Category Archives: M2 Ultra

Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra

By M2 Ultra, Mac Pro

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

Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra – $????.00

If you’re a serious pro or amateur musician, you really want the Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra or the Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max. These are the best you can buy today.

A large music and/or video recording studio without budget restraints may want to consider the anticipated Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra.

If you absolutely must spend less than $1999.00, consider the Mac mini M2 Pro. Other less expensive options are the Mac mini M2, Mac mini M1, MacBook Pro M1 Pro, MacBook Air M2, MacBook Air M1 or 24″ iMac M1. Even buy used or refurbished if need be. To suggest buying less than these systems is bad advice. Also see notes below in the Unified Memory section.

See: Apple Silicon is the DAW standard.

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 will wield 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.

No doubt, the Mac Pro M2 Ultra will be Apple’s fastest machine to date when it is released. However, I’m going to guess from what it is expected to be, at least I hope that it is a stopgap measure. When actual inventory becomes for sale, it will have been two and a half years since the M1 was announced. Apple really needs to get rid of its last Intel based system.

What to expect

The most likely true rumor is that the Mac Pro M2 Ultra form factor will not be redesigned. The Mac Pro M2 official announcement date is expected to be towards the end of March 2023.

The M2 Ultra is expected to be 10%-20% faster than the equivalent M1 Ultra.

Like the M1 Ultra, the M2 Ultra will essentially be two M2 Maxs. The M2 Ultra will be a slightly faster version of the M1 Ultra. The M2 Ultra is expected to have 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores and up to 192GB unified memory.

Any other configuration details are pure conjecture. Even the above is fuzzy. I will share more details as they become available.

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

What not to expect

The M2 Extreme initially thought to be planned for the Mac Pro has been scrapped. I’m going to guess when the kinks get worked out of a 4 die chip you will see an M3 Extreme version of the Mac Pro.

Rumors say there will be no user upgradeable memory beyond the 192GB unified memory internal to the SoC. Rumors also say there will no user upgradeable GPU slots.

Anything could happen

While it is true that leaker Mark Gurman has been a fairly reliable source of pre-announcement information, anything is possible.

I should also note that evidence of an Apple Computer Module, that might or might not be related to the Mac Pro, has surfaced. Use your imagination with that one. There are many possibilities.

Thanks!
–Yehuda

Videos

Yehuda Rothschild Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra YouTube Playlist

Apple related pages
Updated periodically – Apple Silicon is the DAW standard
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M1 Pro & M1 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M1
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M2 & M2 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M1
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M2
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M3
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M1
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M3
Updated periodically – Apple Studio Display
Updated periodically – Apple M1 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M2 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M3 Processor Series

Follow on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social

This page is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social.

Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra

By Apple, M2 Max, M2 Ultra, Mac Studio

A healthy spec bump that may or may not be released

Apple Mac Studio M2 Max $????.00 – M2 Ultra $????.00 minimum per processor type

If you’re a serious pro or amateur musician, you really want the Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra or the Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max. These are the best you can buy today.

A large music and/or video recording studio without budget restraints may want to consider the anticipated Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra.

If you absolutely must spend less than $1999.00, consider the Mac mini M2 Pro. Other less expensive options are the Mac mini M2, Mac mini M1, MacBook Pro M1 Pro, MacBook Air M2, MacBook Air M1 or 24″ iMac M1. Even buy used or refurbished if need be. To suggest buying less than these systems is bad advice. Also see notes below in the Unified Memory section.

See: Apple Silicon is the DAW standard.

The Apple Mac Studio with M1 Max and M1 Ultra was announced over a year ago on March 8, 2022

It is a real possibility the Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra could be announced in March of 2023, a year later. Or it could be announced later in 2023.

However, leaker Mark Gurman said in paywalled comments to his February 5, 2023 newsletter:

“I wouldn’t anticipate the introduction of a Mac Studio in the near future. The upcoming Mac Pro is very similar in functionality to the Mac Studio — and adds the M2 Ultra chip rather than the M1 Ultra. So it wouldn’t make sense for Apple to offer an M2 Ultra Mac Studio and M2 Ultra Mac Pro at the same time. It’s more likely that Apple either never updates the Mac Studio or holds off until the M3 or M4 generation. At that point, the company may be able to better differentiate the Mac Studio from the Mac Pro.“

Frankly, this reasoning seems absurd to me but time will tell. If true, the new Mac Pro M2 Ultra must be pretty lackluster if it would have little added value over a Mac Studio M2 Ultra… Personally, I think the strongest possibility is the Mac Studio remains in the lineup and will be upgraded to the M3 Max/Ultra in late 2023 or in 2024 sometime when the M3 Extreme kinks get worked out for the Mac Pro.

