Apple Announces 'M1 Ultra' Chip With 20-Core CPU, Up to 64-Core GPU, and Support for 128GB of Memory

[PinkyMacGodess]

Who had 'Ultra' on their bingo card.

Apple cheated, but it sounds like it's going to blow the doors off the competition. Wow... So, for the Mac Pro, is there sn 'Ultra Max', or 'Ultra Pro' in the wings?

The Mac Studio has me salivating...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

M1 Ultra version of Mac Studio starts at $3999? That’s $1000 more than M1 Max version!

2k more. $1999 v $3999.

 

[CWallace]

So if M1 Ultra is the last M1 series SoC, does that mean there will be no "Jade4C-Die" with 40 CPUs and 128 GPUs as Mark Gurman reported (and he correctly predicted Pro, Max and Ultra)?

Or will the Mac Pro have two M1 Ultra using an extension of the interconnecting layer to allow them to either be side-by-side or arranged in a set of four around a central hub (one on top, one to each side, and one on the bottom)?

 

[CWallace]

2k more. $1999 v $3999.

Still $1000 cheaper than buying the base model and selecting M1 Ultra and a 1TB SSD.

 

[fyun89]

are they just gonna stack them CPUs together each iteration? XD

I'm a little disappointed with the CPU department but GPU seems to look more promising as more GPU cores scale better than CPU cores.

 

[Genkakuzai]

Holy **** batman :O

 

[sfwalter]

Ordered M1 Max edition!

 

[oharag]

why can’t they ever mention which GPU lol i really want to know what they are comparing it to cause it’s definitely not a 3090

Who cares if it isn't as fast as a 3090. I just looked up the price for this 3090 boat - it's almost $2000! More than a Apple Studio Max! Max power for the 3090 is 360 Watts! So yeah I'm glad it's not a 3090. It will be interesting to see benchmarks comparing it to the 3090. So even if it's 60-70% the performance it's also a ton cheaper to own and operate.

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

So even if it's 60-70% the performance it's also a ton cheaper to own and operate.

And no CUDA. And no upgradability.

 

[tuc]

it’s two chips in 1 nothing high tech i just want to see how they will handle the extra heat

Well, implementing the communication links between the two dies in the package is non-trivial. They dedicated a significant fraction of the M1ProMax die area to it. I'd call it high tech.

I wonder if the apple silicon MacPro (which is "a story for another day") will have 4 (or 6?) dies in the package. Supporting that would be even trickier.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So if M1 Ultra is the last M1 series SoC, does that mean there will be no "Jade4C-Die" with 40 CPUs and 128 GPUs as Mark Gurman reported (and he correctly predicted Pro, Max and Ultra)?

Or will the Mac Pro have two M1 Ultra using an extension of the interconnecting layer to allow them to either be side-by-side or arranged in a set of four around a central hub (one on top, one to each side, and one on the bottom)?

They could end up with a SOC the size of the Mini at that point, and it would have more transistors than a stack of Xeons. Two Ultra's tied together would be a beast of epic proportions, and would still likely not break a sweat. Wow. It would be complicated to sew them together, but I'm sure they can pull it off, now. No doubt.

But 'unified memory'? How about some discrete memory for those GPU cores to sail through. *shrug* Do they handle the memory that much differently than the earlier systems with shared memory? I remember that not being a good thing. Still, wow... So the New New New New New Mac Pro had better shine brighter than the Sun. Wonder how long we will have to wait to see that monster. Wow... It's got to swamp the Studio, or Apple will have a revolt on their hands. And I'd hope they come up with upgrade pricing on them too for the middle sized shops that sunk a lot of money on the MP. *shrug*

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

And no CUDA. And no upgradability.

Another closed box. No surprise there. It has a lot of ports though.

 

[Realityck]

This was a very logical step. Perhaps the quad example is not a mirage in the future.

 

[dumastudetto]

Ordered M1 Max edition!

Why?

The Ultra is surely worth paying a few bucks more. The performance difference will be mindblowing.

 

[Realityck]

Another closed box. No surprise there. It has a lot of ports though.

I think it will be some time until we reached the state of ARM technology where Apple offers some form of modular Mac Pro.

 

[jeffmetanna]

Mac Studio - the best crypto mining machine?

