Apple's 2023 World Developers Conference (WWDC) will be remembered for being the point of presentation to the world of Vision Pro glasses, a device that the Californian company wants to turn into a new revolution, that of extended reality, but the conference was very dense in news. Among them, it stands out that, with the announcement of a new M2 Ultra chip that will equip the new Mac Pro, Apple completes (with some delay) the transition from the architecture of Intel processors to those of its own design, Apple Silicon.
The new machine for professionals, especially video and image, combines in the M2 Ultra a central processor (CPU) with 16 high-performance cores and 8 high-efficiency cores. The unified memory can reach up to 192 GB. Crazy. The new chip has 134 billion transistors, 20 billion more than the M1 Ultra, which was used in the Mac Studio, a model that will also feature the M2 Ultra.
The neural engine – for artificial intelligence – of the M2 Ultra has 32 cores and is capable of processing 31.6 trillion operations per second, a speed up to 40% faster than its predecessor. Video professionals are the ones who will be able to get the most out of this extreme performance computer: it uses the most demanding formats with great ease. According to Apple, it can play up to 22 8K ProRes 422 video streams, a feat no other PC chip can achieve. These machines are not cheap. The Mac Studio is available from 2,429 euros and the Mac Pro from 8,399 euros.
The Mac range is more complete with another of Apple's presentations: a new, more stylish MacBook Air with the largest 15.3-inch screen. It sports the M2 chip, a MagSafe magnetic charging connector, two Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports, and a headphone jack. It is also equipped with six speakers and spatial sound. What stands out about this new ultralight computer is its thickness, 11.5 millimeters, and its weight is very light, 1.5 kilos, despite being made of aluminum. It is available in midnight, star white, silver and space gray colors and its price starts at 1,599 euros.
