Danny Weber
Apple explored chips above the Ultra tier, but high production costs and limited Mac Pro demand kept them from reaching the market.
Apple previously worked on M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme processors intended for the Mac Pro. Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman first reported the project in 2022 and has now mentioned it again in his Power On newsletter. Apple reportedly planned to position the Extreme series above Ultra in the Apple Silicon lineup, with twice as many CPU and GPU cores as the corresponding M2 Ultra and M3 Ultra versions.
Such a configuration could have made the Mac Pro the most powerful Apple Silicon computer, especially for 3D rendering, video editing and professional computing. However, chips of that size and complexity would have been extremely expensive to manufacture, while demand for such systems was expected to remain limited.
According to Gurman, high production costs and low Mac Pro sales ultimately pushed Apple to abandon the Extreme processors. The Ultra line therefore remained the top tier for a narrow group of professional users. M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme never entered mass production, and Apple discontinued the Mac Pro in March 2026.
© A. Krivonosov