In addition to the new 15-inch MacBook Air, Apple also announced the most powerful version of its M2 Chip, M2 Ultra, which completes the transition to Apple Silicon for all its products. The new 5nm chip is faster than the M1 Ultra, with a 20% faster CPU, 30% faster GPU, and 40% faster Neural Engine. Its media engine offers double the capabilities of the M2 Max, taking performance to the next level.
M2 Ultra in Detail
M2 Ultra is made up of two M2 Max dies connected through UltraFusion, Apple’s packaging technology. This provides over 2.5TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth. It appears as a single chip to software, eliminating the need for code rewriting to make use of its performance.
M2 Ultra boasts outstanding performance and power efficiency. Its 24-core CPU includes 16 high-performance cores and 8 high-efficiency cores, offering 20% faster performance compared to the M1 Ultra. For Mac Studio users, it enables up to 50% faster video processing in DaVinci Resolve compared to the M1 Ultra model.
The GPU can be configured with either 60 or 76 next-generation cores, resulting in a 30% improvement over the M1 Ultra. This means that rendering 3D effects using Octane on Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra is up to three times faster compared to the M1 Ultra.
M2 Ultra features a game-changing Unified Memory Architecture with 800GB/s of system memory bandwidth. It can be configured with a massive 192GB of unified memory, allowing for workflows that were not possible on a PC. It can handle machine learning workloads that even the most powerful discrete GPUs cannot process.
M2 Ultra incorporates advanced custom technologies that supercharge machine learning, video processing, and more. It includes a 32-core Neural Engine, delivering 31.6 trillion operations per second, which is 40% faster than the M1 Ultra. The media engine also provides double the capabilities of the M2 Max for accelerated video processing. With dedicated, hardware-enabled H.264, HEVC, and ProRes encode and decode, the M2 Ultra can play back up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video.
The display engine of the M2 Ultra supports up to six Pro Display XDRs, driving over 100 million pixels. It also incorporates the latest Secure Enclave, secure boot, and anti-exploitation technologies for top-notch security.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
