Apple has refreshed its Mac Studio line, which had not seen changes since 2023, introducing two new powerful chips: the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra.
The M4 Max, similar to the one launched last year in the MacBook Pro, offers robust performance, while the M3 Ultra positions itself as Apple’s most powerful processor to date.
This one features a configuration of up to 32 cores in its CPU —24 of which are high-performance cores—, 80 cores in the GPU and a 32-core Neural Engine.
The most powerful model with the M3 Ultra will cost nearly $4,000
The M3 Ultra has demonstrated exceptional performance in high-demand applications, such as Cinema 4D, showcasing its ability to efficiently handle intensive workloads.
In a demonstration, the chip drastically reduced the time for complex tasks, such as foliage scattering in a landscape, which would normally have taken a day, to just a few minutes.
In another case, a demo of Cyberpunk 2077 was also shown running at 60 fps with full ray tracing, showcasing the graphical capabilities offered by the new hardware.
In terms of storage, the M3 Ultra allows for up to 16 TB of internal storage and 512 GB of unified memory, with an impressive bandwidth of 800 GB/s.
For its part, the model with the M4 Max chip will start at $1,999, while the M3 Ultra will start at $3,999, with availability for pre-order starting today and a scheduled launch on March 12.
Despite the new additions, Apple has not introduced an M4 Ultra chip, following a trend of not releasing an Ultra in every silicon generation.
Additionally, there is currently no announced update for the Mac Pro, which continues to use the M2 Ultra chip. Finally, the new Mac Studio will include Thunderbolt 5 ports, improving connectivity with peripheral devices.