Apple is full of surprises because instead of unveiling the M4 MacBook Air series today, it went ahead and announced the M3 iPad Air lineup, and according to the latest report, the company will launch an updated version of the Mac Studio much earlier than expected. Unfortunately, this does not mean that we will bear witness to the M4 Ultra because the new report mentions that the company will announce the M3 Ultra alongside its mini-workstation. It appears that Apple wishes to differentiate the Mac Studio and Mac Pro by introducing a significantly more powerful silicon later in the year.
Both current-generation Mac Studio and Mac Pro feature the M2 Ultra, which deliver similar performance, but there is a massive price difference between the two machines
Alongside the M3 Ultra, the Mac Studio could also be paired with the M4 Max, at least according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who mentions the machine’s codename in his post on X as ‘J575.’ His reasoning for Apple introducing the M3 Ultra is simple; customers who want the absolute best and have the budget will likely want to purchase the Mac Pro, but only if it arrives with the M4 Ultra. For the longest time, we assumed that Apple had abandoned work on the M3 Ultra, likely because its other chipsets powering less expensive Macs were selling in higher volume.
Back in late 2023, we reported that the M3 Ultra had not gone into broad testing, but its top-tier configuration would apparently offer a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU. There was a separate report doing the rounds, stating that the refreshed Mac Studio would be treated to the M4 Ultra, with the Mac Pro featuring Apple’s ‘Hidra’ chipset as the technology giant’s most powerful custom SoC to date. Since the M3 Max does not feature Apple’s UltraFusion Interconnect to allow for a second M3 Max to be combined to form the M3 Ultra, the latter could feature a monolithic design that could be mass produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process.
It’s not an “Air” — but the new Mac Studio, codenamed J575, appears to be imminent. It could be announced as early as this week along with the new MacBook Airs. There are signs these will come with an M4 Max but that its new Ultra chip will actually be an M3 Ultra.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) March 4, 2025
Sadly, Gurman has not mentioned any of these specifications in the latest post, meaning we must watch for the M3 Ultra launch to provide updated information. As for this approach, from a business ‘point of view,’ it makes sense to equip the Mac Pro with a more powerful Apple Silicon since the M2 Ultra versions offer the same performance, but the tower workstation is $3,000 more expensive.
News Source: Mark Gurman
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech's mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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