Apple introduced a new Apple Silicon chipset, dubbed as the M2 Ultra, at its annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) 2023. This new chipset is the latest addition to the company’s M2 series of Apple Silicon chips, which also includes the Apple Silicon M2 and the Apple Silicon M2 Max, and it will be powering the next generation of desktops — a new Mac Studio and a new Mac Pro — that the company announced at the event.
M2 Ultra chipset
The newly launched M2 Ultra completes the M2 family and it is the largest chip that Apple has created so far. The newly announced M2 Ultra chip is built using the company’s second-generation 5-nanometer process and uses Apple’s UltraFusion technology to connect the die of two M2 Max chips, which the company says doubles the overall performance.
This new chip consists of a total of 134 billion transistors, which is 20 billion more than M1 Ultra and it’s unified memory architecture supports up to a 192GB of memory capacity, which is 50 percent more than M1 Ultra. It features 800GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is twice that of M2 Max. Apple says that M2 Ultra features a CPU that is 20 percent faster than M1 Ultra, a GPU that is up to 30 percent faster, and a Neural Engine that is up to 40 percent faster than the company’s M1 Ultra chip. It also features a media engine with twice the capabilities of M2 Max for ProRes acceleration.
As far as the specifics are concerned, the M2 Ultra chip has a 24-core CPU that consists of 16 next-generation high-performance cores and eight next-generation high-efficiency cores. It’s GPU can be configured with 60 or 76 next-generation cores, which marks a 30 percent improvement compared to the GPU of M1 Ultra. Furthermore, the company says that this new chip supports playback up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 videos. It also supports up to six Pro Display XDRs.
New Mac Studio
At WWDC 2023, Apple also refreshed its Mac Studio with its M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra chips. Apple says that its updated Mac Studio is up to 6x faster than the Intel-based 27-inch iMac, and up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio with M1 Ultra chip.
The new Mac Studio with M2 Max features a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU, and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. Apple says that M2 Max-powered Mac Studio will let 3D artists using After Effects to render motion graphics up to 50 percent faster. It will also enable developers to build new versions of apps with Xcode with up to 25 percent faster performance.
The M2 Ultra-powered Mac Studio, on the other hand, is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac. Apple says that it features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, and up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth for workstation-class performance. This new Mac Studio will enable 3D artists using Octane to render graphics up to 3x faster and colourists using DaVinci Resolve to see up to 50 percent faster video processing than before.
On the connectivity front, the M2 Ultra and the M2 Max-powered Mac Studio has higher-bandwidth HDMI, which supports up to 8K resolution and 240Hz frame rates. With M2 Ultra, Mac Studio supports up to six Pro Display XDRs. It also features support for Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. Additionally, it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10Gb Ethernet port, an enhanced HDMI port, and two USB-A ports at the back and two USB-C ports and an SD card slot on the front.
New Mac Pro
Coming to the new Mac Pro has been updated with the M2 Ultra chip. Apple says that this new Mac Pro completes the Mac transition to Apple silicon. The new Mac Pro can be configured with up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. This new Mac Pro will video engineers to ingest 24 4K camera feeds and encode them to ProRes in real time on a single machine. Additionally, the new Mac Pro features seven PCle expansion slots, with six open expansion slots that support gen 4.
Mac Studio, Mac Pro India pricing and availability
As far as availability is concerned, the Mac Studio and Mac Pro are available for pre-orders in India starting and it will go on sale in the country starting June 13.
Mac Studio starts at Rs 2,09,900 and Rs 1,88,900 for education.
On the other hand, Mac Pro (Tower Enclosure) starts at Rs 7,29,900 and Rs 6,87,900 for education. Mac Pro (Rack Enclosure) starts at Rs 7,79,900 and Rs 7,27,900 for education.