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Where Does Mac Pro Go Next After M4 Ultra?

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After switching to Apple silicon by adopting the M2 Ultra chip in 2022, the Mac Pro is widely expected to receive an upgrade to the as-yet-unannounced M4 Ultra chip this year.

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Apple last updated the Mac Pro in June 2023, adding an M2 Ultra chip and officially completing the transition away from Intel chips. Apple will refresh the Mac Pro in the summer of 2025, according to Mark Gurman. Like the Mac Studio, the next Mac Pro will skip the M3 series. Instead it will be equipped with the highest-end version of the M4 chip, codenamed "Hidra." Based on the description of the chip, it could be positioned as an "Ultra" or "Extreme" chip. Gurman has said the M4 Ultra chip in the next Mac Pro will "probably" have up to a 32-core CPU and up to an 80-core GPU, which would be double the M4 Max's up to 16-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU. It could also support up to 512GB of memory, a notable increase over the current 192GB limit.

By the time the M4 Ultra Mac Pro is released, the current Mac Pro design will be over five years old. While there was a strong case for extensive PCIe expansion with the Intel-based Mac Pro in 2019, because it supported MPX modules and third-party graphics cards, that is no longer the case since the transition to Apple silicon. Likewise, though reviewers praised the Apple silicon Mac Pro's performance, questions have been raised about the device's purpose and high price point. It is also noticeable that by the summer of 2025, the current Mac Pro will be three years old.

Throughout 2022, there were rumors about Apple developing an "M2 Extreme" chip that doubled the capabilities of the M2 Ultra chip for superlative performance. The chip option was apparently cancelled because "[b]ased on Apple's current pricing structure, an M2 Extreme version of a Mac Pro would probably cost at least $10,000—without any other upgrades—making it an extraordinarily niche product that likely isn't worth the development costs, engineering resources and production bandwidth it would require." Considering that Apple was weighing up an all-new top-tier Apple silicon chip prior to the release of the current model, it isn't out of the question that the company could revisit the idea in 2026 or beyond.

Likewise, before the release of the Apple silicon Mac Pro, there were a multitude of rumors about the company redesigning the Mac Pro to feature a similar but more compact enclosure that was "about half the size." This smaller, redesigned Apple silicon model that was once believed to be in development could move forward after the release of the M4 Ultra version in 2025.

Apple could also revitalize the Mac Pro by offering new optional MPX modules that integrate with the Apple silicon architecture, such as a next-generation Afterburner accelerator card. Of course, it is also possible that the product line could ultimately merge with the Mac Studio. For now, Mac Pro rumors center on the long-awaited upgrade to the M4 Ultra chip later this year.

Article Link: Where Does Mac Pro Go Next After M4 Ultra?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/02/24/mac-pro-after-m4-ultra/
I don't know!

The only Mac Pro I ever saw in actual use was a recording booth for a full orchestra that my ex played in. It had x4 PCIe cards with 8 analog inputs per card, and they would record all 32 channels at every performance, then mix. Is there anything else than can do that?
 
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Dr McKay said:
Before apple silicon Mac Pros were know for dual CPUs,
Click to expand...

For that Apple would either need to design a chip completely different from anything "M" sofar which would than be MP exclusive or you would end up with 2 computers in 1 case (which could be made to work in tasks where a MP still could make sense).
 
What is the market for a MacPro?
Does Apple want to continue playing in that market, “bragging” the performance of its chips?
time will tell
 
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Needs huge memory support (2-4TB+) for full LLM implementations, ideally as high bandwidth VRAM...

NPU processing is going to be even more important than CPU or GPU processing.

So the machines have to have upgradable memory, to expand into multi-terabyte sizes. But since the Mx CPUs memories are directly attached to the CPU die, it likely means that memory is would have to be expandable alongside the CPUs. In other words, instead of adding DIMMs to expand memory, you add CPU modules to expand memory, and there's some kind of interconnect between CPUs to access each other memories/caches/etc.
 
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coolfactor said:
These can't be a huge seller. Do we know of any corporate buyers? Has Apple made inroads into Hollywood?
Click to expand...
Lots of developers looking at machines with huge memories because of LLM (AI large language model) work. The tiniest models can fit in 16GB of memory but the largest ones need terabytes, and lots of bandwidth to the GPU to process it.

And that's just for inference (using models). For training (creating models), companies like OpenAI use thousands of these machines together in a large cluster as a virtual supercomputer.

Powerful machines aren't just for Hollywood.
 
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I was a Mac Pro guy for two decades. Apple made the Mac Mini better than it. Now, it seems like an afterthought for at least the last decade, but especially since the Mac Studio. There is no purpose for it other than legacy, at least insofar as Apple’s current offerings.
 
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