Apple Completes Transition To Apple Silicon With M2 Mac Studio & Mac Pro – The Most Powerful Macs Ever Made
At its Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple today completed its transition from ‘Intel Inside’ to Apple Silicon, started in 2020 when they introduced the first MacOS computers featuring the M1 processor.
The company introduced two new systems, based on the company’s M2 Max and new M2 Ultra – the Mac Studio and the new Mac Pro. Apple calls them the “most powerful Macs ever made”.
The new Mac Studio is available in configurations based on the M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra, delivering a significant boost in performance, along with enhanced connectivity.
The Mac Pro, now featuring M2 Ultra, combines Apple’s most powerful chip with the versatility of PCIe expansion, and is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Intel-based model.
“The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro with Apple silicon are the two most powerful Macs we’ve ever made,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “Mac Studio has been a breakthrough for pros everywhere, and it’s at the heart of hundreds of thousands of home and pro studios across the world. Today, it gets even better with M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra, featuring even more performance and enhanced connectivity. And for those users who need the versatility of internal expansion, Mac Pro combines PCIe slots with our most powerful chip. The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro join our other pro systems to give our users the most powerful and capable lineup of pro products that Apple has ever offered.”
The new Mac Studio provides a big boost in performance versus the previous generation and a massive leap for users coming from older Macs.
Mac Studio with M2 Max is up to 50 percent faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio4 and 4x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac. It features a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU, and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Mac Studio with M2 Ultra delivers twice the performance and capabilities of M2 Max, and is Apple’s largest and most capable system on a chip (SoC) ever. Mac Studio with M2 Ultra is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.
It features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, and up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth for workstation-class performance.
Enhanced Connectivity
The new Mac Studio now has higher-bandwidth HDMI, enabling up to 8K resolution and 240Hz frame rates. With M2 Ultra, Mac Studio supports up to six Pro Display XDRs — driving over 100 million pixels — allowing for a vast amount of screen real estate for pro workflows.
Additionally, it now features advanced built-in wireless technologies. Wi-Fi 6E delivers download speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous generation, while Bluetooth 5.3 allows users to connect to the latest Bluetooth accessories.
On the back, Mac Studio includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10Gb Ethernet port, an enhanced HDMI port, and two USB-A ports. It also conveniently has two USB-C ports and an SD card slot on the front to easily import photos and video.
Apple Silicon Comes to Mac Pro – Mac Pro delivers the groundbreaking performance of M2 Ultra, plus the versatility of PCIe expansion.
While the Intel-based Mac Pro started with an 8-core CPU and could be configured up from there, every Mac Pro now has Apple’s most powerful 24-core CPU, an up to 76-core GPU, and a baseline of twice the memory and SSD storage.
The new Mac Pro can be configured with up to 192GB of memory, with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
The new Mac Pro brings PCIe expansion to Apple silicon, for pros who want the performance of M2 Ultra and rely on internal expansion for their workflows. Mac Pro features seven PCle expansion slots, with six open expansion slots that support gen 4, which is 2x faster than before, so users can customize Mac Pro with essential cards.
It also offers eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports — six on the back and two on the top — which is twice as many as before. It supports up to six Pro Display XDRs, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, which come to the new Mac Pro for fast wireless connectivity.
Additionally, Mac Pro includes three USB-A ports, two higher-bandwidth HDMI ports that support up to 8K resolution and up to 240Hz frame rates, two 10Gb Ethernet ports, and a headphone jack that enables the use of high-impedance headphones.
The new Mac Studio and Mac Pro are available to order today on apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app. Mac Studio starts at $1,999 (U.S.) and $1,799 (U.S.) for education. Mac Pro (Tower Enclosure) starts at $6,999 (U.S.) and $6,599 (U.S.) for education.
