Apple Unveils 'Monster Chip' M2 Ultra

On the 5th (local time), Apple held the "Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)" at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, USA, and unveiled the new system on chip (SoC) "M2 Ultra." The M2 Ultra, the largest and most powerful chip Apple has ever made, is equipped in the new Mac Studio and Mac Pro, boosting the performance of Mac desktops.

M2 Ultra [Photo by Apple]

The M2 Ultra is created by connecting two M2 Max chip dies based on Apple's custom-designed packaging technology, UltraFusion. UltraFusion uses a silicon interposer that connects dies with over 10,000 signals, providing more than 2.5TB/s of low-latency inter-processor bandwidth. The architecture of UltraFusion allows the M2 Ultra to be recognized by software as a single chip. In other words, there is no need to rewrite code to utilize the ultimate performance of the M2 Ultra.

The 24-core central processing unit (CPU) of the M2 Ultra consists of 16 next-generation high-performance cores and 8 next-generation high-efficiency cores, delivering up to 20% faster performance than the M1 Ultra. Colorists using DaVinci Resolve on the Mac Studio equipped with the M2 Ultra can experience video processing speeds up to 50% faster than on the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) can be configured with either 60 or 76 next-generation cores. This uses up to 12 more cores than the M1 Ultra GPU and improves performance by up to 30%. Octane 3D effect rendering tasks performed on the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra are up to three times faster than those on the Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra.

Apple's unified memory architecture offers excellent bandwidth, low latency, and unparalleled power efficiency. The M2 Ultra boasts 800GB/s of system memory bandwidth. It can be configured with a massive 192GB of unified memory, enabling workflows that are impossible on PCs. For example, the M2 Ultra allows large-scale machine learning training tasks, which are difficult to run even on the most powerful standalone GPUs, to be handled on a single system.

Additionally, the M2 Ultra maximizes performance and efficiency by directly applying Apple's latest custom technologies to the chip. Based on a 32-core Neural Engine capable of 31.6 trillion operations per second, it delivers 40% faster performance compared to the M1 Ultra. The powerful media engine accelerates video processing speeds with twice the capability of the M2 Max. It features professional hardware support for H.264, HEVC, and ProRes encoding and decoding, enabling playback of up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video on the M2 Ultra. The display engine supports up to six Pro Display XDRs, rendering over 100 million pixels. The latest Secure Enclave provides industry-leading security capabilities with hardware-authenticated secure boot and runtime anti-exploitation technologies.

Johnny Srouji, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, said, “The M2 Ultra delivers astonishing performance and capabilities for professional users who require ultra-high-end workflows, while still supporting the industry-leading power efficiency of Apple Silicon. The M2 Ultra, which combines massive CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine performance improvements along with enormous memory bandwidth into a single SoC, is the most powerful chip ever made for personal computers worldwide.”