“The monster is coming out of the cage!” With this old meme from 2016, we started talking about the M2 Ultra, Apple’s new processor. The M2 Ultra is the most powerful chip in the history of the manufacturer, formed from the merger between two M2 Max. The M2 Ultra, as the “2” in its name indicates, is the second generation of the Apple Silicon Ultra.
This system on a chip, which can count on up to 76 GPU cores, unites two M2 Max through Apple-owned UltraFusion technology. The SoC makes its debut on Mac Studio and Mac Pro desktops. With the arrival of the M2 Ultra to the Mac Pro, Apple finalizes its transition to Apple Silicon: all Macs and Macbooks have models equipped with chips from the M line — goodbye, Intel.
M2 Ultra is a monster you’ll probably never use
With maximum configurations of 192GB of memory, 24 CPU cores, up to 76 GPU cores, and 800GB/s of bandwidth, the M2 Ultra is a powerful processor that the average user shouldn’t get their hands on.
As Jennifer Munn, Apple’s director of engineering, pointed out during a presentation at WWDC 2023, the M2 Ultra is a SoC aimed at video editors and other professionals who deal with rendering programs. All the examples about the potential of the M2 Ultra involved the use of Mac Studio and Mac Pro in film production—including the ability to use six displays at the same time.
Performance jump: According to Apple, Mac Studio with M2 Ultra is 50% faster than its version with M1 Ultra in video processing in DaVinci Resolve.
GPU gains: With 60 or 76 GPU core configurations, Apple claims that the M2 Ultra has a 30% gain over the M1 Ultra. Tests from the manufacturer showed that the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra is three times faster than its predecessor in 3D renderings of Octane.
Mac Pro M2 Ultra vs. Mac Pro Intel: The Mac Pro with M2 Ultra chip is three times faster than the Intel-based Mac Pro in video and 3D tasks.
