Incoming Mac Pro means we might not get another Mac Studio

Incoming Mac Pro means we might not get another Mac Studio

The Mac Studio is currently the most powerful Mac you can buy. In its top spec, you can get it with an M1 Ultra chip which is really two M1 Max chips fused together with a high-speed interconnect Apple calls UltraFusion.

However, it's likely we won't see it updated this year. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who covers Apple, that's because of the upcoming Mac Pro, which he expects to be "very similar in functionality to the Mac Studio."

Gurman says:

I wouldn't anticipate the introduction of a Mac Studio in the near future. The upcoming Mac Pro is very similar in functionality to the Mac Studio — and adds the M2 Ultra chip rather than the M1 Ultra. So it wouldn't make sense for Apple to offer an M2 Ultra Mac Studio and M2 Ultra Mac Pro at the same time. It's more likely that Apple either never updates the Mac Studio or holds off until the M3 or M4 generation. At that point, the company may be able to better differentiate the Mac Studio from the Mac Pro.

This makes sense because Apple reportedly cancelled plans for an even more powerful "M2 Extreme" chip would likely be two Ultra chips fused together with UltraFusion – that means four Max chips fused together working in unison.

Plans for this chip were cancelled because of cost and manufacturing complexities. According to reports, it's likely that a Mac Pro with an "Extreme" chip would cost at least US$10,000, which would make it an extremely niche product.

The lack of an "Extreme" chip means the Mac Pro would have to rely on "Ultra" and "Max" chips which would make it too similar to a Mac Studio. 

Furthermore, it's unlikely the Mac Pro would have much in the way of user-upgradeable parts to help it stand out given that system memory is an integral part of the chip.

Source: Bloomberg (Mark Gurman's Power On) via MacRumors