Yes, I know that has been the pattern and understand why it is preferable in most cases. I'm just wondering if Apple is willing to bring out the Mac Pro with an "old core" processor now when it already looks like the Mac Pro will be not as exciting as everyone had hoped. It might be worth accelerating the schedule for the higher end (but low volume) M3 chips just to get a little more buzz around the Mac Pro. That may not happen but we'll see soon what their plans really are.
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Gurman: New 13-Inch and 15-Inch MacBook Airs Likely to Launch by Summer
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I just don't see Apple or TSMC ready to launch an M3 Ultra out of the gate, though trying to do so would be an possible explanation as to why the machine is so late (as they deal with production and yield issues).
It seems that the Mac Studio is going to skip the M2 generation just as the iMac did (and I expect the mini would have if Apple had offered an M1 Pro version) so that means the M2 Ultra can only go into the Mac Pro and since Apple is making M2 Max (which implies they are also making Ultras and just splitting them into two Max), that, IMO, supports the Mac Pro launching on M2 Ultra.
Apple's professional customers (and especially current and potential Mac Pro customers) should generally understand Apple Silicon architecture by now and would understand that an M2 Ultra would outperform a non-Ultra M3 class SoC.
It seems that the Mac Studio is going to skip the M2 generation just as the iMac did (and I expect the mini would have if Apple had offered an M1 Pro version) so that means the M2 Ultra can only go into the Mac Pro and since Apple is making M2 Max (which implies they are also making Ultras and just splitting them into two Max), that, IMO, supports the Mac Pro launching on M2 Ultra.
Apple's professional customers (and especially current and potential Mac Pro customers) should generally understand Apple Silicon architecture by now and would understand that an M2 Ultra would outperform a non-Ultra M3 class SoC.
Well, the Cascade Lake-W in the 2019 Mac Pro lagged its desktop/laptop relatives by a year or two. And Ice Lake-W launched almost two years after Ice Lake-Y did on mobile.
So, it's not an unusual practice. You have lower volume and more specialized optimizations. I don't think too many potential Mac Pro customers will refuse to buy it based on it not having the newest microarchitecture.
