Apple once again pushed the boundaries of innovation with the introduction of the M2 Ultra, a groundbreaking system on a chip (SoC) that promises to revolutionize the performance of Mac computers. Building upon the success of the M2 family, the M2 Ultra showcases significant enhancements, making it the largest and most capable chip ever produced by Apple.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies introduces M2 Ultra.
"M2 Ultra delivers astonishing performance and capabilities for our pro users’ most demanding workflows while maintaining Apple silicon’s industry-leading power efficiency," Srouji said.
The key to the M2 Ultra's impressive performance lies in Apple's pioneering UltraFusion technology. By seamlessly integrating two M2 Max chips through a second-generation 5-nanometer manufacturing process, the M2 Ultra boasts a staggering 20 billion additional transistors, effectively doubling its processing power. This amalgamation of cutting-edge hardware results in the most potent Mac desktops to date, namely the Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
"With huge performance gains in the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, combined with massive memory bandwidth in a single SoC, M2 Ultra is the world’s most powerful chip ever created for a personal computer," Srouji said.
The M2 Ultra's unified memory architecture is equally impressive, offering a substantial 192GB of memory capacity and twice the memory bandwidth of its predecessor, the M2 Max, clocking in at an astonishing 800GB/s. Moreover, the M2 Ultra's CPU performs 20% faster, its GPU is up to 30% speedier, and the Neural Engine operates with a 40% boost compared to the M1 Ultra. Notably, the M2 Ultra also incorporates a media engine that delivers ProRes acceleration with double the power of the M2 Max.
What sets the M2 Ultra apart is Apple's proprietary UltraFusion packaging technology. With over 10,000 signals connecting the dies, the M2 Ultra leverages a silicon interposer to provide an impressive 2.5 TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth. This architecture enables the M2 Ultra to function as a single chip, eliminating the need for software developers to rework their code to harness its exceptional capabilities.
The M2 Ultra's 24-core CPU, consisting of 16 high-performance cores and 8 high-efficiency cores, delivers a remarkable 20% performance improvement over the M1 Ultra. The GPU also receives a significant boost, with up to 12 additional cores and a 30% increase in power, offering blazing-fast rendering speeds for tasks like 3D effects in applications such as Octane.
Content creators, such as colorists using DaVinci Resolve, will particularly benefit from the M2 Ultra's capabilities, experiencing up to 50% faster video processing on the Mac Studio compared to the M1 Ultra.
With the introduction of the M2 Ultra, Apple has once again raised the bar for Mac performance. This extraordinary chip represents the culmination of cutting-edge technology, delivering unprecedented power and efficiency to Mac users, further solidifying Apple's position at the forefront of the computing industry.
