Apple reportedly planned to use “Extreme” processors in the Mac Pro to deliver unrivaled performance, beating even its “Pro” and “Ultra” chips. But eventually, pricing and demand concerns led the company to scrap the idea.
Besides M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips, Apple also worked on an Intel-powered upgrade for the Mac Pro, according information that leaked out on Sunday.
The Mac Studio stole the Mac Pro’s thunder
The Mac Pro used to be Apple’s most powerful computers, designed for professionals with demanding workloads such as Hollywood video editors, 3D artists, software developers engineers and scientists. It launched in 2006 with intel inside, and 2013 brought a famous cylindrical model. Apple gave up on the cylindrical design and launched a revamped Intel-powered Mac Pro tower in 2019.
Its next major update arrived in June 2023 with the switch to Apple Silicon. This used an M2 Ultra chip featuring a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU and 192GB of unified memory.
Despite all that power, Apple’s flagship desktop failed to stand out from the Mac Studio. The much smaller and more affordable desktop offered the same M2 Ultra chip and comparable performance. Apple did not even update the Mac Pro with the M3 Ultra when the Mac Studio got that chip, leaving the Mac Studio as the most powerful model in its lineup.
Apple eventually discontinued the Mac Pro altogether. However, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, in his most recent Power On newsletter, reports that the company had bigger plans for the Mac Pro with an even more powerful chip. It planned to “offer twice as many graphics and main processing cores” as its Ultra SoC.
The Extreme chips were allegedly not the only abandoned options. At one point, Apple was also developing an M3 Ultra-powered Mac Pro that it planned to launch alongside the Mac Studio in early 2025.
Mac Pro could have received an Intel upgrade
Gurman says the company even worked on a Mac Pro update, codenamed J170, featuring a new Intel processor.
None of those machines reached consumers. High production costs and limited demand made the Extreme chips difficult to justify, while the Mac Studio offered similar performance in a smaller and more affordable package.
As things stand, the Mac Studio is currently the most powerful Mac in Apple’s lineup, featuring an M3 Ultra chip and up to 96GB of unified memory.
Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple’s ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable.
You can reach out to him at mail[at]rajeshpandey.me.
