What to Expect From Apple's M4 Ultra Chip Next Year
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.
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.
Popular Stories
Wednesday September 17, 2025 2:56 pm PDT by
Juli CloverIt's been two days since iOS 26 was released, and Apple's new Liquid Glass design is even more divisive than expected.
Any major design change can create controversy as people get used to the new look, but the MacRumors forums, Reddit, Apple Support Communities, and social media sites seem to feature more criticism than praise as people discuss the update.
Complaints
There are a long...
As reported by Bloomberg today, some of the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models on display at Apple Stores today are already scratched and scuffed.
French blog Consomac also reported on this topic.
The scratches appear to be most prominent on models with darker finishes, including the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in Deep Blue, and the iPhone Air in Space Black.
Images Credit: Consoma ...
Apple is preparing to release iOS 26.0.1, according to a private account on X with a proven track record of sharing information about future iOS versions.
The update will have a build number of 23A350, or similar, the account said.
It is likely that iOS 26.0.1 will fix a camera-related bug on the new iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro models. In his iPhone Air review, CNN Underscored's Henry T. ...
Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display changes, and more. That's quite a lot of updates in one go, but if you think this means a further major refresh for the MacBook Pro is now several years away, think again.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects only a small ...
iOS 26 was finally released on Monday, but the software train never stops, and the first developer beta of iOS 26.1 will likely be released soon.
iOS 18.1 was an anomaly, as the first developer beta of that version was released in late July last year, to allow for early testing of Apple Intelligence features. The first betas of iOS 15.1, iOS 16.1, and iOS 17.1 were all released in the second ...
