M1 Ultra Delivers 90 Percent Higher Multi-Threaded Performance Than the Fastest 16-Core Desktop Processor Right Now While Being Thoroughly Energy Efficient
The SoC that makes the 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU is made thanks to the fusion of two chipsets process that Apple calls UltraFusion. Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies had this to say about the M1 Ultra. For the most part, the M1 Ultra is two M1 Max chipsets combined together that delivers 2.5TB of bandwidth between the two. As for the 20-core CPU, 16 of those are focused on performance, while the remaining four handle the less demanding tasks. It delivers 90 percent higher multi-threaded performance than the fastest available 16-core PC desktop chip while consuming the same power. As for GPU-related tasks, Apple claims that M1 Ultra delivers faster performance than the fastest desktop GPU while consuming 200 watts less. Additionally, the new chipset sports a 32-core Neural Engine for machine learning purposes. Where a single M1 Max was limited to 64GB of unified RAM, the M1 Ultra can support up to 128GB of the same memory. Memory bandwidth also gets a significant raise at 800GB/s, with the new part now eight times larger than the M1. The M1 Ultra can also play back up to 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video, which Apple claims no other chip can accomplish. The new silicon is found in the newly announced Mac Studio and should unlock new levels of performance that have never been seen before, and we will likely see them in the coming days, so stay tuned.
