison, read our Mac Studio vs. Mac Pro Buyer's Guide.
The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro are available to order now, and will begin arriving to customers and launch in stores on Tuesday, June 13.
Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay.
As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...
Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017
"APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote.
Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements.
While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way.
By the time the ...
Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices.
According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April.
From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe.
Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2:
With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
Monday February 24, 2025 2:49 am PST by Tim Hardwick
A new CAD render of all the devices in Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 lineup has been shared online by leaker Majin Bu, specifically showing the allegedly different rear camera system designs of the standard iPhone 17, all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models.
The leaker Majin Bu has had some hits in the past, but some of his information has been wrong,...
Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by Juli Clover
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist."
In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
Intel chips have come a far way since the old intel Mac Pro and the 13900k is faster than the m2 ultra . So is ryzen 7950x. Also, the x86 workstation class chips like sapphire rapids and Genoa blow the m2 ultra away in terms of multithreading. Of course apple leads in terms of performance per watt.
I think the m2 ultra is fine in the Mac Studio but the Mac Pro, with all the extra room, is underpowered. And it’s still using pcie4 with pcie switches and lane sharing, whereas sapphire rapids and Genoa use pcie 5 and have a ton of lanes available. Much more flexible and can access more RAM.
Faster x86 chips are coming: arrow lake, zen 5, granite rapids Xeons.
Unless apple creates a workstation class chip I think apple will lead in notebook perf per watt, but when it comes to workstation and desktop, x86 will pull ahead.
But regardless of all that, competition is great for consumers. And I am glad to see apple start to embrace gaming on the Macintosh. Maybe apple has some wild ambitions in terms of GPU performance and is now laying the groundwork to introduce high performance gaming hardware…
20% is not enough of a reason for me (as a casual user) to upgrade my M1 Mac Studio Ultra to an M2 Mac Studio Ultra but I can see why businesses may well consider if if they can complete tasks 20% faster. Time is money and it won't take long to recuperate the cost of upgrading.
I have an M2 Ultra Studio with 128Gb and 2Tb SSD arriving this week. But I’m going from a late 2019 16” MBP to the Studio so the performance bump should be insane.
So we are comparing an M2 Ultra with Intel 28 Core unit from 2016, which seems unfair. These days Intel and AMD have CPUs with 56 and 64 cores with access to 4TB of RAM.
The most significant benefit of the M processors is power consumption, but workstation has fewer restrictions and needs to deliver raw power.
I would love to see a comparison with the newer CPUs from AMD and Intel.
Apple is not even in the first 100 when it comes to raw power https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
20% is not enough of a reason for me (as a casual user) to upgrade my M1 Mac Studio Ultra to an M2 Mac Studio Ultra but I can see why businesses may well consider if if they can complete tasks 20% faster. Time is money and it won't take long to recuperate the cost of upgrading.
