Mark Gurman in his PowerOn newsletter at Bloomberg reports that Apple has killed the M2 Extreme 4 core chip for the Apple Silicon MacPro

Mark Gurman’s report in his PowerOn newsletter at Bloomberg that Apple has killed the M2 Extreme, which would be 4 M2 chips linked together like the M1 Max is 2 M1 chips linked together.

This is awful news, as it means the MacPro won’t have much differentiation from the Mac Studio. It isn’t like they can add additional memory slots as that isn’t how memore works with Apple Silicon. It could have more hard drive slots, maybe some sort of pci expansion, but that seems doubtful because of the way the graphics work. So more Thunderbolt ports, that seems likely, though still Thunderbolt 4.

With only a M2 Max, why make a macpro? Especially when the Studio gets upgraded to the same chip. Allot of Thunderbolt 4 ports would be great as Thunderbolt 4 hubs aren’t cheap. Still with Apple prices will some hard drive slots and extra ports will this even make sense financially.

This is certainly worrying. It could also mean a wait till M3 for the MacPro and just do an M2 Mac Studio till then.

We will have to wait (probably a while) and see.

9to5Mac on M2 Extreme chip in upcoming Mac Pro could get a 48-core CPU, 160-core GPU and 384GB of RAM

From Ben Lovejoy at 9to5Mac, these rumors could make for a pretty powerful mac, but so expensive I am assuming.

Of course this is just a rumor, but it is likely though higher than the previous rumored 40 core, and 128 core gpu.

And that M2 Extreme could cost many thousands more, and 384 gigs of RAM, I am betting we are talking $7500 more than whatever the machine costs.

Max Tech on the M2 Extreme chip for the Mac Pro

This one goes into the weeds, but I think hits the nail on the head for the processor for the Mac Pro. It has to be a dual ultra, but that means likely a M2 dual Ultra, the M2 Extreme.

I am still not sure on the expandable ram, as it would be so much slower than the RAM in the chip, but pci expansion does make sense for so many things. And all the extra thunderbolt they could add.

Not part of this video, but what if this is right and it is a smaller MacPro and the processor is on a daughter card that could be upgraded, leaving the pci slots and extra ram if that is workable. That could be an ”upgradeable” Mac Pro for sure.

Well the Mac Studio has gotten me excited for the Mac Pro, though if it really is an M2, I think WWDC might ge pushing it, and the 2023 rumors may be true.