The first benchmark for Apple's M1 Ultra chip popped up on Geekbench following today's event, confirming that the doubled-up M1 Max is indeed able to outperform the highest-end Mac Pro as Apple claims.
Labeled Mac13,2, the Mac Studio with 20-core M1 Ultra that was benchmarked earned a single-core score of 1793 and a multi-core score of 24055.
Comparatively, the highest-end Mac Pro with 28-core Intel Xeon W chip has a single-core score of 1152 and a multi-core score of 19951, so the M1 Ultra is 21 percent faster in this particular benchmark comparison when it comes to multi-core performance. As for single-core performance, the M1 Ultra is 56 percent faster than the 28-core Mac Pro.
Apple has claimed that the M1 Ultra is up to 60 percent faster than the 28-core Mac Pro when it comes to CPU performance, so Apple may be referencing single-core differences in the metrics that it shared during today's event. This is just one benchmark, so we could see the M1 Ultra performing better in additional benchmarks following the March 18 release of the Mac Studio.
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why.
In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence.
The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro.
The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
Wednesday June 11, 2025 7:14 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple at WWDC previewed a bunch of new features coming in its updated operating systems, but certain changes will have been met with dismay by third-party developers who already offer apps with equivalent or similar features. In other words, their product has been "sherlocked" by Apple.
When Apple creates an app or a feature that has functionality found in a third-party app, it is referred...
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by Juli Clover
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look.
Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
At today's WWDC 2025 keynote event, Apple unveiled a new design that will inform the next decade of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS development, so needless to say, it was a busy day. Apple also unveiled a ton of new features for the iPhone, an overhauled Spotlight interface for the Mac, and a ton of updates that make the iPad more like a Mac than ever before.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles.
iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
If you need a scientific or engineering workstation, or are working with video editing or CGI or the like, then, no, the M1 max wasn’t “enough,” because you’ll take every ounce of power you can get.
Given the performance of the M1 Max, this result is right around where you'd expect it to be, so seems completely believable. The only interesting bit is that performance per-core scales linearly. Which is great, but not surprising given the incredible thermal profile of the chip.
With the caveat that, yes, Geekbench is a synthetic benchmark, this thing appears to be significantly outperforming the top-of-line, just-launched 12th-gen i9 desktop parts. Given that the i9-12900K has a TDP of 125W and turbo power rating of 240W, and this thing fits in a compact desktop, I would be feeling more than a little nervous if I were Intel.
The M1 Ultra is even competitive with all but the most extreme big-iron many-core Xeon and Threadripper CPUs, and the entire computer costs less than many of those chips (its also probably smaller than the CPU cooler on some of them)... but it doesn't have 1TB+ of ECC RAM or some of the other features big-iron desktops have.
Which is why I'd be even more nervous, if I were Intel, that Apple hasn't put their own silicon in the Mac Pro yet. That's a pretty strong indication that Apple has something even-higher-end in the pipeline.
So it's NOT faster than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X ('https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/amd-ryzen-threadripper-3990x'). It would then be the 2nd best consumer processor in the world. The entire computer is less expensive than the Threadripper though.
But I don't care, wow... what are people going to do with such a monster of performance... ? I remember a few people in the cinema industry left Macs because FCPX lacked features when it was released. Are they going to come back ?! Will game developers finally consider the Mac? (the best Mac Studio is 2X as powerful as the PS5)
I am going to chime in here.
Apps I use max out the GPU. The more I add into the 3D model the more RAM it uses plus FPS drop [geometry and textures]. This is gaming engine software. My 3080ti is already maxed in RAM on my PC, and I am totally over the heat and noise from it.
It simply is insane what apps can use these days in terms of resources and power, and personally I never want my computer to restrict my work in any way. We get paid a lot of money to be able to deliver good quality design work, quickly. This machine is still actually less than the app subscriptions used on it, believe it or not.
I actually believe the studio is well priced for what it delivers [or at least what I expect it to].
