We’re already immersed in the M4 era of Macs, but Apple is now stepping back to unveil the M3 Ultra, its most powerful desktop chipset to date. M3 Ultra is currently limited to the 2025 Mac Studio and, unsurprisingly, costs a fortune.
Packed with up to 32 CPU cores, 80 graphics cores, and a maximum 512GB of RAM, the M3 Ultra is a monstrously powerful platform. It boasts 1.5x faster performance than the M2 Ultra and nearly twice the speed of the original M1 Ultra, according to Apple.
These gains may sound somewhat modest, but that’s partially due to Apple’s focus on the GPU and neural engine—M3 Ultra exceeds the M1 Ultra’s graphics performance by 2.6x and can run LLMs with over 600 billion parameters without the help of any additional hardware—a mind-boggling prospect for hardware that can fit in a Mac Studio enclosure. (Macs utilize a unified memory system that treats RAM as VRAM, so these graphics gains will be less dramatic on configurations with less than the maximum 512GB of RAM.)
The M3 Ultra platform also supports Thunderbolt 5, a next-gen connectivity system that is also featured in the M4 Max. And Apple says that M3 Ultra Macs will support a maximum of eight Pro Display XDRs, which should resolve any multi-monitor concerns that were present in previous generation of Apple Silicon. Of course, with this much power, M3 Ultra offers plenty of headroom for DisplayLink or other third-party multi-monitor solutions.
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The Mac Studio Is Now Even More Ridiculously Overpowered
Now equipped with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chipsets, it’s ready to run circles around nearly every other desktop computer.
“M3 Ultra is the pinnacle of our scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, aimed specifically at users who run the most heavily threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications … Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there’s no other chip like M3 Ultra.” — Johny Srouji, Apple’s Senior VP of Hardware Technologies
I didn’t think that Apple would ever launch an M3 Ultra. The company skipped into the M4 generation with last year’s iPad Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini—an M3 Ultra feels incongruous, and some customers may fail to realize that M3 Ultra is more powerful than the base M4 chipset.
To be fair, M3 Ultra is only offered on Apple’s new Mac Studio, which is intended for enthusiast and business customers. The average Apple fan can’t afford a Mac Studio and may never have the opportunity to be confused about naming schemes (assuming that M3 Ultra never extends to consumer-grade Macs), but I assume that business or enthusiast folk will be able to suss out the difference when choosing between an M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studio (pricing should indicate the difference, if nothing else).
Since we’re on the topic of super-expensive, super-powerful Macs, I should mention that Apple is expected to debut an M4 Ultra chipset in late 2025 or early 2026. The next-gen chipset will probably be reserved for the Mac Pro, which has been somewhat sidelined in recent years due to Apple Silicon’s PCIe limitations and the staggering horsepower of cheaper Macs. We don’t know whether or not the Mac Studio will receive an M4 Ultra upgrade upon the next-gen chipset’s release.
Those who are desperate for best-in-class Apple Silicon performance can pre-order the M3 Ultra Mac Studio today. The cheapest M3 Ultra configuration, which includes 96GB of memory and 1TB of storage, costs $4,000.
Mac Studio (2025)
Equipped with an M4 Max or M3 Ultra chipset, the Mac Studio is an incredibly powerful workstation with modern TB5 connectivity and a maximum 512GB of RAM. It’s an fantastic solution for professional graphics and AI applications, though it’s far too expensive for the average consumer.
Source: Apple
