Apple launches new Mac Studios with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip

Interesting “straddle the generations” strategy 😂

https://www.theverge.com/news/624193/apple-mac-studi...

(Keeping hold of my M2 Ultra Studio for a while yet)

That (the M4 one) could just be my next Mac.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Interesting “straddle the generations” strategy 😂

Shows how complex the Ultra product is, and probably extremely low sales volume.

I got hopes up of an M4 iPad Air yesterday, but it was a typo on an Apple fan site; hang on to my M1 based iPad pro for another year yet.

I just wonder if it's a yield issue with the M4 generation silicon? Seems slightly odd otherwise to have to go back one generation to M3, to be able offer it in Ultra form.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I just wonder if it's a yield issue with the M4 generation silicon? Seems slightly odd otherwise to have to go back one generation to M3, to be able offer it in Ultra form.

I doubt yield, but as the Ultra is two chips connected together perhaps the shrink in process node causes this interconnect to become insanely complex. Then you have the quote from Apple that you can't expect an Ultra every iteration. Maybe M5 will have an Ultra.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Then you have the quote from Apple that you can't expect an Ultra every iteration. Maybe M5 will have an Ultra.

Yet they have had an M1 Ultra an M2 Ultra, now followed by an M3 Ultra?? Hehe OK Apple.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I doubt yield, but as the Ultra is two chips connected together perhaps the shrink in process node causes this interconnect to become insanely complex.

M3 and M4 are both built using the same TSMC 3nm process (just gone from N3B to N3E) though?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

M3 and M4 are both built using the same TSMC 3nm process (just gone from N3B to N3E) though?

There's a quote that blames complexity; so I was guessing. Good spot! So it could be just how many they predict to sell, or they are working on M5 Ultra???

Or the M3 is similar to M4 in everything except the NPU ?

Edited by jchamier (Thu 06-Mar-25 09:28:08)

An M5 Ultra, if following the general pattern of release of all Ultra chips (up till now of course) would not see the light of day until at least something like 6 to 9 months after the Pro and Max versions are on sale. So the M3 Ultra is “late” and it’s too premature for an M4 Ultra to appear right now.

Maybe they will just skip over the M4 Ultra and will now simply wait another 2 years for an M5 Ultra release.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Maybe they will just skip over the M4 Ultra and will now simply wait another 2 years for an M5 Ultra release.

Have to look at benchmarks, I saw M3 and M4 single core benchmarks last year were close; unless you were using the NPU; and with the process change, I wondered if Apple had accelerated the M4 timeline to align with the Apple Intelligence releases?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Maybe they will just skip over the M4 Ultra and will now simply wait another 2 years for an M5 Ultra release.

It seems so:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/03/05/apple-say...

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

That (the M4 one) could just be my next Mac.

Just watched some early doors leaks of Geekbench 6 benchmarks...the M4 Max does OK, but the M3 Ultra isn't all that great for what it is. The performance uplift from the earlier gen's is a bit frankly disappointing: certainly for something which is around ten grand with a decent lump of RAM and the full beans CPU.

Definitely keeping my M2 Ultra at this rate. I'll hold out for that M5 Ultra 🤣

Edited by Pheasant (Sat 08-Mar-25 19:11:22)

Could be they are saving an M4 Utra for the Mac Pro.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Could be they are saving an M4 Utra for the Mac Pro.

If the M4 Max doesn’t have the connectors then they’ve not developed one, Mac Pro or Studio. The benefits of the Mac Pro have mostly disappeared with no ability to use PCIe GPUs, so the MacRumors/AppleInsider folk have concluded.

Idle power claims. Chap def needs a better switch 😅

https://wccftech.com/mac-studio-m3-ultra-cluster-con...

Mac Studio cluster idle power