M4 Ultra for Mac Pro May Feature Up to 80 GPU Cores, Positioning Apple for a Stronger Entry into Mainstream Gaming

Apple has completed the launch of its trio of M4 chipsets, including the high-performance M4 Max, which recently became the fastest CPU in Geekbench 6’s single-core tests. In multi-core tests,…

By Ishika Setia

November 6, 2024

3 min read

Comments

Apple has completed the launch of its trio of M4 chipsets, including the high-performance M4 Max, which recently became the fastest CPU in Geekbench 6’s single-core tests. In multi-core tests, it easily surpassed Intel’s beefy 24-core Ultra 9 285K and AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X.

More About the M4 Ultra for Mac Pro

However, the lineup is not finished yet, as Apple is set to introduce the M4 Ultra with an updated Mac Pro next year. According to reports, the upcoming system-on-a-chip (SoC) will feature up to 80 GPU cores and is better suited for gaming, Apple may very well realize decent frame rates in AAA titles. With the RAM in the new M4 Macs starting at 16GB of RAM available, Apple promises both greater pool memory size and a larger VRAM allotment for game developers to pull from which should help with increased visual fidelity and performance. This will contribute to Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition being ported over onto Mac in 2025, featuring path tracing and Frame Generation.

In Mark Gurman’s most recent Power On newsletter, he points out that Apple has more capable in-house chipsets that can handle graphically challenging games. He expects the M4 Ultra to be announced next year alongside the Mac Pro, but not the Mac Studio. Gurman believes the M4 Ultra could include as many as 32 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, although he didn’t offer details on how many of each core type there will be for performance and efficiency.

Apple wants to see customers use its Macs more in order to expand its gaming space and compete against larger players in the field. That’s $599 for the base M4 Mac mini and $1,599 for the entry-level M4 MacBook Pro. Importantly, those prices are static, but you get 2× the unified RAM for the same prices, which makes the upgrades much cheaper. The difficult part is convincing devs to port more games to the Mac, although there are some early partnerships with the likes of Capcom and Ubisoft.

FAQs

What is the expected performance of the M4 Ultra?

The M4 Ultra is anticipated to feature up to 32 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, making it one of the most powerful systems available for mainstream users.