Apple did not announce a Mac Pro at its recent “Peek Performance” presentation, and the Mac Studio is now the most powerful machine powered by Apple technology. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the Mac Pro upgrade will have to wait until the firm releases the M2 Extreme processor.
Extreme, to be sure. Officially, the M1 Ultra is the final chip in the M1 series. The Extreme model will be positioned above the Ultra and will be a beast with 48 CPU cores and up to 128 GPU cores, almost double the power available in the M1 Ultra. And that’s before the performance boost from the new architecture and process node is factored in.
Those are now up in the air. The Apple A14 processors’ CPU and GPU cores are used in the M1 series CPUs (iPhone 12 series). The A15 or A16 designs and processes will be used in the M2 series, however, it is unclear which (the choice is dependent on TSMC’s manufacturing capacity and yields).
The M1 Ultra is made up of two M1 Max processors joined by a silicon interposer in Apple’s UltraFusion architecture. The M2 Ultra is expected to be identical in design, while the M2 Extreme is expected to feature four M2 Max chips integrated into one.
Gurman suggests the following likely M2 chip distribution among incoming Macs, separated into consumer and professional models:
| Chipset | CPU cores | GPU cores | Chipset | CPU cores | GPU cores |
| M1 | 8 (4+4) | 7/8 | M2 | 8 | 10 |
| M1 Pro | 8 (6+2) | 14 | – | – | – |
| M1 Pro | 10 (8+2) | 14/16 | M2 Pro | 12 | 16 |
| M1 Max | 10 (8+2) | 24/32 | M2 Max | 12 | 32 |
| M1 Ultra | 20 (16+4) | 48/64 | M2 Ultra | 24 | 48/64 |
| – | – | – | M2 Extreme | 48 | 96/128 |
What I’m expecting Apple’s Mac lineup and M chip lineup to look like by the end of next year https://t.co/Ofu4krE776 pic.twitter.com/gF377U8xpG
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) March 14, 2022
Pro:
• Apple Pro Display 7K MacBook Pro (14 inches and 16 inches) with an M2 Pro and M2 Max
• iMac Pro with an M2 Pro and M2 Max
• Mac Studio with an M2 Max and M2 Ultra
• Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme
• Apple Pro Display 7K
Consumer:
• Mac mini with an M2 and an M2 Pro version to replace the Intel model
• iMac with an M2
• Apple Studio Display
• MacBook Air with an M2 MacBook Pro (13 inches)
• iMac with an M2
{M2} M2 has 8 CPU cores and 9 to 10 GPU cores
{M2 Pro} 12 CPU cores and 16 GPU cores in the M2 Pro
{M2 Max} M2 Max has a total of 12 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores
{M2 Ultra} 24 CPU cores and 48/64 GPU cores in the M2 Ultra
{M2 Extreme} 48 CPU cores and 96/128 GPU cores on the M2 Extreme
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