Apple may release updated Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips this week

An M4 MacBook Air may not be the only new Mac coming this week. Mark Gurman shared that Apple may actually be planning to release an updated Mac Studio this week, and the company may not be done introducing new M3 chips after all.

“It’s not an “Air” — but the new Mac Studio, codenamed J575, appears to be imminent,” Gurman says. “It could be announced as early as this week along with the new MacBook Airs.”

But when it comes to which chip powers the updated standalone desktop Mac, the answer may be surprising.

“There are signs these will come with an M4 Max but that its new Ultra chip will actually be an M3 Ultra,” Gurman says.

Apple currently sells two versions of the Mac Studio. The M2 Max version costs $1999, and the M2 Ultra model costs $3999.

Apple’s M2 Ultra is basically two M2 Max chips connected together. Apple has not released an M3 Ultra or M4 Ultra. For now, the M3 and M4 line only includes Pro and Max versions.

Replacing the M2-generation Mac Studio models with an M4 Max and M3 Ultra would certainly be weird and confusing, which makes it seem all the more plausible.

To recap, the M4 Max already exists, but there are no M3 Ultra or M4 Ultra chips yet.

The M4 Max would certainly exceed at single-threaded workloads, but the theoretical M3 Ultra would have a higher performance ceiling for multi-core workloads.

The now two-year-old Mac workstation originally launched with M1 Max and M1 Ultra chip options during a time when the Mac Pro tower still ran on Intel Xeon chips. As Mark points out, the current Mac Studio and Mac Pro each include M2 Ultra configurations.

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