Apple is developing a family of M3 chipsets based on TSMC’s next-generation 3nm architecture, with the more powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max said to debut in the middle of next year. We have talked about their specifications before while also mentioning that the M3 Max is being tested in two versions, with one of them sporting a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU. Naturally, at some point, even the M3 Max will be overshadowed by the M3 Ultra, which is said to get a significant bump in CPU and GPU cores compared to the M2 Ultra.
Two M3 Ultra versions are reportedly in testing, with the top configuration possibly sporting an 80-core GPU
Thanks to Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter, we have learned the possible configurations of the M3 Ultra. As most of you know, the M2 Ultra was developed with a process that Apple calls ‘UltraFusion,’ combining two M2 Max chipsets to make a single die. The same approach will likely be applied to the M3 Ultra, using two M3 Max SoCs to create it. Currently, the M2 Ultra specifications top out with a 24-core CPU, 76-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine.
With the M3 Ultra, Gurman believes that even the base version should offer a 32-core CPU that includes 24 performance and 8 efficiency cores. This particular variant should also feature a 64-core GPU. Strange enough, in the newsletter, the more capable M3 Ultra version touts the same number of CPU cores, but the GPU gets a bump to 80 cores. Of course, he does state that the actual specifications could change significantly during the production process, suggesting that the most powerful version could have even more CPU cores than his current estimation.
The M3 Ultra could be found in an updated Mac Studio, though Gurman is unsure if the same silicon will be powering a future Mac Pro. Given that the current-generation Mac Studio shares the same specifications as the tower Mac Pro while being $3,000 cheaper, we could see the company phasing out the bigger workstation or launching a compact version in the future. As for the launch schedule, the Bloomberg reporter states that the first member of Apple’s M3 lineup should debut in October, followed by the others next year.
“The first M3 Macs, which will be based on the 3-nanometer production process developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., should debut in October. Given the previous M1 and M2 release cycles, I don’t believe the M3 Pro and M3 Max Macs will arrive until 2024. And it’s plausible that an M3 Ultra chip doesn’t arrive until the end of that year at the earliest.”
In a previous ‘Power On’ newsletter, Gurman talked about the specifications of the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, so we recommend checking out our report to see if you should hold off on an upgrade in the future or make a purchase right now.
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