It’s WWDC day which means we could be just hours away from Apple confirming the M2 Ultra chipset.
Here’s everything you need to know about the anticipated Apple Silicon chip ahead of its rumoured release.
What is the Apple M2 Ultra?
The Apple M2 Ultra is the Apple Silicon chipset expected to power the next generation of Mac Pro and Mac Studio high-end desktop PCs.
The M1 Ultra in the top configuration of the Mac Studio is currently the most powerful Apple-made processor in the Mac range right now but that could all be set to change very soon if the rumours are to be believed.
Like its predecessor, the M2 Ultra is expected to be made up of two of Apple’s powerful Max chips, this time the Apple M2 Max. It would then follow in the footsteps of the M1 Ultra and use UltraFusion to effectively fuse two Apple Silicon chips together.
The M2 Ultra still has yet to officially be confirmed, but we hope to see it launch very soon. You can find out more about the rumoured release date below.
Release date and price
We expect the M2 Ultra to be announced alongside either the Mac Pro or the Mac Studio, as these are the desktops most likely to feature the chipset.
According to a report by Macworld, the M2 Ultra could launch as soon as Apple’s WWDC keynote on June 5. The Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off today with the presentation starting at 6pm UK time, so make sure to tune into the live stream or bookmark this page and head back later to find out more about the M2 Ultra (if it does make an appearance).
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also suggested that the M2 Ultra could arrive in 2023 with a new Mac Pro currently in active testing, making today’s launch a serious possibility.
There have been a good number of rumours surrounding the M2 Ultra, but Apple has yet to confirm the existence of the chipset itself. That means it’s impossible to be sure that the M2 Ultra will arrive this evening or even this year. For this reason, we’d recommend taking all rumours with a grain of salt for now.
As far as pricing goes, it’s to be expected that any device powered by the M2 Ultra will cost more than that same device configured with the M2 Pro or M2 Max.
Specs
In the same vein as the release date, we can’t make any definitive comments on the specs of the latest M2 Ultra chip. Back in October of 2022, Gurman claimed that the M2 Ultra could come in two flavours, either with a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU, or with a 48-core CPU and 152-core GPU. It’s also touted to use up to 256GB of memory.
This claim was partially backed up by Macworld, who claimed that the M2 Ultra would see the same high number of CPU and GPU cores but only up to 192GB of memory.
Some have suggested that Apple will move over to a new 3nm node process since the current M2 lineup is built on a 5nm process. However, it seems more likely that the next-generation M3 chips will build on a 3nm process, with Digitimes claiming in December 2021 that TSMC – the company that builds the chips for Apple – had to postpone its 3nm plan due to various issues.
This suggests that the M2 Ultra will be built on the same architecture as the rest of the M2 series.
