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Apple Introduces M3 Ultra Chip With Impressive Performance, Up to 512GB of RAM, and More

switz said:
I ordered my 16" M4 Max Mac Book Pro with both the 8TB SSD and 128GB of ram. It was not suddenly made obsolete by this product announcement.

I expected the new generation of Mac Studio to have 512GB of ram and obviously USB-C 5 ports, but the 16TB SSD was a surprise and certainly was at Apple's always high wallet burning pricing. Fully loaded price of about 14,100 before taxes separates the men from the boys....

Take two, they are small 🤓
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To be honest, I was a bit nervous since I've just ordered a 14-Core M4 Pro with 48 GB of RAM for 2000 bucks but since the base Max has the same performance and comes with 36, I'm still very happy about my purchase. There's nothing I would've gained with the Mac Studio. Don't really need the 10 GB port and if I wanted, I could hook an adapter up via Thunderbolt 5 which in my opinion is better due to the 10 GB adapter getting really hot and I rather prefer it outside the computer.
 
PsykX said:
I'm also surprised they didn't say it's the fastest CPU on Earth. They just said "world's fastest CPU core", I guess they mean single-core result ?
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Well there's AMD Ryzen Threadripper workstation CPUs with 64 and 96 cores - and none of them efficiency cores. So the M3 Ultra is unlikely to the fastest CPU on earth.
 
joeblow7777 said:
Rhetorical question, but my point remains. You're clearly not an average consumer looking for a computer to work on Word documents and stream Netflix.
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Of course I'm not. But then the Studio isn't intended for those types of tasks. I was just answering your question:

"What does one do that requires 512GB of RAM?"
 
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m1maverick said:
Of course I'm not. But then the Studio isn't intended for those types of tasks. I was just answering your question:

"What does one do that requires 512GB of RAM?"
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Fair enough. But my question was just a rhetorical response to someone else's question of who needs 16TB of storage. Bottom line: Not average consumers. lol.
 
Quash said:
They probably wanted to make this chip for their data-centers.
Might as well sell some in an expensive mac studio.

Will be interesting to see if it's 2 fused max chips or a dedicated ultra chip.
Probably the latter since it has TB5 and 4x the m3 max memory capacity.
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It seems like Apple went back to the M3 die and made some changes with both the M3 and the new M3 Ultra. People here are already expecting an M5 by the end of summer when it’s clearly evident that Apple is trying to recoup and extend some of their existing technology stack. Expectations are unrealistic in these threads.
 
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Zdigital2015 said:
Many people here are simply spec driven and M3 isn’t M4 so it must be bad.
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I didn't say it was bad, I just think it's underwhelming given everything else is moving to M4. Even more ironic is the Max version is moving to M4. Apple has their reasons it just doesn't feel right.
 
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joeblow7777 said:
What does one do that requires 512GB of RAM? Computers with these kind of specs aren't for regular consumers.
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Large Language Models. There is a very high demand for such chips with lots of fast integrated memory. This chip is probably the best for the price class and should compete nicely with Nvidia Digits.
 
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MayaUser said:
yes, that Mac Pro has to be updated as soon as WWDC, because its ridiculous to have the M3 ultra in an cheaper device
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I have a feeling that Apple is saving the M4 Ultra for the Mac Pro update. That way they can justify its existence over the M3 Ultra Mac Studio.
 
joeblow7777 said:
Rhetorical question, but my point remains. You're clearly not an average consumer looking for a computer to work on Word documents and stream Netflix.
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And clearly the Mac Studio with 512GB of ram is not for the average consumer. What’s your point?
 
teak421 said:
Really bummed. I have a M1 Ultra and I was waiting for the M4 Ultra. I might just want another year... they have m4 Max, why would they go backwards?
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most likely because of capacity restrains they might have with N3E (M4, A18) Apple already maxed out TSMC's manufacturing capacity

But N3B (previous node (M3, A17) might have more capacity to produce in acceptable quantities.
 
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Zdigital2015 said:
Many people here are simply spec driven and M3 isn’t M4 so it must be bad.
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Single core performance is almost certainly going to be worse than the M4 Max though. And this does matter, in fact it matters most of the time.
 
m1maverick said:
I didn't say it was bad, I just think it's underwhelming given everything else is moving to M4. Even more ironic is the Max version is moving to M4. Apple has their reasons it just doesn't feel right.
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The ultra is a niche SoC at best and I’m sure the UltraFusion tech is not something as simple as plugging two Max dies together and voila it works. If Apple ever gets someone on press tour to discuss the M3 Ultra, it will make sense. Retrofitting a Thunderbolt 5 controller in there suggest this is more than meets the eye in terms of this Ultra being a custom SoC, and much more sophisticated than previous Ultras.
 
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teak421 said:
Really bummed. I have a M1 Ultra and I was waiting for the M4 Ultra. I might just want another year... they have m4 Max, why would they go backwards?
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still a nice upgrade and your M1 will be worth less the longer you wait.
 
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Chancha said:
Single core performance is almost certainly going to be worse than the M4 Max though. And this does matter, in fact it matters most of the time.
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So what? I can buy a base M4 Air and get the same performance as an M4 Max in SC. Anyone buying an Ultra is not buying it for single core, they’re buying it for the multi core, but even more they are buying it for the GPU cores and memory expansion as those will be bigger factors in their specific workflows. GPU cores matter in video editing way more than single core performance. The fixation on SC for potential M3 Ultra buyers is just a smokescreen. Besides multi core performance is so far past where we started just a few years ago people are forgetting how bad the Intel Xeon years were for Pros. M3 or M4, we’re in happy fun time now compared to the old iMac and Mac Pros.
 
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