M3 Ultra Mac Studio Rumored to Launch in Mid-2024, But No Sign of New Mac Pro

A new Mac Studio model with the M3 Ultra chip—which could be more powerful than expected—will launch in mid-2024, according to a new report.

M3 Mac Pro and Studio Feature
The report comes from Taiwanese research firm TrendForce citing ICsmart. The current ‌Mac Studio‌, which contains M2 Max and ‌M2‌ Ultra chip options, was introduced at WWDC in June 2023. With TrendForce forecasting another mid-year update for the ‌Mac Studio‌, a repeat appearance at WWDC seems likely this year.

The Mac Pro is the only other Mac model that contains an "Ultra" Apple silicon chip, so its absence from today's report discussing the M3 Ultra is noticeable. While, logically, the ‌Mac Pro‌ should receive an update to add the M3 Ultra chip alongside the ‌Mac Studio‌, just like it received the ‌M2‌ Ultra chip last year, there have been no rumors to suggest this will be the case again this year as of yet.

Interestingly, TrendForce claims that the M3 Ultra chip will be fabricated with TSMC's N3E node, just like the A18 chip that is expected to debut in the iPhone 16 lineup later in the year. This means it would be Apple's first N3E chip. The M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips are fabricated with TSMC's N3B process, just like the A17 Pro. N3E is an enhanced version of TSMC's 3nm process, offering slightly better performance and higher production yield.

It would be somewhat odd for Apple to make the M3 Ultra its first N3E chip, since Apple's "Ultra" chips comprise two "Max" chips linked via its UltraFusion chip interconnect technology, meaning that an N3E M3 Ultra would effectively be two M4 Max chips. To date, each generation of Apple's custom silicon chips have used the same fabrication process across the lineup, since the chip architecture is simply scaled up. Using different nodes in the same family of chips, especially on the "Ultra" chip variant, would be an unprecedented move.

The only explanation if Apple does opt for this route would be that the company plans to introduce the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips sooner rather than later, perhaps in late 2024, and would want to ensure that the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ remains competitive with the newer chips. Even so, in this instance, it would surely be more straightforward to brand the chip "M4 Ultra" and skip the M3 Ultra entirely.

As a result, this part of the report should be treated with some skepticism. Nevertheless, a mid-year time frame for the launch of a new ‌Mac Studio‌ seems likely.

Related Roundup: Mac Studio
Buyer's Guide: Mac Studio (Caution)
Related Forum: Mac Studio

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Top Rated Comments

sunny5 Avatar
15 months ago
Apple Silicon itself is a failure for Mac Pro especially for SoC design. Clearly, Apple doesn't know how to make a workstation just like Mac Pro 2013.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darngooddesign Avatar
15 months ago
If you can't buy an M3 SoC to drop in your existing MacPro then really what's the point of it.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CraigJDuffy Avatar
15 months ago
Who’s buying the AS Mac Pro? It’s a terrible product.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacDevil7334 Avatar
15 months ago
There is no way Apple will leave the Mac Pro on sale with a M2 Ultra while the Mac Studio gets the M3 Ultra and sells for less money. Either the Mac Pro will also get the newer chip or it will be discontinued. My money is on discontinuation, as the AS Mac Pro had little reason to exist beyond Apple saying early on in the transition that they would be making one.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bokito Avatar
15 months ago
The Mac Pro is dead. My guess is that some engineers working on the Mac Pro left the company when Apple decided that the Mac Pro would just be a Mac Studio with PCI-E, that’s why it took so long. The current Mac Pro won’t sell enough to make a profit from, so they’ll axe it. Just like they did with Xserve: blame the buyers, not themselves.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
azentropy Avatar
15 months ago

If you can't buy an M3 SoC to drop in your existing MacPro then really what's the point of it.
Exactly. They "took" away other upgrade options and I really thought they were going to change the paradigm in that they would instead have it use a daughter card in which consumers could easily upgrade (through apple of course) that SoC daughter card if they wanted more memory, or faster processor etc. at a later time.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)