Apple unveils M6 2-nanometer chip and M5 Ultra for new Mac mini and Mac Studio

Apple unveils these new processors alongside an updated Mac Mini and Mac Studio.

Apple just surprisingly unveiled the brand-new M6 and M5 Ultra chips. They are debuting in new, more powerful Mac mini and Mac Studio desktop machines. [Read More]

Apple today announced the M5 Ultra, which the company says is its most powerful chip ever. The M5 Ultra is built by connecting two dual-die M5 Max chips using Apple's next-generation UltraFusion technology, which is the first time Apple has used a quad-die architecture in an M-series chip. UltraFusion increases inter-die bandwidth to over 4.4TB/s and connection density by more than 6x, allowing the four dies to function as a single processor. The chip includes an CPU with up to 36 cores, containing 12 super cores and 24 performance cores, delivering up to 1.25x higher single-threaded performance and up to 1.3x higher multithreaded performance than the M3 Ultra. Its GPU scales up to 80 cores, with a Neural Accelerator built into each core for the first time on an Ultra chip. Apple says this delivers up to 4.3x the peak AI compute performance compared to the M3 Ultra, along with up to 1.8x faster graphics than the previous-generation chip. The M5 Ultra also includes a 32-core Neural Engine and a more capable Media Engine, with twice the video encode and decode blocks as M5 Max, allowing users to simultaneously play up to 33 streams of 8K ProRes 422 at 30 fps. The chip supports up to 512GB of unified memory and up to 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth, a 50% increase over M3 Ultra. Apple says the added memory and bandwidth let users store large datasets locally, increase tokens per second, and run large language models with hundreds of billions of parameters entirely on device. The M5 Ultra is exclusively available in the new Mac Studio, which is available for pre-order today, with availability beginning on September 22. Configurations with 512GB of memory launch in late October.Tag: Apple SiliconThis article, "Apple Debuts M5 Ultra as Most Powerful Chip Ever" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums

Apple today announced the M6 chip, its first built using a 2-nanometer process and featuring a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Apple says the 2nm process packs greater transistor density into a smaller die, contributing to the chip's overall gains in performance and power efficiency. The M6 chip features a larger, more powerful 12-core CPU, two more cores than the M5, made up of two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores. Apple says the chip delivers the world's fastest single-threaded performance and up to 1.2x faster multithreaded performance than the M5, and up to 2.4x faster than the M1. The chip also features a 12-core GPU, with two more cores than the M5, with a Neural Accelerator built into each core. Apple says this delivers nearly a 30% increase in peak GPU compute for AI compared to the M5, and more than 8x compared to the ‌M1‌, resulting in faster prompt processing for on-device LLMs. The GPU also gains updates to the shader core architecture, Dynamic Caching, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing, along with a 50% increase in geometry rates for more complex graphics. The M6 introduces a Dual 16-core Neural Engine, offering up to 2x the peak compute of previous generations. Apple says system frameworks can automatically use both engines at once, allowing applications to run AI models faster. The chip supports up to 32GB of unified memory and up to 170GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which is a 10% increase over M5 and 2.5x more than the ‌M1‌. The M6 debuts in the new Mac mini, which launches on Tuesday, September 22.Tags: 2nm, Apple SiliconThis article, "Apple Reveals M6 as First-Ever 2nm Chip" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums

Apple has unveiled two new Apple Silicon chips today. The M6 chip debuts in a new Mac mini model and marks Apple’s first 2nm processor. The M5 Ultra launches in a refreshed Mac Studio and is Apple’s most powerful chip ever.

With the launch of the latest Mac mini and Mac Studio computers, Apple introduced new chips with cutting-edge technology.