Waiting for the M3 Ultra? It might be a little while yet, although you can look forward to a new Mac Studio to go with it

(Image credit: Bryan M Woolfe/iMore)

A new supply chain report hints at Apple using TSMC’s 3nm process to bring the M3 Ultra to consumers in 2024 alongside the debut of a brand new Mac Studio.

We’ve been waiting for news on a new generation of the top tier of Apple’s silicon since the company introduced the M3 and A17 Pro using TSMC’s 3nm process last year.

According to TrendForce, via South Korean outlet The Elec, “Several chip companies are expected to adopt the N3E process for their new products. The report suggests that TSMC’s customers for this process may include Qualcomm, which is gearing up to launch the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, MediaTek with its next-generation Dimensity 9400, Apple with its M3 Ultra chip and A18 Pro processor, AMD with the Zen 5 CPU and RDNA 4 GPU, and NVIDIA with the Blackwell architecture GPU. Notably, the Apple M3 Ultra chip might make its debut in the upgraded Mac Studio around mid-year.”

We’ve not seen a new Mac Studio since its initial release in 2022, and currently, the small desktop powerhouse is only available with Apple’s M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, built on an older generation of 5nm chips.

What could the M3 Ultra bring?

The M3 and M3 Max chips in Apple’s latest computers, like the 16-inch MacBook Pro, are absolute powerhouses dominating the portable computing landscape. While we’ve not heard much about the M2 Max, we can expect to see it build on the incredible performance of the M2 Ultra, giving those who need it even more CPU power.

Geekbench results show that the M3 Max outperforms the M2 Ultra, so it’s about time Apple introduces a new flagship chip with the M3 moniker. This report suggests a release date around WWDC 2024, so be sure to keep an eye out on iMore’s coverage as we start building towards a huge year for Apple, which is likely to start with the Vision Pro headset release later this month.

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John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.