Aside from releasing an M3 Ultra Mac Studio, the iPhone maker is also expected to bring its upcoming flagship chip to the Mac Pro workstation.
The first Macs powered by the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips arrived in October 2023. However, the Mac Studio was not among them as an M3 Ultra version of the M3 chip was notably absent from the lineup.
According to a new report, however, the forthcoming M3 Ultra will hit the Mac Studio, with an announcement expected around the middle of the year. In other words, an M3 Ultra Mac Studio should be unveiled at the WWDC this summer.
An M3 Ultra Mac Studio arriving in mid-2024
Research firm TrendForce has to story, citing a report by ICsmart which focuses on Apple’s supplier TSMC. As you know, TSMC has been manufacturing Apple silicon for years. The latest Apple M3 chips are being churned out on TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm manufacturing node. In fact, Apple was the first TSMC client to utilize the company’s first-generation 3nm process, also known as N3B.
In fact, Apple was TSMC’s lone customer throughout 2023 in terms of 3nm chips. But as other clients like Nvidia place orders for 3nm semiconductors, TSMC’s capacity utilization should jump to eighty percent by the end of the year.
For the upcoming M3 Ultra and A18 Pro chips, the Cupertino tech giant is expected to adopt TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, dubbed N3E, which is more cost-effective than N3B. “Notably, the Apple M3 Ultra chip might debut in the upgraded Mac Studio around mid-year,” the report reads.
What about an M3 Ultra Mac Pro?
The base M3 chip powers the entry-level MacBook Pro model along with the 24-inch iMac. The more powerful M3 Pro and M3 Max are found in higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations.
The Mac Studio was last updated with the M2 Max and ‌M2‌ Ultra chip options at the WWDC in June 2023. The Mac Pro workstation has remained stuck with the M2 Ultra but we fully expect it to get an M3 Ultra option later in 2024.