Apple M3 Ultra: everything we know about Apple’s next superchip

Here’s what we know about the Apple M3 Ultra

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WithAppleWWDC 2024on the way in a couple of months, a lot of expectation is building that Apple will announce its last SoC for this generation, the Apple M3 Ultra, a powerhouse chip that will run high-end Mac Studio and Mac Pro workstations.

Apple surprised everyone at the end of October 2023 with itsScary Fast event, where we got not just the expectedApple M3 chip, but also theApple M3 ProandApple M3 Max.

These chips were socketed in the newiMac 24-inch (M3),MacBook Pro 14-inchandMacBook Pro 16-inchmodels, as well as the newMacBook Air 13-inchandMacBook Air 15-inch.

The last Mac products expected to launch before the whole Mac lineup gets refreshed for Apple M4 is theMac Studioand Mac Pro, both of which are still using theApple M2 MaxandApple M2 Ultrachips. With the strong industry and developer focus atWWDC, it would make a lot of sense for these two products to get a spec refresh with a new Apple M3 Ultra, and it’s something that we’re eagerly anticipating, even though Apple has been rather quiet on this front, per usual. So what do we know about this upcoming SoC? Let’s dig in and find out.

Apple M3 Ultra: Cut to the chase

Apple M3 Ultra: Latest news

Apple M3 Ultra: Possible Release date

There is no official release date for the Apple M3 Ultra, but it is likely to be announced as early as June 7, 2024, at WWDC 2024. If so, we can expect preorders for Mac Studio and Mac Pro units with M3 Ultra to start that day, with delivery starting a few weeks after that.

Apple M3 Ultra: Specs & Performance

While we don’t have anything official from Apple about the Apple M3 Ultra, we do know that the Ultra series SoCs are traditionally two Max chips stitched together with high-speed interconnects, so we can speculate about the M3 Ultra based on what we know about the Apple M3 Max.

In terms of performance, we absolutely expect that this will be one of the most powerful workstation chips on the market, but with the Apple ecosystem, its not apples-to-apples comparing the chip to, say, theAMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX.

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The software ecosystems for different workstation chips can be very different, and there may be Apple-specific or Windows/Linux-specific apps that you run, so your options for switching between the two chips will be much more limited than choosing between anIntelXeon andAMDThreadripper.

That said, we can get a sense of the performance jump for the M3 Ultra over the M1 Ultra, since the M1 Ultra effectively doubled the performance of the M1 Max. And since the M3 Max is nearly twice as powerful as the M1 Max (Apple claims up to 80% faster), we can expect the M3 Ultra to mirror that performance jump.

Apple M3 Ultra: What to expect

You can definitely expect a lot of performance from this chip, no question, but it won’t be cheap. You also might question whether you’ll truly need this level of performance. Maybe if you’re a Mac Pro buyer with an industry of money supporting the purchase, but this won’t be for prosumers, who might be more inclined to check out a Mac Studio.

In that case, an M2 Ultra Mac Studio might be the better option, since it is still going to be a very powerful workstation and will almost certainly come down in cost.

That still remains to be seen, of course, and we’ll have to wait for an official announcement from Apple before we know more. Stay tuned!

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY.

Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.

You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler.

Currently playing: Baldur’s Gate 3 (just like everyone else).

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