Apple launched a high-performance chip known as the M3 Ultra on March 5 that has the best unified memory in a personal computer, doubles the number of Neural Engine cores, giving the most powerful Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
In comparison to the most advanced workstation graphics cards, the M3 Ultra offers a unified memory architecture with capacities starting at 96GB and scalable to 512GB. High-bandwidth memory and low latency allow it to more smoothly handle demanding activities like visual effects, 3D rendering, and AI processing.
According to Apple, the capabilities of Thunderbolt 5 are more than doubled in the M3 Ultra. It is designed using Apple's UltraFusion packaging architecture, which connects two M3 Max chips through more than 10,000 high-speed connections that offer low latency and high bandwidth.
Two times faster than Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5 allows data transfers of up to 120 Gb/s. Each port of Apple's controller guarantees dependable and quick connections making it ideal for system expansion, connectivity hubs, and external storage.
While maintaining Apple's industry-leading power efficiency, this new technology enables the system to regard the combined die as a single unified chip, resulting in excellent performance.
Apple Senior’s Vice President of Hardware Technology, Johny Srouji stated that M3 Ultra was specifically targeted for customers using the most highly threaded and bandwidth-intensive applications.
“Thanks to its 32-core CPU, massive GPU, support for the most unified memory ever in a personal computer, Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, and industry-leading power efficiency, there’s no other chip like M3 Ultra,” he added.
The chip features a 32-core CPU, which includes 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores, delivering performance up to 1.5x faster than the M2 Ultra and 1.8x faster than the M1 Ultra. Meanwhile, its 80-core GPU boosts graphics capabilities up to two times faster than the M2 Ultra and 2.6x faster than the M1 Ultra.
M3 Ultra also supports Apple Intelligence, a personal AI system built right into the new Mac Studio. Featuring the most powerful in-CPU ML accelerator and GPU Apple has ever made with over 800GB/s of memory bandwidth, it enables processing large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters right on the device.
In terms of design, the M3 Ultra makes use of UltraFusion packaging technology, which provides 2.5TB/s of bandwidth for high-speed data processing by linking two M3 Max chips with over 10,000 signals.
Shahriena Shukri is a journalist covering business and economic news in Malaysia, providing insights on market trends, corporate developments, and financial policies. More about Shahriena Shukri.
