My hopes for the Mac Pro have been shattered, and Apple won't be able to help it this year.

      Last week, Apple unveiled a new Mac Studio featuring the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. This is not a mistake — the company actually introduced a Mac with chips from two different generations, where the newer chip is the less powerful one. As I have mentioned earlier, this is a confusing and absurd situation, likely frustrating Apple's marketing team.

      Initially, there seemed to be some rationale behind this choice: Apple might have decided to reserve the anticipated M4 Ultra chip for the Mac Pro, reestablishing some clear differentiation within the Mac lineup. This would allow the Mac Studio and Mac Pro to offer distinct maximum performances (unlike the current scenario), granting the Mac Pro a significant upgrade to attract demanding professional users.

      As reported by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman in his recent Power On newsletter, the M4 Ultra was expected to feature “a newer architecture, much faster graphics, significantly improved computing performance, and better AI capabilities.” This could have been just what the Mac Pro needed.

      However, it now appears that this scenario will not materialize, as Gurman states that the M4 Ultra seems to be completely off the table. Recently, Apple informed Ars Technica that it wouldn't produce an Ultra chip for every generation of Apple silicon. If that was not enough of a signal that the M4 Ultra isn’t coming, the company also confirmed to French site Numerama that the M4 Max does not utilize Apple’s UltraFusion technology, indicating that Apple cannot simply merge two M4 Max chips to create an M4 Ultra. While Apple did combine M2 Max chips to create the M2 Ultra, it seems this approach will not be replicated for the M4 series.

      Gurman’s newsletter further mentioned that Apple is hesitant to develop an M4 Ultra chip from the ground up, as this would involve a complicated and costly production process, resulting in a niche chip that would likely not sell well, making it difficult for Apple to justify.

      So, what does this mean for consumers? Unfortunately, it returns us to a similar situation as before. In the M2 generation, both the Mac Studio and Mac Pro offered equivalent maximum performance, but the Mac Studio was priced significantly lower.

      So why would anyone choose the Mac Pro now? It provides more PCIe expansion and extra ports, but does that really warrant the much higher price? For most users, the answer is probably no.

      Previously, Gurman suggested that the Mac Pro would receive the M4 Ultra to set it apart from the Mac Studio. Now, they will again share the same chip, making it very challenging to justify purchasing the Mac Pro over the Mac Studio.

      Moreover, it’s not just about performance. As Gurman notes, other specifications are also impacted. Currently, the Mac Studio can reach up to 512GB of memory and 16TB of storage, while the Mac Pro maxes out at 192GB of memory and 8TB of storage.

      Ironically, those configurations render the Mac Studio more expensive than the Mac Pro, even though it is marketed as the less premium product. In terms of base configurations, the Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) is more powerful than the Mac Pro (M2 Ultra) while being priced at almost half.

      The Mac Pro will see improvements in memory and storage options upon getting the M3 Ultra, but that might not happen until at least the fall. Until then, the range of desktop Macs targeted at professionals appears quite disorganized.

      On the bright side, the Mac Studio remains an incredibly powerful machine (even if its chip situation is perplexing), and it comes at a fraction of the cost of the Mac Pro. If you're considering a Mac Studio and don’t require the Mac Pro’s PCIe slots or extra Thunderbolt ports, there’s little reason to opt for the Mac Pro, and likely won’t be for the foreseeable future.

      For fans of the Mac Pro, the current circumstances are significantly less appealing. With Apple postponing two chip generations and at least two years of pro-level Mac upgrades, it seems we will be waiting quite a while before the Mac Pro can truly distinguish itself from the Mac Studio.