The M3 Ultra is Apple’s most powerful Mac chip, featuring a 32-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, and double the Neural Engine cores of its predecessor. Built with Apple’s UltraFusion technology, it links two M3 Max dies using over 10,000 high-speed connections, effectively treating them as a single chip. This architecture enables massive performance improvements while maintaining energy efficiency. The chip includes 184 billion transistors and introduces Thunderbolt 5, offering more than double the bandwidth per port compared to the previous generation.

With significant performance gains, M3 Ultra delivers up to 1.5x the CPU performance of M2 Ultra and up to 2.6x that of M1 Ultra. It also enhances AI capabilities with a 32-core Neural Engine, over 800GB/s memory bandwidth, and ML accelerators, making it capable of running large language models with billions of parameters. The GPU supports dynamic caching, mesh shading, and ray tracing, improving graphics performance for demanding applications like 3D rendering and video editing. The chip’s media engine supports multiple ProRes video streams and up to eight Pro Display XDRs.

M3 Ultra introduces a unified memory system starting at 96GB and configurable up to 512GB, surpassing even high-end workstation GPUs. Thunderbolt 5 integration allows faster data transfers and improved external storage and expansion connectivity. Apple also emphasizes energy efficiency, aligning with its goal to become carbon neutral by 2030.