Apple last updated both the Mac Studio and Mac Pro back in June 2023; the Mac Studio featured the M2 Max/Ultra chips, and the Mac Pro currently features the M2 Ultra. Since Apple announced the M3 and M4 family of chips, rumors pointed to another hardware refresh for both of Apple’s workstation machines. However, in March, the Mac Studio gets updated with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra. The M4 Max made its debut earlier in the MacBook Pro that was updated last October; however, only the M3 Ultra was newly introduced on the Mac Studio. Since we’re currently in the fourth generation of Apple Silicon for Mac with the M4 family of chips, this has put the Mac Studio in an awkward spot in offering two chip options of different generations.
Even more strange, the Mac Pro hasn’t been updated, so it still features the M2 Ultra, making that machine even more outdated compared to the rest of the lineup. In other words, every Mac in the lineup has been updated with modern Apple Silicon that features hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading except for the Mac Pro. It was unclear whether Apple would update the Mac Pro; however, Filipe Esposito from MacWorld indicates that Apple has been developing the M4 Ultra (codename Hidra; internal identifier t8152), so Apple is holding off the hardware refresh for its Mac Pro to work on what will be Apple’s most powerful chip yet, which would be great marketing move since the lineup would finally make sense by giving the Mac Pro a huge advantage over the Mac Studio. When this Mac Pro gets updated, the lineup could consist of the following with the Mac Pro getting a newer M-series Ultra chip over the Mac Studio:
- Mac Pro (M4 Ultra)
- Mac Studio (M4 Max/M3 Ultra)
- Mac mini (M4/M4 Pro)
It’s also possible that Apple may as well update the higher-configuration Mac Studio with the M4 Ultra then for a more consistent lineup.
It’s unclear when the next Mac Pro will come out, but an announcement at next year’s WWDC seems more likely based on past Mac Pro’s announcements.
