M1 Ultra is the next big step for Apple chips and the Mac. UltraFusion, Apple’s new packaging design, connects the dies of two M1 Max chips together to create a system on a chip (SoC) that has never-before-seen levels of performance and capabilities. M1 Ultra delivers breathtaking computing power to the new Mac Studio while maintaining the best performance per watt in the industry. There are 114 billion transistors on the new SoC, which is the most ever on a computer chip. It can be set up with up to 128GB of high-bandwidth, low-latency unified memory that can be used by the 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine. This means that developers can write code faster, artists can work in huge 3D environments that were previously impossible to render, and video professionals can convert video to ProRes up to 5.6x faster than with a 28-core Mac Pro with Afterburner.
Groundbreaking UltraFusion Architecture
The M1 Ultra is built on top of the very powerful and efficient M1 Max. To make it, the dies of two M1 Max are connected using UltraFusion, Apple’s own packaging design. This is the most common way to get more performance out of your computer. Connecting two chips through the motherboard usually comes with a lot of drawbacks, such as slower latency, less bandwidth, and more power. Apple’s new UltraFusion technology, on the other hand, uses a silicon interposer that connects the chips across more than 10,000 signals, providing a massive 2.5TB/s of low-latency, inter-processor bandwidth. This is more than 4 times the bandwidth of the most common multi-chip interconnect technology. So, developers don’t have to write new code to use M1 Ultra’s extra power. There’s never been anything like this before.
Unprecedented Performance and Power Efficiency
M1 Ultra has a very powerful 20-core CPU that has 16 high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. It has 90% more multi-threaded performance than the fastest 16-core PC desktop chip in the same power envelope. In addition, M1 Ultra reaches the PC chip’s top speed with 100 fewer watts. That means less energy is used and the fans run more quietly, even as apps like Logic Pro process a huge amount of virtual instruments, audio plug-ins, and effects.
For the most graphics-intensive needs, like 3D rendering and complex image processing, M1 Ultra has a 64-core GPU — 8x the size of M1 — delivering faster performance than even the highest-end PC GPU available while using 200 fewer watts of power.
Unified memory architecture is also getting bigger with M1 Ultra. It can be set up with up to 128GB of unified memory, which is more than 10 times faster than the most recent PC desktop chip. Compared to the most powerful PC graphics cards, which have a maximum of 48GB of memory, nothing can match M1 Ultra for graphics memory. It can handle huge GPU-intensive tasks like working with extreme 3D geometry and rendering huge scenes.
Machine learning tasks can be done quickly thanks to the M1 Ultra’s 32-core Neural Engine, which runs up to 22 trillion operations per second. And, with twice the media engine power of M1 Max, M1 Ultra can encode and decode ProRes video at unprecedented speeds. In fact, the new Mac Studio with M1 Ultra can play back up to 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at the same time. This is a feat that no other chip can do. 4 There are also some custom Apple technologies in the M1 Ultra, like a display engine that can drive multiple external displays, built in Thunderbolt 4 controllers, and best-in-class security, like Apple’s new Secure Enclave and hardware-verified secure boot.
macOS and Apps Scale Up to M1 Ultra
For as long as anyone can remember, Macs have always had a very close relationship between their hardware and their software. Mac OS Monterey has been made for Apple hardware, taking advantage of the M1 Ultra’s huge improvements in CPU, GPU, and memory bandwidth. It’s easier than ever for apps to take advantage of the new chip thanks to technologies like Metal and Core ML. The new 32-core Neural Engine makes machine learning models run faster than ever.
Mac users can now download apps for iPhone and iPad that can run on Macs, as well as Universal apps that can use the full power of the M1 family of chips. As long as Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology is used, apps that have not yet been updated to be Universal will run smoothly on the iPhone.
Apple has integrated Apple silicon into practically every Mac in its current lineup, and each new chip — the M1, the M1 Pro, the M1 Max, and now the M1 Ultra — unlocks incredible potential for the Mac. The M1 Ultra completes Apple’s M1 family of CPUs, powering the all-new Mac Studio, a high-performance desktop system with a reinvented compact design enabled by Apple silicon’s industry-leading performance per watt.
