The Mac Pro nearly received an M3 Extreme chip twice as powerful as M3 Ultra
Apple abandoned the chip after engineers found it would be costly to build and aimed at a very small buyer pool, Bloomberg reported.
- According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple developed both M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips before canceling those projects due to cost and demand concerns. The M3 Extreme was designed with twice the CPU and GPU cores as the M3 Ultra.
- Extreme-Tier chip rumors first surfaced in 2022, when Gurman reported Apple was developing an M2 Extreme featuring 48 CPU cores and 152 GPU cores. The Mac Pro remained stuck on its 2023 M2 Ultra chip until discontinuation in March.
- Gurman estimated an M2 Extreme Mac Pro could have cost at least $10,000 before upgrades, making it an extraordinarily niche product. Apple ultimately abandoned both Extreme variants due to production costs and limited demand for such an expensive machine.
- In March, Apple discontinued the Mac Pro and confirmed it had no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware, instead redirecting customers toward the Mac Studio. The company pivoted its high-end desktop strategy entirely.
- Gurman does not anticipate the Mac Pro returning anytime soon, if ever, as Apple's focus shifts to Mac Studio evolution. New Mac Studios with M5 Ultra chips are arriving this fall.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Mac Pro could have been vastly more powerful than the Mac Studio
Apple has dropped the Mac Pro entirely, but for a time it was planning to keep it at the top of the range, giving it twice the processing power of the company's Ultra chips — and maybe even one last Intel model.The much-missed Mac ProThe once beloved Mac Pro went out with a whimper in March 2026 as Apple discontinued it. But according to Bloomberg, there had originally been big plans for its future.What eventually caused the end of the Mac Pro w…
According to information from Bloomberg, Apple has designed M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips, combining the power of two Ultra chips. Designed for Mac Pro, they have been abandoned for reasons of cost and low demand. Mac Pro's shutdown has resulted, but the rise of AI could give meaning to this project.
Apple 'Extreme' Mac chips were too good for this RAM
Macworld Take a trip back four years to June 7, 2022, when Apple announced the M2 chip at WWDC 2022. It was the base model of the M2, but reports leading up to its announcement speculated that Apple’s M2 chip plans included Max and Ultra versions, as well as a higher-end chip dubbed “Extreme.” It was thought that the M2 Extreme would find its way into the Mac Pro. However, later in December 2022, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple deci…
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