 

[oharag]

And no CUDA. And no upgradability.

Okay buy a freakin PC then - good lord - Apple doesn't use Intel and Nvidia anymore - #sadface. This is a Mac site.

And the whiners about upgradeability. Good lord - PC my friends - PC. BTW you need to go to PCMag.com to feel comfortable. Are you guys hanging out on a Mac site to troll?

 

[Realityck]

Why?

The Ultra is surely worth paying a few bucks more. The performance difference will be mindblowing.

Depends the examples of M1 Max MBP shows its perfectly adequate for a lot of video editing and other creative applications. The M1 Ultra is that much more powerful, but its expensive when you add up buying a lot of options.

BTW did anyone notice the base M1 Ultra is only 20 core CPU and 48 GPU cores?

Thats right if you want a 20 core CPU with 64 GPU core its $1000 more.

Yeah you want a true double M1 Max its $4999!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

are they just gonna stack them CPUs together each iteration? XD

I'm a little disappointed with the CPU department but GPU seems to look more promising as more GPU cores scale better than CPU cores.

Apple was heavily invested in a 'wafer scale integration' company years ago. They ran into problems with the chips of that day and their power usage. Mainly the dies were warping at uneven rates. The drive for lower voltage chips is going a long way to addressing that issue. I believe DEC was working on stacking dies too, and having mixed results also due to heat and uneven stresses. The original wafers were huge, and they were trying to provide space between the different areas, and losing time and in the end just couldn't get past the physics. The goal was to create a whole computer, on a wafer, and have it slot or plug in to a chassis and that was the computer. *Everything* was on/in that wafer. No upgrades unless you bought a new wafer. Storage/IO was external, but that was it. Interesting idea. I can see why Apple would have invested in it I suppose...

Interesting announcements. Wow...

 

[iDento]

Why?

The Ultra is surely worth paying a few bucks more. The performance difference will be mindblowing.

Because it depends on the use case. M1 on 24’ iMac is more than enough (overkill) for most people.

 

[macduke]

M1 Ultra version of Mac Studio starts at $3999? That’s $1000 $2000 more than M1 Max version!

EDIT: I don’t know what happened with my math. I was expecting it to be $1000 more, $2000 more is shocking.

Why? It's twice the CPU, twice the GPU, twice the RAM, twice the storage, and 50% more ThunderBolt ports. Otherwise you can go buy a $50K Mac Pro Tower with a higher electric bill.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I think it will be some time until we reached the state of ARM technology where Apple offers some form of modular Mac Pro.

I watched the video posted either upstream, or on a different thread (the rack mount Mac Pro) and the guy rips the idea of the current Mac Pro being 'modular'. It's not, and likely will never be 'modular'. I do remember a PC that was trying to be modular. It had a processor slot accessible from the outside that took proprietary cards, or 'modules', and people could upgrade their system with just a new module. They were talking about different processor types too, but the product must have died a quick death as I never heard a thing about it afterwards.

Modularity sounds great, but it opens a whole box of hurt if not done right. Slots wear out, and people tend to not follow the directions printed on labels with but red exclamation points on them. I wouldn't think there is much effort in Apple to be actually modular, short of the word being stuck on things. I'm good with that I suppose...

 

[CWallace]

But 'unified memory'? How about some discrete memory for those GPU cores to sail through.

While the unified memory does not have anywhere near the bandwidth of the latest GDDR modules, you also don't have the massive latency of sending data over the PCIe bus between the CPU and GPU and the system RAM and graphics card RAM.

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

Okay buy a freakin PC then - good lord - Apple doesn't use Intel and Nvidia anymore - #sadface. This is a Mac site.

And the whiners about upgradeability. Good lord - PC my friends - PC. BTW you need to go to PCMag.com to feel comfortable. Are you guys hanging out on a Mac site to troll?

Chilllll dude. I never said this is a bad product. I was just saying that there are reasons to stick to PC other than simple price/performance considerations. Just like many of us bought Macs pre-ASi that had terrible price/performance compared to PCs.

 

[RamGuy]

This is some really impressive performance per wattage, but it's not all that competitive when it comes to price versus performance. The price/performance is whats going to be interesting to look at moving forward as Apple is going fully vertical.