Apple had planned a Mac Pro ‘Extreme’ plus a surprising return to Intel chips – report
Apple reportedly developed M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips for a Mac Pro that was cancelled. An Intel-based model was also said to be in the works.
This spring Apple announced it was discontinuing the Mac Pro line, which was traditionally the most powerful offering. However, according to a well-connected Apple reporter, that “wasn’t always the plan”. In fact, the original plan sounds quite intriguing.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple had planned a Mac Pro successor with an ‘Extreme’ version of its Apple Silicon processors. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman said Apple even developed the M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips that were to sit about the Ultra line. However, those plans, along with the Mac Pro revival itself, were abandoned due to cost concerns, Gurman’s sources say.
Perhaps even more interesting, Apple had also planned a return to Intel-based machines for another version of the Mac Pro, according to this weekend’s update. Given the strategy was to phase out Intel chips entirely at that time, this would be rather surprising indeed.
Gurman writes: “As for new Mac Pro hardware, there were two additional models developed by Apple that never saw the light of day: J170 and J190. The former was a new Intel Corp. Mac Pro (yes, even when Apple was making its own silicon) to address certain uses.”
“The latter was an M3 Ultra version that was supposed to launch alongside the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in early 2025. As for the future, I don’t anticipate Apple bringing back the Mac Pro anytime soon — if ever. New Mac Studios with M5 Ultra chips, meanwhile, are coming as early as this fall.”
Since the company ditched the Mac Pro it has been guiding potential users to the Mac Studio, its most powerful machine. The M5 Ultra version should be popular among the most power hungry users, but the cost might be the most ‘extreme’ thing about it given the current crises of memory and storage shortages.
Chris Smith
