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 Most likely this is due to the fact that "transistor count" is fully out of date.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
  

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

 Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
  
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
  
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• Longer version here.