Apple is reportedly testing an M3 Ultra chip with a significant CPU bump from 24 cores in the M2 Ultra to 32 cores in the next generation version of the chip, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter. Developer logs reportedly also show a base configuration with 64 GPU cores and a top-end version with 80 GPU cores for Apple’s big desktop chip.
You can get an M2 Ultra Mac with a 60-core or 76-core GPU right now, making the next version of the chip a more modest improvement, from a graphics-processing standpoint, versus last year’s leap. The M2 Ultra at its top configuration saw a 12-core jump from the 64-core GPU of a maxed-out M1 Ultra Mac Studio.
As The Verge reports, that’s not to say computers with the new chip will be creaky by any means. The M2 Ultra Mac Studio already rips, and heck, even M2 Max-equipped MacBook Pro laptops are so capable that the pricey 2023 Mac Pro is struggling to find its place in the world.
The Bloomberg report says again that Apple is releasing M3 Macs in October — including a new iMac — but also reiterates that we won’t see computers with the M3 Pro or M3 Max until next year. Gurman predicts an M3 Ultra chip will be a late-2024 release “at the earliest,” based on Apple’s past release schedule.
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