Apple's M3 Ultra Barely Outperforms M4 Max Despite $2,000 Price Difference

Apple's latest Mac Studio lineup has arrived with an interesting twist: the high-end model features the M3 Ultra chip rather than an expected M4 Ultra. This unusual strategy has raised questions about performance differences and value proposition between the two available configurations.

M3 Ultra Specifications Revealed

Apple's new M3 Ultra chip represents the pinnacle of the company's silicon design for this generation. Created using Apple's UltraFusion technology, the M3 Ultra essentially combines two M3 Max chips into a single unit. This fusion enables impressive specifications: up to a 32-core CPU (featuring 24 performance cores), an 80-core GPU, and a 32-core Neural Engine. Perhaps most striking is the memory capacity, with configurations starting at 96GB of unified memory and scaling all the way to a massive 512GB with 819 Gbps bandwidth. The chip also supports Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, enabling data transfer speeds up to 12 Gbps.

Benchmark Results Show Modest Advantage

Despite Apple's claims of the M3 Ultra delivering nearly 2x faster performance than the M4 Max, leaked benchmarks tell a different story. According to Geekbench results spotted by @jimmyjames_tech on X (formerly Twitter), the M3 Ultra scored 27,749 in multi-core performance, only modestly outperforming the M4 Max's average score of 24,445. More surprisingly, the M3 Ultra appears to lag behind in single-core performance, scoring 3,221 compared to the M4 Max's 3,884. While these are preliminary results from a single sample, they raise questions about the value proposition of the higher-tier model.

Price-Performance Considerations

The pricing structure for the new Mac Studio lineup creates a significant divide between the two chip options. The M4 Max configuration starts at USD $1,999, while the M3 Ultra model begins at USD $3,999—a USD $2,000 premium. Given the relatively modest performance advantage shown in early benchmarks, many potential buyers may question whether the additional investment is justified. The M3 Ultra does offer more raw computational resources, particularly for specialized professional workloads that can leverage its additional cores and memory capacity.

Mac Studio Chip Comparison

The Future of Ultra Chips

Interestingly, Apple may be signaling a shift in its chip development strategy. According to French tech website Numerama, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that the M4 Max chip lacks the UltraFusion connector necessary to create an M4 Ultra. This suggests Apple might skip the M4 Ultra entirely, potentially moving directly to an M5 Ultra in a future product cycle. Apple has also stated in an interview with Ars Technica that not every M-series chip will necessarily have an Ultra variant, indicating a more flexible approach to its high-end offerings.

Target Audience and Use Cases

The M3 Ultra Mac Studio is clearly positioned for professional and power users with specialized needs. Apple highlights use cases like leveraging LLM Studio for creating large language models, enabling tasks like coding a Python script for a game object, importing it into Cinema 4D, and rendering it in seconds rather than hours. The chip's massive computational resources also make it well-suited for upcoming graphically intensive applications, such as Cyberpunk 2077, which is slated for Mac release later this year. For most users, however, the M4 Max configuration likely represents a more balanced combination of performance and value.