For me, none of this is a problem. The Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra remain current and extremely good choices, and personally I have no intention of upgrading my M1 Ultra until M3 or M4 Ultra.

At any rate, if the Mac Studio does get upgraded to M2 Max/M2 Ultra, it is highly likely there will be no redesign, like the recent 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max upgrade. The Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra will have the same basics as the M1 Series. This is fine with me, I love the Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra.

I think it is safe to say, that like the recent 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros there will be upgrades to HDMI 2.1, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3. and of course the M2 Max and M2 Ultra processors.

Hopefully the prices will remain the same. I think it would be unrealistic to expect a price decrease, especially with a similarly outfitted Mac mini M2 Pro already in the same price ballpark as the Mac Studio M1 Max. Any likely price movement will be up not down. Hopefully it will remain the same though. We’ll see…

Information you need to properly digest web sites & especially YouTube.
Updated frequently – Apple Technology YouTube Critique

CPU Performance Benchmarks

This is fairly easy to predict since we know what the core counts are for the M2 Max, and we have actual benchmarks. The M2 Ultra is of course two M2 Maxs and we also know the scaling as core counts increase is improved over M1 Series. See Apple M2 Processor Series for actual benchmarks.

GPU Performance Benchmarks

This is fairly easy to predict since we know what the core counts are for the M2 Max, and we have actual benchmarks. The M2 Ultra is of course two M2 Maxs and we also know the scaling as core counts increase is improved over M1 Series. See Apple M2 Processor Series for actual benchmarks.

SSD Performance Benchmarks

I think it’s safe to say Apple now has a trend of using a single NAND chip for its 512GB SSDs. So smart money says stay away from 512GB SSDs. Otherwise you can expect Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra 1TB and larger SSDs to have the same stellar performance M1 Series have now.

DAW Performance Benchmarks

Check software compatibilities

The strongest likelihood is the Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra will have macOS Ventura on it.

It should go without saying, but I’m gonna say it anyway. M Series has been out since November 2020. I think it’s crazy that any DAW or plugin should have issues or still be running on Rosetta emulation, but not everyone listens to me. Do your homework!

Furthermore, in my opinion any major software company that markets to Apple users and hasn’t updated their software to include Apple silicon compatibility deserves to lose your business. It’s been over 2 years, and at this point it’s a real screw you. They obviously don’t care about their customers and should be replaced by a company that cares more about their customers.

macOS 13 Ventura: Compatibility Guide

My personal experience with Ventura has been very good. Everything I use runs natively on M Series and is compatible with Ventura. But don’t listen to me, do your homework!

The Mac Studio has what it takes to get through the next 5+ years of your music & video productions

This is why you buy Apple. Realistically with the cost of computers these days, a 1-3 year refresh cycle is not practical for most people. Unlike the majority if not all PC systems, Apple computers are built to last and Apple silicon is state of the art enough to start you at the head of the pack.

Keep coming back

What I am going to do over time is share configuration and electronic music/video recording pertinent information. More soon.

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Useful Links

Apple related pages
Updated periodically – Apple Silicon is the DAW standard
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M1 Pro & M1 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M1
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M2 & M2 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M1
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M2
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M3
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M1
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M3
Updated periodically – Apple Studio Display
Updated periodically – Apple M1 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M2 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M3 Processor Series

Follow on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social

This page is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social.

Apple M2 Processor Series

By Apple Silicon, M2, M2 Max, M2 Pro, M2 Ultra

Understanding possibly five Apple M2 Series processors

Apple M2
Apple announced the M2 SoC on June 6, 2022, at WWDC, along with the new MacBook Air and the new 13-inch MacBook Pro and later the iPad Pro (6th generation). It is the successor to the Apple M1. The M2 is made with TSMC’s “Enhanced 5-nanometer technology” N5P process and contains 20 billion transistors, a 25% increase from the previous generation M1. The M2 can be configured with up to 24 gigabytes of RAM and 2 terabytes of storage. It has 8 CPU cores (4 performance and 4 efficiency) and up to 10 GPU cores. The M2 also increases the memory bandwidth to 100 GB/s. Apple claims CPU improvements up to 18% and GPU improvements up to 35% compared to the previous M1.

