It looked like we were on track for an M3-powered Mac Studio towards the end of this year. However, it would appear that Apple is no longer planning an M3 Mac Studio. Instead, it's skipping the third-gen Apple Silicon and going straight to an M4-equipped Mac Studio. This article explores the reasons for this change and when we might expect the next Mac Studio model.

Some History

At the beginning of this year, we made predictions for New Apple Mac Computers And More In 2024 based on information available at the time and looking at Apple’s track record. Regarding the Mac Studio, The M2-powered Mac Studio desktop computer was announced at WWDC in June 2023. This machine hit the sweet spot for pro-audio users and many other users, especially Mac Pro users.

In June 2023, Apple announced a Mac Studio with M2 Pro and M2 Max options. As a result, in our article Which to Buy - Apple Mac Studio or Mac Pro 2023? we reviewed the Mac Studio and Mac Pro alongside each other, and we predicted we would see an M3-powered Mac Studio as early as the third quarter of 2024.

Apple Releases M4 Chip But Not In A Mac Computer

At their Let Loose event on May 7th, Apple announced the fourth-generation Apple silicon chip, the M4. However, unlike every event to date, Apple has not announced any new Mac computers powered by the M4 chip. Instead, they have announced that the new iPad Pro model is the first device to be powered by the latest SoC.

The M4 is also the first device to use second-generation 3-nanometer technology. The new M4 features a new display engine, which drives the Ultra Retina XDR display in iPad Pro.

The M4 also has what Apple claims is its fastest Neural Engine yet, capable of up to 38 trillion operations per second. This, they claim, is faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today.

With faster memory bandwidth, Apple’s latest machine learning (ML) accelerators in the CPU and a high-performance GPU all ramp up Apple’s AI capabilities.

You can learn more in our article Apple Announces The M4 SoC But Not In A Mac Computer.

All Change

Two reasons have come to light that demonstrate Apple will not be releasing an M3 Ultra chip for the next Mac Studio model.

1. You may be aware that so far, the Ultra chip is basically two Max chips put together, but for that to work, the Max chip design has to have something called an UltraFusion interconnect to allow two Max chips to function as an Ultra chip. It has come to light that the M3 Max chips do not have UltraFusion interconnect in their design, meaning it wouldn’t be possible to create an M3 Ultra chip from two Max chips.

2. Last month, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple is already working hard on developing the fourth-generation Apple silicon SoCs. One reason for this accelerated development cycle is AI. As was seen in the M4 announcement at the ‘Let Loose’ event last week, the M4 chips have more AI capabilities, and Apple is pushing hard to play catch-up in the AI race. As expected, the M4 design includes an updated Neural Engine with more cores to handle AI tasks.

As we reported in our article, Apple Accelerates M4 Processor Releases In Response To Dropping Sales, we understand that Apple is planning three variants of the M4 chips.

1. The base model codenamed Donan, which has now been released in the 2024 iPad Pro.

2. A higher-end model codenamed Brava intended to replace the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips.

3. A top-end model, codenamed Hidra, to replace the M2 Ultra.

This jump isn’t without precedent. For example, there was never an M1-powered Mac Pro, or an M2-powered iMac and it looks we won’t see an M3 Ultra Mac Studio.

In his Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman outlined what he understands is Apple’s current plans for M4-powered Mac Studio desktop computer…

A Mac Studio with a high-end M4 chip, coming around the middle of 2025.

More Memory And Faster

Another element that has come to light that will take care of some concerns when looking at the Apple Silicon SoC designs is that, to date, the maximum amount of unified memory is 192GB, much less than was possible with Intel-powered Apple computers. We understand that the next generation of high-end Apple computers will support up to 500GB of unified memory, which will help those using a lot of virtual instruments and huge sessions. With the release of the M4 base model, we have seen that the memory bandwidth has gone up from 100 GB/s to 120 GB/s.

Design Changes

The Mac Studio is a relatively new model, launched in March 2022, and so hasn’t really been around long enough for a redesign. Apple’s track record suggests that it will be several years before the Mac Studio undergoes a design change. It could be closer to 2026 or 2027 before Apple considers updating the design, though it could be even longer. To put into context, the Mac Studio’s smaller brother, the ‌Mac mini‌, has not seen significant design changes since 2010.

Release Date

Mark Gurman’s suggestion that Apple will release an M4-powered Mac Studio in mid-2025 could mean Apple will announce it in next year’s WWDC keynote address.

If you want the new Mac Studio model, it appears you will need to wait for around 15 months if Apple announces the M4 Mac Studio at WWDC 2025. However, problems may crop up, resulting in the release being pushed back.

Our advice is that if you need a Mac Studio now, go for the current M2 model, with as much unified memory as you can afford. As we showed in our article, Which to Buy - Apple Mac Studio or Mac Pro 2023? you get a lot of bang-for-your-buck with the Mac Studio.