Apple unveils 'M3 Ultra' chip that supports up to 512GB of memory with two M3 Max cards
Apple has announced the Mac Studio, a Mac for professionals, on March 6, 2025. At the same time, the 'M3 Ultra' was announced as the Apple silicon to be installed in the high-end model of the new Mac Studio. Apple is promoting the M3 Ultra, saying that it 'offers the most powerful CPU and GPU ever installed in a Mac, twice the Neural Engine cores, and the largest unified memory capacity in the history of a personal computer.'
Apple Introduces M3 Ultra, Bringing a New Dimension to Apple Silicon - Apple (UK)
Apple Introduces M3 Ultra Chip With Impressive Performance, Up to 512GB of RAM, and More - MacRumors
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/05/apple-introduces-m3-ultra-chip/
Apple announces M3 Ultra—and says not every generation will see an “Ultra” chip - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/apple/2025/03/apple-announces-m3-ultra-and-says-not-every-generation-will-see-an-ultra-chip/
According to Apple, the M3 Ultra is made by connecting two M3 Max dies together using Apple's proprietary 'UltraFusion packaging technology,' which delivers low-latency processor-to-processor bandwidth of over 2.5TB/s and allows software to recognize the M3 Ultra as a single chip.
The CPU has 20 or 24 high-performance cores and 8 high-efficiency cores for a total of 32 cores. The GPU has 60 or 80 cores, the largest number in Apple silicon, and is said to achieve performance up to twice as fast as the M2 Ultra. The Neural Engine for machine learning is equipped with 32 cores.
'The M3 Ultra is designed for AI, with ML accelerators in the CPU, Apple's most powerful GPU, Neural Engine, and more than 800GB/s of memory bandwidth. AI professionals can use Mac Studio with M3 Ultra to run large language models (LLMs) with more than 600 billion parameters directly on-device, making it the ultimate desktop for AI development,' Apple said.
The M3 Ultra's unified memory is up to 512GB. It also supports Thunderbolt 5, enabling data transfer speeds of up to 120Gb/s. The M3 Ultra supports up to 512GB of unified memory (RAM), as well as Thunderbolt 5, which allows data transfer speeds of up to 120Gb/s, more than twice as fast as Thunderbolt 4. Each Thunderbolt 5 port has its own dedicated controller, making it less susceptible to the use of other ports. In addition, it is touted as the 'highest performance Thunderbolt 5 in the industry' by pursuing performance through 'unique design' and 'direct integration into the chip.'
According to Apple, the M3 Ultra has twice the resources of the M3 Max, allowing it to perform much more video processing than the M3 Max. The hardware encoder/decoder supports H.264, HEVC, and Apple ProRes. It can also play up to 22 streams of 8K video (ProRes 422). It can also output video to up to eight Pro Display XDRs.
However, regarding energy efficiency, Apple would only say that 'M3 Ultra's power-efficient performance helps the new Mac Studio meet Apple's high standards for energy efficiency, reducing the total amount of energy consumed over the product's lifecycle,' without providing any specific figures.
'The M3 Ultra represents the pinnacle of scalable system-on-a-chip architecture, making it ideal for users who run highly threaded, bandwidth-intensive applications,' said Jony Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. 'With a 32-core CPU, powerful GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and industry-leading power efficiency, there's no other chip that can match the M3 Ultra.'
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in Hardware, Posted by log1i_yk