Apple M2 Pro
The M2 Pro is a more powerful version of the M2, with six to eight performance cores, four efficiency cores, 16 to 19 core GPU, 16 Apple Next Generation Neural Engine cores, up to 32 GBs of unified RAM with up to 200 GB/s memory bandwidth, and over 40 billion transistors, 20 percent more than the M1 Pro and twice the M2. It was announced on January 17, 2023 in a press release and it is used in the 14 and 16 inch 2023 MacBook Pro (Apple silicon) as well as the Mac Mini. Apple claims the CPU performance on the M2 Pro is 20 percent faster than the M1 Pro and the GPU is 30 percent faster than the one on the M1 Pro.

Apple M2 Max
The M2 Max is a larger more powerful version of the M2 Pro, with eight performance cores, four efficiency cores, 30 to 38 core GPU, 16 Apple Next Generation Neural Engine cores, up to 96GBs of unified RAM with up to 400 GB/s memory bandwidth, and over 67 billion transistors, 10 billion more than the M1 Max and 3x the M2. It was announced on January 17, 2023 in a press release and it is used in the 14 and 16 inch 2023 MacBook Pro (Apple silicon). Apple claims the CPU performance on the M2 Max is 20 percent faster that M1 Max and the GPU is 30 percent faster than the M1 Max. According to Apple, “the M2 Max is the most powerful and efficient chip in a pro laptop”.
Wikipedia 

The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.

Performance of the various M2 processors really boils down to the base M2 processor performance.

The base M2 has been in the MacBook Air and available since the beginning of July 2022. The Mac mini refreshed its lineup from M1 and Intel based, to M2 and M2 Pro models in Q1 of 2023. The 14″ & 16″ MacBook Pros upgraded to the M2 Pro and M2 Max in Q1 of 2023.

We know Apple is trying to move M Series processor upgrades to an annual rhythm like the A Series processors for iPhones etc. I’m starting to believe we will not see an M2 Ultra or M2 Extreme in any Apple products. The M2 Extreme has been reportedly scrapped. Rumors say the Mac Studio will not get released in a M2 Max/Ultra iteration. Rumors also say the 24″ iMac will not get released in a M2 iteration.

If I am wrong about a faster than expected jump to M3 Series processors, expect that the M2 Ultra will be released mid 2023 in the Mac Pro.

By the end of 2023, the Apple M1 Processor Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M2 and M3 Processor Series in newly released products.

M2, M2 Pro & M2 Max specifications are actual
M2 Ultra & M2 Extreme specifications are estimates

While M2, M2 Pro and M2 Max are distinct designs, M2 Ultra is expected to be essentially two interconnected M2 Maxs (as the M1 Ultra was two M1 Maxs), and M2 Extreme is expected to be four interconnected M2 Maxs.

** If you are browsing this page from a phone, you may want to view the following chart in landscape mode.

ComponentM2M2 ProM2 MaxM2 UltraM2 Extreme
Efficiency CPU Cores444816
Efficiency Clock2.4GHz2.4GHz2.4GHz2.4GHz2.4GHz
Performance CPU Cores46 or 881632
Performance Clock3.5GHz3.5GHz3.5GHz3.5GHz3.5GHz
Neural Engine Cores1616163264
GPU Cores options8 or 1016 or 1930 or 3860 or 76120 or 152
Unified Memory options8GB 16GB 24GB16GB 32GB32GB 64GB 96GB64GB 128GB 192GB128GB 256GB 384GB
Memory Bandwidth100GB/s200GB/s400GB/s800GB/s1600GB/s
Video Decode Engines11124
Video Encode Engines11248
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines11248

Assuming a less than 2 year processor life cycle, before the end of 2024 the M2 Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M3 Processor Series in newly released products.

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

Buying an Apple M2 Series computer

Any Apple M2 Series computer will be a joyful experience compared to music and video production on Intel hardware. Highly recommended to get at least 16GB of memory and 512GB storage if you select an M2 Series system.

So far, there are 6 basic form factors of Apple macOS systems with M2 Series processors expected, 2 desktops and 4 laptops.

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Useful Links

Apple related pages
Updated periodically – Apple Silicon is the DAW standard
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M1 Pro & M1 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M1
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M2 & M2 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M1
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M2
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Air M3
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M1
Updated periodically – Apple 24″ iMac M3
Updated periodically – Apple Studio Display
Updated periodically – Apple M1 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M2 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M3 Processor Series

Follow on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social

This page is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Mastodon – @Yehuda@Mvskoke.social.