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.

M4 Mac Pro Feature Cool 2
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.

Related Roundups: Mac Studio, Mac Pro
Related Forums: Mac Studio, Mac Pro

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Top Rated Comments

godorowski Avatar
1 day ago at 10:58 am
I just cant wait for my base M4 Extreme, 16gb ram, 256gb ssd
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DMG35 Avatar
23 hours ago at 11:23 am
It will make email and safari blazing fast for me.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hieranonymous Avatar
23 hours ago at 11:32 am
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.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
VisceralRealist Avatar
23 hours ago at 11:43 am

It will make email and safari blazing fast for me.
And the Pages icon will still bounce in the dock for ten seconds before the app loads. :P
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chuckeee Avatar
1 day ago at 11:12 am
As long as we are hoping, how about 1TB of RAM? Or at least ½TB
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
23 hours ago at 11:21 am
Can’t wait to continue to use my M1Max Studio, of course good to see how Apple continues to push
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)