M3 Max Chip Has Hidden Change That Could Affect Future 'M3 Ultra' Chip

Apple's M3 Ultra chip may be designed as its own, standalone chip, rather than be made up of two M3 Max dies, according to a plausible new theory.

apple silicon 1 feature
The theory comes from Max Tech's Vadim Yuryev, who outlined his thinking in a post on X earlier today. Citing a post from @techanalye1 which suggests the M3 Max chip no longer features the UltraFusion interconnect, Yuryev postulated that the as-yet-unreleased "M3 Ultra" chip will not be able to comprise two Max chips in a single package. This means that the M3 Ultra is likely to be a standalone chip for the first time.

This would enable Apple to make specific customizations to the M3 Ultra to make it more suitable for intense workflows. For example, the company could omit efficiency cores entirely in favor of an all-performance core design, as well as add even more GPU cores. At minimum, a single M3 Ultra chip designed in this way would be almost certain to offer better performance scaling than the M2 Ultra did compared to the ‌M2‌ Max, since there would no longer be efficiency losses over the UltraFusion interconnect.

Furthermore, Yuryev speculated that the M3 Ultra could feature its own UltraFusion interconnect, allowing two M3 Ultra dies to be combined in a single package for double the performance in a hypothetical "M3 Extreme" chip. This would enable superior performance scaling compared to packaging four M3 Max dies and open the possibility of even higher amounts of unified memory.

Little is currently known about the M3 Ultra chip, but a report in January suggested that it will be fabricated using TSMC's N3E node, just like the A18 chip that is expected to debut in the iPhone 16 lineup later in the year. This means it would be Apple's first N3E chip. The M3 Ultra is rumored to launch in a refreshed Mac Studio model in mid-2024.

Popular Stories

mac mini thermal architecture feature

New Mac Mini Has Modular Storage, 256GB Model Will Have Faster SSD

Friday November 8, 2024 7:06 am PST by
Apple has returned to using two 128GB storage chips in the new Mac mini with 256GB of storage, according to a partial teardown video shared on social media today. This means the base-model Mac mini with the M4 chip will not have significantly slower SSD speeds compared to higher-end configurations of the computer with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage, as multiple NAND chips allows for faster SSD...
best buy holiday

Best Buy Reveals Black Friday Plans With Sitewide Sales Available Now

Friday November 8, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Black Friday sales are continuing today with Best Buy kicking off early Black Friday deals that will last for the next few days. Similar to other retailers, Best Buy's early Black Friday event includes sitewide savings on Apple products, headphones, TVs, monitors, video games, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may...
iphone passcode green

Cops Suspect iOS 18 iPhones Are Communicating to Force Reboots, Making Unlocking Harder

Thursday November 7, 2024 2:20 pm PST by
Law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan are warning other police officers about an alleged iPhone change that causes Apple devices stored for forensic examination to spontaneously restart, reports 404 Media. iPhones that are undergoing examination have apparently been rebooting, which makes them harder to unlock with brute force methods, and Michigan police think that it's due to a...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.2 Beta 2

Monday November 4, 2024 12:34 pm PST by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 updates to developers, and Apple is continuing to refine the Apple Intelligence capabilities. There are also a handful of smaller features that are worth knowing about. Find My Find My has a new option to Share Item Location with an "airline or trusted person" that can help you locate something that you've misplaced....
M4 MacBook Pros Thumb

M4 MacBook Pro Reviews: Processor Benchmarks Impress, New Nano-Texture Option Worth the Extra $150

Thursday November 7, 2024 6:14 am PST by
The first wave of reviews of Apple's new M4-powered MacBook Pro models were published this morning. We've collected some of the latest impressions from YouTube channels and select media outlets below. Apple last month announced the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding next-generation M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, with Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display and camera ...
High Power Mode Feature 2

Apple Expands High Power Mode to MacBook Pro and Mac Mini Models With M4 Pro Chip

Thursday November 7, 2024 12:15 pm PST by
High Power Mode is available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip, according to Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham. The feature was previously limited to Macs with Apple's highest-end "Max" chip, so this is the first time it is available on Macs with a "Pro" chip. This is the second time that Apple has expanded availability of High Power...
early apple watch black friday

The Best Early Black Friday Apple Watch Deals

Wednesday November 6, 2024 6:33 am PST by
Black Friday is just around the corner, and Apple Watch deals have begun appearing ahead of the shopping holiday on November 29. In this article, we'll take a look at all of the best early Black Friday Apple Watch deals, including the new Series 10 models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...
iOS 18 Notes Feature

How to Fix iPhone Notes Disappearing After Accepting New iCloud Terms

Thursday November 7, 2024 7:57 am PST by
Apple in September updated its iCloud terms and conditions with some minor changes, and this week it has been notifying iPhone users that they must accept the revised terms in order to continue using iCloud. Unfortunately, after accepting the new terms, some iPhone users have seen all of their notes disappear in the Notes app. While some users have turned to social media to justifiably panic ...

Top Rated Comments

Thunderstrike76 Avatar
8 months ago
If there’s one YouTubers videos I roll my eyes constantly at it’s MaxTech.
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
8 months ago
This is all possible, but the entire thread hinges on “the M3 Max looks, in a blurry, cropped photo, like it might not have an interconnect”, which also hinges on “the M3 Ultra’s interconnect looks exactly like the M1 and M2’s”.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
leman Avatar
8 months ago
When will we finally stop confusing popularity with competence? It is entirely possible that this theory is correct, however, it is unlikely to be correct simply because Yuryev said so. He knows a great deal about video editing, general computing and semiconductor technology are not really his forte though.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EugW Avatar
8 months ago

When will we finally stop confusing popularity with competence? It is entirely possible that this theory is correct, however, it is unlikely to be correct simply because Yuryev said so. He knows a great deal about video editing, general computing and semiconductor technology are not really his forte though.
"not really his forte"

Heh. You are being very, very generous with that description.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PotentPeas Avatar
8 months ago
I'm skeptical. The M3 Max die is already huge! They're going to have a 2× bigger single die for M3 Ultra? That seems crazy.

There are a number of options that could pan out.
* The interconnect is there but not clearly visible in this blurry image.
* The interconnect has changed in some way and it is not clear what we should be looking for.
* There is a different variation of the chip that has the interconnect that we haven't seen yet.
* M3 Ultra will be significantly scaled back from what we expected based on M1/M2 Ultra, being a more modest upgrade over M3 Max.
* M3 Ultra isn't even going to make an appearance this generation.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
leman Avatar
8 months ago

Or maybe they could try some actual courage, and admit that they're not good at building GPUs.
They are quite good at building GPUs, considering how much of the headstart Nvidia had. In some key areas (instruction scheduling, resource allocation, ALU utilization) Apple is ahead of Nvidia. I mean, we have Nvidia engineers openly saying that Apple managed to achieve things Nvidia tried and failed. There is a lot of evidence that Apple is building a superscalar GPU. It’s all quite exiting stuff for me as GPU tech enthusiast. In fact, I think that the GPU division is innovating at a much higher pace than the CPU division.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)