Apple’s transition to its own silicon is finally complete with the launch of a new Mac Pro, which combines Apple’s powerful M2 Ultra chip with PCIe expansion.
The new Mac Pro features the “most powerful chip ever created for a personal computer,” and is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Intel-based model.
Mac Pro with Apple silicon
Photo: Apple
Sporting the same industrial design as its Intel-based predecessor, the new Mac Pro is based on Apple’s new M2 Ultra chip. It’s the “most powerful chip ever created for a personal computer,” said Apple’s Jennifer Munn, Director, Engineering Program Management, during its unveiling at WWDC23.
The machine features eight Thunderbolt 4 ports, two HDMI ports, six PCIe slots, and dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. It also comes in a rack-mounted version.
The new chip features a 24-core CPU; a 76-core GPU; and a 32-core neural engine. It can be configured with a whopping 192-Gbytes of unified memory.
“It is a monster of a chip,” Munn said.
The ability to add so much unified memory is a key feature of the new chip.
“It enables the new Mac Pro to do things simply not possible before,” said Munn during Monday’s WWDC keynote.
Mac Pro connectivity
The new Mac Pro now features eight built-in Thunderbolt ports (twice as many as before) — six on the back and two on the top.
It has six PCI expansion slots, which allows customers to add all kinds of expansion cards, including audio and video IO, networking and storage. The PCI slots support PCIe Gen 4, which is two times faster than before, Apple said.
Mac Pro completes transition to Apple Silicon
With the release of the new Mac Pro, Apple’s transition to its own custom-made chips is now complete.
“With Apple silicon, it’s remarkable how far we’ve taken the Mac in such a short amount of time,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the keynote. “It’s the best and most capable lineup in the history of the personal computer, and I couldn’t be more excited about its future.”
Mac Pro availability
The new M2 Ultra Mac Pro starts at $6,999 ($6,599 for education) and is available to order today from Apple’s website. The Rack Enclosure version starts at $7,499 ($6,999 for education).
The new machine will be available in Apple’s retail store and authorized resellers next week, beginning Tuesday, June 13. Configure-to-order options are available on Apple’s website.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
