M4 Ultra Mac Pro: Everything you need to know

Macworld

Apple last updated the Mac Pro in 2023 when it was the last Mac to be outfitted with an M-series chip–three years after Apple started to use its own silicon in Macs. The Mac Pro may be on a longer update cycle than the other Macs because it’s an expensive machine with features that address the needs of a niche audience.

But if you’re part of that audience, you’ll want to know when the next model will arrive, so we’ll be tracking the news and rumors about the Mac Pro. This article includes information about the potential updates to the Mac Pro, as well as offers perspective on what those rumored updates mean to Apple’s Mac lineup.

Update October 23, 2024: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that an M4 Mac Pro may be released in 2025.

Mac Pro M4: Release date

With no Mac Pro appearing at WWDC 2024 and no hint of a new Mac Pro coming in October 2024, it looks like we will be stuck with the M2 Ultra Mac Pro until 2025.

The lengthy wait isn’t a surprise. In a report in April 2024 by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman about Apple’s plans for its AI-enhanced M4 chip, he suggested that Apple would not update the Mac Pro until 2025.

In June 2024, Gurman again reported that the Mac released schedule had not changed. The M4 Mac Pro is not expected until the second half of 2025. In August, Gurman reiterated that the M4 Mac Pro will be released in 2025.

Mac Pro M4: Processor

With the long wait, you may be thinking we might get an M5 Ultra Mac Pro, but it looks like it will be the M4 Ultra we will see in June 2025: in October 2024, Gurman reported that Apple “continues to work on an M4 version of the Mac Pro.” He did not provide an update for its release date, which he has previously reported as late 2025.

In his April 2024 report, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman stated that the Mac Pro will be part of Apple’s AI focus and will be upgraded with an M4 with enhanced AI capabilities. Gurman did not offer any details on how those AI enhancements will be implemented or any other specifications about the M4.

At the time, Gurman said the M4 chip currently in testing was code-named Hidra. Since then, Apple unveiled the M4 chip in the iPad Pro with 6 efficiency cores, and 10 graphics processing cores. In tests, speeds were about 20 percent higher than the base M3, so the M4 Ultra, which is what will go in the Mac Pro, should be much faster than the M2 Ultra. We also know that it has an improved Neural Engine for AI features that will be discussed at WWDC.

Presumably, Hidra is an M4 Ultra-type chip. Apple’s M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra chips are essentially two Max chips that work together, but there have been reports that Apple will be changing the processor’s architecture, so we could see higher performance than in previous Ultra chips. For example, the 256GB and 512GB iPad Pro’s M4 has just 3 CPU performance cores, the first time Apple has offered a version with fewer than four cores.

Mac Pro M4: Design and specs

Gurman also reported that Apple wants to dramatically increase the maximum amount of unified memory in the high-end desktop M4 Macs to 512GB. The current limit on the M2 Ultra Mac Pro is 192GB. So, the M4 Ultra Mac Pro could support more than twice the memory as the current M2 Ultra Mac Pro.

No other reports have been made about the inner workings of the upcoming Mac Pro. Because Apple wants to focus on AI, the Mac Pro could be marketed as an AI development workstation, so Apple could upgrade other components to accommodate these needs. No reports have been made about the design, either.




The next Mac Pro upgrade is expected to keep the same design, but the internal components will likely change, with the key one being an M4 Ultra upgrade.Foundry

In August 2024, Gurman reported that one new Macs will get a “dramatic change” in its design along with its M4 update. Though Gurman didn’t specifically say that the Mac Pro was going to be the Mac with the new design, the Mac Pro has had its design for 11 years, so it could be the Mac being referenced. More likely it is the Mac mini that is getting a redesign though.

Mac Pro M4: Price

Here are the prices for the current standard base configurations of the M2 Ultra Mac Pro for reference. Apple expects customers to customer configure their orders, so prices will vary from these base specifications.

$6,999/£7,199/CA$8,999/AU$11,999 Mac Pro Tower: M2 Ultra, 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine, 64GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD

$7,499/£7,699/CA$9,599/AU$12,999 Mac Pro Rack: M2 Ultra, 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine, 64GB Unified Memory, 1TB SSD

Pricing for the new Mac Pro has not been reported, though we expect pricing to remain the same in the U.S. The price may be adapted to more recent exchange rates elsewhere. We predict that in the U.K. the price will be in line with the U.S. for example: £6,999 rather than £7,199.