WWDC 2023: Apple Announces Mac Pro with M2 Ultra

Apple will finally bring back the Mac Pro with new chips designed for 2023. It's the first significant update to the Mac Pro in four years and completes Apple's transition to its own Arm-powered Silicon. The new Mac Pro model will be available starting June 13 for $6,999.

The new Mac Pro looks the same as Intel's older version with the metal cheese grater front, but some significant changes are inside. The Mac Pro will come with Apple's M2 Ultra chip and six PCIe Gen 4 slots open for expansion and will offer eight built-in Thunderbolt ports. In addition, it can be configured with a GPU of up to 76 cores and 192 GB of memory. With a full-spec model, Apple says it can be up to 3 times faster than Intel's previous version.

The new Mac Pro features the new M2 Ultra chip along with the revamped Mac Studio. They are two M2 Max connected with Apple's UltraFusion technology, with a 24-core CPU and up to 76-core GPU that is 30 per cent faster than the M1 Ultra. The chip is based on a 5nm process, doubles the memory bandwidth of the M2 Max, up to 800 GB/s, and supports 50% more memory than the M1 Ultra. In addition, the CPU is supposed to be up to 20 per cent faster than the M1 Ultra.

The six PCIe expansion slots are based on Gen 4, which isn't the latest, but it's still swift and will happily support most cards, monitors, and expansion that creative professionals use right now.

The Mac Pro will also have eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports. There are six in the rear and two on top, double the previous number. Like the Mac Studio, this new Mac Pro will support up to six Pro Display XDRs and also includes Wi-Fi 6E connectivity and Bluetooth 5.3 support for the latest accessories. Mac Pro also has three USB-A ports, two "high-bandwidth" HDMI ports (supporting up to 8K resolution and frame rates up to 240Hz), and two 10Gb Ethernet ports. Fortunately, Apple also has retained a headphone jack.

Apple began transitioning to its own M series of chips in November 2020. The initial M1 chip shipped in the MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro before the M2 appeared last year and initially shipped in the MacBook Air.