The Mac Pro M2 Ultra is Apple’s most powerful workstation made and the ultimate for music & video recording studios

Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra Tower – $6999.00 Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra Rack – $7499.00

The Mac Pro M2 Ultra is clearly for the well compensated

While quite a marvel for those of us who appreciate technology, I think it is safe to say the Mac Pro M2 Ultra is not for the average professional or amateur creator. The power it wields and the price of that power will be more than most of us need or can afford. OK, there is sure to be a smattering of well heeled tech fans that will have to have it, but you know what I am saying.

I am extremely glad Apple finally got rid of its last Intel machine.

Kind of humorous, watching YouTube influencers that can’t think beyond Final Cut Pro questioning the value of the Mac Pro M2 Ultra over the Mac Studio M2 Ultra. The Mac Pro M2 Ultra has everything the Mac Studio M2 Ultra has and has tower or rack case, 7 PCIe slots, 1 more fan, 1 more 10Gb Ethernet, 2 more Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, 1 more USB-A port, and 1 more HDMI port. Maybe Apple has some secret tricks unrevealed but at this point, these are the only known differences.

If you don’t need to pay $3000.00 for PCIe expansion, get a Mac Studio.

For an easy to read M2 Series specifications chart, see Apple M2 Processor Series

If you really do need PCIe expansion though, whoa baby!

Don’t be mislead by YouTube influencers, for someone who must have PCIe, the Mac Pro is essential and well worth the uptick over a Mac Studio. PCIe kicks the tush out of USB and Thunderbolt of any kind if you need fast. For a server or any other high bandwidth need, hell yeah. Multiple 100GB Ethernet ports, high capacity and/or fault tolerant RAID SSDs, high end audio…

Time will show it was a very good idea to get the Intel Mac Pro into past history. My guess is over time Apple could engineer further enhancements like multiple processors or add-on GPU cards into new generations as well.

I don’t need a Mac Pro, YouTube influencers don’t need a Mac Pro, and you probably don’t need one either. But for those who do, they know it and will make very good use of the Mac Pro M2 Ultra.

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

I would generally advise to not get too tied up in the minutiae of benchmarks, but they are useful for relative comparisons of processors. It is worth noting that no M Series processors are slouches. Some more than others, but all of them are a noticeable improvement over the Intel processors in previous generation Macs.

CPU single-core performance of the M2 Ultra processors in the Mac Pro are very similar to all other M2 Series processors, because of course they all share the same CPU single-core.

CPU and GPU multi-core performance is where the differences become more apparent because of the different number of cores.

It is worth pointing out again, if you don’t need to pay $3000.00 for PCIe expansion, get a Mac Studio, which has for all intents and purposes exactly the same performance and memory/storage options.

Thanks!
–Yehuda

Manufacturer’s website
https://www.apple.com/mac-pro

Product support, downloads
https://support.apple.com

Videos

Yehuda Rothschild Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra YouTube Playlist