Apple M7 Ultra Planned With 1.5 TB Unified Memory — SkimNews
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- Apple scrapped its M6 Pro and M6 Max plans, jumping directly to an M7 series while still shipping a base M6 SoC in the entry MacBook Pro
- M6 SoC reportedly targets 200 GB/s memory bandwidth — up from 123 GB/s in the M5 — alongside a 20% increase in GPU cores to 12 and improved NPU performance for local AI
- M7 base processor is expected in the first half of 2027 with ~240 GB/s bandwidth, and will be Apple's first Intel-manufactured Apple Silicon design built on the 18A-P node
- M7 Pro and M7 Max are slated for late 2027 with higher memory bandwidth and performance than the base M7
- M7 Ultra is planned for 2028 targeting Mac Studio, offering up to 1.5 TB of unified memory to support on-device AI model development and heavier local workloads
- M5 Ultra — currently testing in Mac Studio — is reported at ~36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and ~768 GB of memory, roughly half the M7 Ultra's planned capacity
Why it matters: The 1.5 TB unified memory ceiling on the M7 Ultra is roughly double the ~768 GB Apple is targeting for the upcoming M5 Ultra, letting Mac Studio users run large AI models locally rather than in the cloud. Apple pairing that capacity with a shift to Intel's 18A-P node positions the 2028 chip as the centerpiece of its on-device AI bet during an industry-wide memory shortage.
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