While we anticipated a new Mac Pro chip to be announced at the March “Peek Performance” event, Apple only introduced the new Mac Studio. The new machine features a compact Mac mini-like design, albeit much taller, and it comes with the more powerful Apple M1 Ultra chipset, which doubles the performance of the already powerful M1 Pro chip and M1 Max. According to a new report, the company may be working on the new Apple M2 Extreme chipset, which may power the upcoming Mac Pro machine.

Apple currently has the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and the M1 Ultra in its lineup, and the Extreme may be the next in the chipset series to be unveiled. Mark Gurman, from Bloomberg, claims that the chipset will reportedly have 48 CPU cores and up to 128 GBPU cores, which is nearly double the M1 Ultra. The performance would also likely get a significant improvement for graphics-intensive tasks, which are used by professionals and researchers.

The current generation of Mac Pro offers a massive 1.5TB of memory (12 x 128GB of DDR4 ECC), and it remains to be seen if the new machine would top that, or offer a similar amount of RAM. The details aren’t clear just yet, but we could see similar specifications memory-wise.

Source: Apple

While there are a lot of posts out there making fun of that the upcoming Apple M2 Extreme could be two M1 Ultra chips, it’s very possible that Apple might use UltraFusion to combine the next generation of chips into one, essentially doubling the performance and upping the CPU cores for maximum power.

Mark Gurman expects these specifications from the upcoming, next-generation of chips:

• M2: eight CPU cores and nine or 10 graphics cores
• M2 Pro: 12 CPU cores and 16 graphics cores
• M2 Max: 12 CPU cores and 32 graphics cores
• M2 Ultra: 24 CPU cores and 48 or 64 graphics cores
• M2 Extreme: 48 CPU cores and 96 or 128 graphics cores

Gurman also shared that the next generation of chipsets could be divided into consumer and professional products.

Pro:

• MacBook Pro (14 inch and 16 inch) with an M2 Pro and M2 Max
• iMac Pro with an M2 Pro and M2 Max
• Mac Studio with an M2 Max and M2 Ultra
• Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme
• Apple Pro Display 7K

Consumer:

• MacBook Air with an M2
• MacBook Pro (13 inch) with an M2
• Mac mini with an M2 and an M2 Pro version to replace the Intel model
• iMac with an M2
• Apple Studio Display

Gurman also states that he expects to see Apple unveil the second generation of Pro XDR Display alongside the brand new Mac Pro, and he expects the display to offer up to 7K resolution. The monitor may also be equipped with an Apple A-series chipset, which could help enhance the image quality, provide camera features, and power Center Stage and Siri.