No M4 Ultra Chip? Apple Confirms the M4 Max Chip Lacks UltraFusion

[MacRumors]

A spokesperson for Apple has told French technology website Numerama that its M4 Max chip lacks an UltraFusion connector, which would have paved the way for the release of a doubled-up M4 Ultra chip in the future.

As we recently covered, Apple told Ars Technica that not every generation of M-series chips for Macs will include an "Ultra" chip. That seems like Apple indirectly confirming that it has no plans to release an M4 Ultra chip, and the M4 Max's lack of UltraFusion technology makes it even more likely there won't be an M4 Ultra chip.

Apple could still design an M4 Ultra chip from scratch, but it seems to have downplayed this possibility, according to the Numerama report.

The new Mac Studio announced today is available with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip options, with no M4 Ultra chip offered. Apple says the M3 Ultra chip is essentially two M3 Max chips fused together with its UltraFusion technology, so the chip's specs are all doubled compared to the M3 Max. There was speculation last year about the M3 Max chip lacking UltraFusion technology, but Apple's announcement today has proven that rumor was false.

In summary, the M3 Max chip has an UltraFusion connector, but the M4 Max chip does not.

The M3 Ultra chip features up to a 32-core CPU, up to an 80-core GPU, a 32-core Neural Engine, and support for up to 512GB of unified RAM. Apple says the M3 Ultra chip is up to 1.5x faster than the M2 Ultra chip, and up to 1.8x faster than the M1 Ultra chip. To learn more about the chip, read our coverage of Apple's announcement.

Article Link: No M4 Ultra Chip? Apple Confirms the M4 Max Chip Lacks UltraFusion

 

[fathergll]

Max Tech furiously filming a Youtube video as we read this

 

[iToph]

Ok. Then no need to upgrade from my m2 ultra 76c GPU built. Thank god.

 

[spaxxedout]

Notable omission of the Mac Pro. Hoping they do something at WWDC - maybe M-series chips that can be inserted on daughterboards for running large AI models.

 

[dogbrochure]

Really hoping to see the M4 extreme come to the Mac Pro at WWDC. If they update it with M3 Ultra or not at all, they ought to just discontinue it.

 

[pksv]

And probably no M5 Ultra either, as this will be almost exactly 1.5yr cycle window to 2026 October Mac event.

 

[Astuces iOS]

That doesn't mean they can't make a M4.5 Max chip, fuse two of them and make an ultra chip called M4 ULTRA

 

[MrRoberto]

That doesn't mean they can't make a M4.5 Max chip, fuse two of them and make an ultra chip called M4 ULTRA

I think it's too late for that now. Gurman and many others have already said the M5 chip generation is coming before the end of 2025, they won't release a 4.5 and 5th gen at the same time.

 

[MrRoberto]

The interesting thing is that they said the same thing about the M3 chip last year at WWDC, that it had no interconnects to create an M3 Ultra and that's why there will be no Mac Studio released in 2024, lack of M3 Ultra was the explanation.

Now, wonder of wonders, there is an M3 Ultra available after all for the Mac Studio but no M4 Ultra, due to the lack of interconnects?

 

[PsykX]

That doesn't mean they can't make a M4.5 Max chip, fuse two of them and make an ultra chip called M4 ULTRA

I don't see why they'd waste those engineering resources, that are already working on the entire M5, M6 and M7 lineups.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

At this point I’d make a bet that the Mac Pro will have its own monolithic chip. Otherwise, why not update it at the same time as the Studio?

 

[Pezimak]

At this point I’d make a bet that the Mac Pro will have its own monolithic chip. Otherwise, why not update it at the same time as the Studio?

I’m thinking M5 Pro, with the iPad Pro being Apples first device with the new M4 chip, you really can’t predict or say which Apple device will get a new M chip first.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

The interesting thing is that they said the same thing about the M3 chip last year at WWDC, that it had no interconnects to create an M3 Ultra and that's why there will be no Mac Studio released in 2024, lack of M3 Ultra was the explanation.

Now, wonder of wonders, there is an M3 Ultra available after all for the Mac Studio but no M4 Ultra, due to the lack of interconnects?

Apple absolutely never said that, people just speculated about it here

 

[Nugget]

At this point I’d make a bet that the Mac Pro will have its own monolithic chip.

Judging from history it seems just as likely that the Mac Pro will not see an update for another 4 or 5 years and when it eventually does it will come with an apology and promise of renewed focus from Apple.

 

[awshucks]

1997 Steve would have been so proud of this confusion

 

[120FPS]

This makes the lineup look a bit silly. I realise that not everyone needs an Ultra, but the ones who do will want the latest performance benefits. Maybe Apple is doing this intentionally to keep people on their toes as the yearly cycle does become a bit boring, and if you don't give people something to complain about or look forward to, it gets a bit predictable.

 

[CarAnalogy]

At this point I’d make a bet that the Mac Pro will have its own monolithic chip. Otherwise, why not update it at the same time as the Studio?

It's not really safe to bet on any particular behavior from Apple about the Mac Pro. Of all their products, that one has had the weirdest and most unpredictable history of any one still available. Literally anything Apple does with it (or neglects about it) would not surprise me.

 

[Gherkin]

Apple absolutely never said that, people just speculated about it here

I guess the question is… how reliable is this French tech site? did Apple reallly confirm this? Seems kinda odd they would like this. Possibly something lost in translation?

 

[FoxyKaye]

That doesn't mean they can't make a M4.5 Max chip, fuse two of them and make an ultra chip called M4 ULTRA

As long as it's not MK Ultra, it ought to keep the AI hallucinations to a minimum, right?

 

[Ethosik]

Isn’t the M3 Ultra technically M3.5? It has Thunderbolt 5 and other things that are not present in M3 Max. So it’s not just two of them connected.

 

[azentropy]

I could have sworn they said the same thing about the M3 Max.

 

[MrRoberto]

At this point I’d make a bet that the Mac Pro will have its own monolithic chip. Otherwise, why not update it at the same time as the Studio?

That chip will likely be an M5-based Ultra level kind of performance that will leave everything else in the dust and those who bought the Studio M3 Ultra will be scrambling to sell theirs at 50% loss.

 

[reallynotnick]

Seems weird to have not launched a full M3 lineup a year ago for the Studio and Mac Pro if they weren’t waiting for an M4 Ultra.

 

[StuBeck]

The interesting thing is that they said the same thing about the M3 chip last year at WWDC, that it had no interconnects to create an M3 Ultra and that's why there will be no Mac Studio released in 2024, lack of M3 Ultra was the explanation.

Now, wonder of wonders, there is an M3 Ultra available after all for the Mac Studio but no M4 Ultra, due to the lack of interconnects?

Its almost like when they are having trouble selling a processor, they look a bit harder and see it has a function, but until that point hits, it doesn't have that ability.

 

[creediddy]

Apple should have placed the M4 Ultra in the Studio rather than the M3 Ultra. Apple should have released an all new M4 Extreme chip and make it exclusive for Mac Pro. Mac Pro is meant for the Pro User for those who requires heavy and intense CPU and GPU applications, video/studio, or music production.