Apple silicon Mac Pro to feature M2 Ultra chip with up to 76 GPU cores

The upcoming Apple silicon Mac Pro is due to be announced this spring. While it’s unclear exactly when Apple will start selling its most powerful Mac yet, it’s been almost a year since the company teased the development of this machine.

Previously, rumors indicated the Apple silicon Mac pro would have a high-end configuration with 48 CPU and 152 graphics cores with the M2 Extreme processor, but, unfortunately, this chip has been canceled.

In addition, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter, said at the beginning of the year that the Apple silicon Mac Pro would look identical to the 2019 model. However, it was also rumored to be half the size of the current generation. Disappointments regarding this machine went on:

It will also lack one key feature from the Intel version: user-upgradeable RAM. That’s because the memory is tied directly to the M2 Ultra’s motherboard. Still, there are two SSD storage slots and for graphics, media and networking cards.

Now, the journalist says this machine may lack user-upgradeable GPUs in addition to non-upgradeable RAM, as Apple silicon Macs still don’t support external GPU support. That said, he expects the M2 Ultra GPU will be powered with up to 76 cores.

Since Mac Pro’s most important feature is being upgradeable, Gurman says it will be possible to add more storage as it will have the same design as the previous Intel model. Last but not least, he adds that the “big difference between a Mac Pro and Mac Studio, in addition to M1 Ultra to M2 Ultra, should be a performance from more cooling.”

The Apple silicon Mac Pro should be released alongside macOS 13.3. Apple just made available macOS 13.2, and beta testing of this upcoming operating system should start soon.