Apple -- The M4 Ultra Chip -- March 10, 2025

Locator: 48487APPLE.

X is down: has been up and down since 5:00 a.m. local time this morning. Now fully down -- I am unable to access x. Let the conspiracy theories begin. [Later: the "downdetector" gauge show the problem is getting worse, not better.]

Apple: here's why Apple isunlikely to release an M4 Ultra chip for Macs. Link here. 

The new Mac Studio is available with mismatched M4 Max and M3 Ultra chip options. Will there be an M4 Ultra chip in the future, though? It looks unlikely.

Here are three reasons why Apple might never release an M4 Ultra chip.

First, among Apple's line of Mac chips, the highest-end Ultra chips are effectively two Max chips fused together with a technology called UltraFusion. So, the M1 Ultra chip is two M1 Max chips combined, and the M2 Ultra chip is two M2 Max chips combined. However, Apple confirmed that the M4 Max chip lacks an UltraFusion connector, so that means Apple cannot simply release a doubled-up M4 Ultra chip this time around.

Second, Apple told several journalists and YouTubers that not every generation of Mac chips will have an "Ultra" chip. The timing of Apple revealing this information suggests that we might never get an M4 Ultra chip.

 And third, from Mark Gurman, Bloomberg: Apple is reluctant to develop an M4 Ultra chip from scratch due to production challenges, costs, and the relatively small sales volume of its desktop computers, like the Mac Studio. So, that seems to rule out the only other way in which Apple could have released an M4 Ultra chip.

• Apple is tracked here.
• Tech is tracked here.
• Chips: tracked here.

Wiki's transistor count has not been updated in quite some time despite huge "gains" by Apple. Most likely this is due to the fact that "transistor count" is fully out of date. Transistor count is simply one "spec" point. Think:

• power consumption
• battery life
• integrated chips (GPU<->CPU)
• efficiency cores
• performance cores
  
• neural engines
• hardware-accelerated ray tracing 
• ability to drive multiple "dumb" displays 
• transistor count
• stacked chips
• AI-focus
• satellite connectivity