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Apple Could Launch Three New 'Ultra' Devices This Year

kaspurr said:
I feel it needs to be rolled out in more of a synchronized fashion.
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I can understand the gaps between the base "Mx" chip, the "Pro/Max" variants and the "Ultra" variants since they're progressively more complex dies/fusion-wossname-assemblies abd getting them into production probably is rocket science (or harder)...

I get that the Ultra always comes last and - as a relatively low volume product in a "pro" market with longer product cycles - it might not be economical to do an "ultra" version for every generation.

What is annoying is the gaps between - say - the Mx MacBook Pro, Mx MacBook Air, and the Mx iMac arriving, when everybody pretty much knows they're coming, the processor is the only thing changing and all the new products use the same SoC. Making SoCs might be hard, but making 2-4 new logic boards (with pretty much the same electronics) shouldn't stretch the resources of a company with Apple's resources.

Maybe the Mx Mac Mini needs to wait for the Mx Pro Mac Mini... ? or the Mx Max Studio wait for the corresponding Ultra version (...at twice the price... not sure they're even for the same customers...)?
 
novagamer said:
What? This is incorrect. M3 Ultra maxes out at 330w, and the PSU supports 370w.

The M3 Ultra Studio uses less power than the M2 Ultra Studio. There is absolutely going to be a new generation in a few months on M5.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102027

This sounds like it's not the computer for you which is fine, but anyone doing serious work with MLX or research on the ANE / Neural Accelerators will want this machine, and it is more than 5 or 6 customers. Inference speed and time to first token is significantly faster on M5, up to 4x-5x, which was a huge bottleneck before for this type of work.

It's within the realm of possibility they revise the PSU design a bit, particularly if they are discontinuing the Mac Pro which is likely.
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The M4 Max uses 212W, and doubling that would draw more than 370W, which is why it never came to the Studio, and why it never existed at all.

Redesigning the PSU for the Studio also means redesigning the entire heat management and airflow so it doesn't overheat, and then you're basically building another Mac Pro tower.

Any new Ultra chip is going to need the power and thermal management of the Mac Pro, and there just aren't enough customers for Apple to justify it - if there were enough customers to make it profitable, they would have made the M4 Ultra.
 
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Not sure whether there will be a higher end model. Was thinking that for the MacBook Pro, Apple could offer touch screen as an option, much like how the Nano texture option is now. Pricing could be $2499 for 14" and $2999 for the 16" version. Would like to see cellular connectivity option too. Foldable iPhone this year will most likely start at $1999 for the 256GB version.
 
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Will it have an M6 Ultra? Because that might actually be possible on the new 2nm process.

I do not need it but I want it!
 
Ultra prices, Ultra margins, Ultra number go up!
📈
6fee6b7d786c2eb94633018a5ea627a0
 
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wikiverse said:
The M4 Max uses 212W, and doubling that would draw more than 370W, which is why it never came to the Studio, and why it never existed at all.
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Well, M4 Max is 145W according to the linked specs, so guesstimate for a M4 Ultra would prbably be 290-300W. Anyway, since the M4 Ultra didn't exist so we'll never know what the CPU/GPU/RAM/SSD options would have been so it's all angels-on-a-pinhead.

The Mac Pro power/cooling was originally designed to run a Xeon-W desktop furnace, 1.5TB of RAM, multiple hot'n'sweaty discrete GPUs and an unfeasible number of PCIe cards and is a massive overkill for anything Apple Silicon, given that any new Ultra chip is only going to be about twice the power of something that runs in a thin'n'crispy MacBook Pro. Maybe the Studio PSU/Cooling would need an update but the result is still going to be closer to a Studio than a Mac Pro.

Also, the M5 Pro and Max have moved to some sort of (vaguely described) modular/multi-die system (sounds like a separate CPU and GPU die, not sure) so it's far from clear what the actual specs of any new "ultra" will be.
 
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If the MacBook Ultra is the only MacBook with touchscreen and the pro remain as it is, I am good with it because I do not want my MacBook to have a touchscreen when I upgrade in 3-4 years unless there is no longer a physical keyboard but, I expect an OLED screen
 
Coming soon: Apple Ultra™️ subscription - for the low price USD$2000/month, you'll get to renew all your Ultra™️ products every hardware refresh!
 
hoodlum90 said:
Actually, the latest front page update from a couple minutes ago is in line with my comment
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Really? Despite the fact it has a story of the cheapest Mac getting a touchscreen? And you can bet if they do that EVERY MAC laptop will get a touchscreen.
 
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Wow..the name alone takes me back to the days of Ultraman and Nintendo’s follow up system to the incredible SNES….The Nintendo ULTRA 64 …with a cooler logo also

ksec said:
Um... Ok, so MacBook "Ultra" above Pro, So we have Neo, Air, Pro, And Ultra.

Why cant we just have normal MacBook. Actually we do have normal just iPad.

What about SE, we dont have SE anymore, we have 17e, so why not call it 17 Neo?

The whole naming thing is becoming very Microsoft.
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The naming of these products must be very important to Apple. It’s like naming children. And with almost all ppl, the hope is that they live up to a good solid name…

iPhone Neo just must not sit right with Apple…so as it is and so shall it b, amen.


svish said:
Not sure whether there will be a higher end model. Was thinking that for the MacBook Pro, Apple could offer touch screen as an option, much like how the Nano texture option is now. Pricing could be $2499 for 14" and $2990 for the 16" version. Would like to see cellular connectivity option too. Foldable iPhone this year will most likely start at $1999 for the 256GB version.
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I don’t know much abt the hardware angle to all this tech, infernal contraptions doo-dads and doo-hickies, but it would seem that it would be oh so easy to just slap inside MacBook the new iPhone cell data chips theyve been using as of late…RAMageddon, maybe?
 
The braggadocio of 'Ultra' branding leaves me disappointed. Apple's 'Pro' products, like the iPhone Pro and MacBook Pro, could already use some improvements in the years to come without those improvements being exclusive to an even more expensive price tier.

In other words, customers of 'Pro' products are paying enough!
 
Neo, Air, Pro, Max..... Ultra..... Rampage, Monster, Mega, Holy, Domin, Wiked, Ownage, Godlike, Unstopable 😀

​

 
ksec said:
Um... Ok, so MacBook "Ultra" above Pro, So we have Neo, Air, Pro, And Ultra.

Why cant we just have normal MacBook. Actually we do have normal just iPad.

What about SE, we dont have SE anymore, we have 17e, so why not call it 17 Neo?

The whole naming thing is becoming very Microsoft.
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When one buys for the particular specs he or she needs regardless of the moniker name used, the buying process is very simple.
 
I've never liked the naming of the SE devices. I don't even like the term Air, it seems confusing. Wasn't the first "Air" product the MacBook Air that fit inside a business-sized envelope? Aren't we passed that now? I wouldn't mind Ultra and Neo for the high-end and cost-conscious names in the future. Does anyone else agree/disagree? I suppose we'd still have to deal with Pro and Max.
 
ksec said:
Um... Ok, so MacBook "Ultra" above Pro, So we have Neo, Air, Pro, And Ultra.

Why cant we just have normal MacBook. Actually we do have normal just iPad.

What about SE, we dont have SE anymore, we have 17e, so why not call it 17 Neo?

The whole naming thing is becoming very Microsoft.
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Apple watches are still using the SE branding, they even switched from unnamed generations to actually numbering them with the SE 3.
 
AirPods Ultra?!

The naming conventions are getting as silly as nVidia. For example, the video card in my gaming rig is a "RTX 4070 Ti Super OC"
 
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