Apple reportedly explored creating a new tier of Apple Silicon that would have sat above its Ultra chips. However, the ambitious processors never made it beyond the planning stage.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple worked on both M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme chips as potential options for the Mac Pro. The company ultimately abandoned the project, and the chips were never officially announced.
The “Extreme” branding would have marked a new top tier in Apple’s chip lineup, sitting above the existing Ultra models. Gurman says the idea was to take the Ultra architecture and effectively double it again.
That would have resulted in processors with twice as many CPU and GPU cores as Apple’s Ultra chips. This would create the most powerful Apple Silicon the company had ever designed. While Gurman notes that Apple never confirmed the name internally, he believes “Extreme” would have been the most logical branding for a chip positioned above Ultra.
The processors were reportedly intended for the Mac Pro, Apple’s highest-end desktop. This device has traditionally targeted professionals working in areas such as 3D rendering, visual effects, software development and scientific computing.
However, Gurman says Apple eventually concluded that building such powerful chips didn’t make commercial sense. Producing them would have significantly increased manufacturing costs. Meanwhile, the relatively small audience for the Mac Pro meant it would have been difficult to justify the investment.
That decision appears to have had wider consequences for Apple’s desktop strategy. Rather than pushing the Mac Pro further upmarket with a new class of processor, Apple instead kept the machine much closer to the Mac Studio in terms of performance. The company is relying on Ultra-class chips instead.
The report also comes as Gurman says Apple has discontinued the Mac Pro this year, bringing an end to a product line that has existed for around two decades. It suggests Apple’s highest-end desktop may no longer be part of its future hardware roadmap.
Although the M2 Extreme and M3 Extreme never reached consumers, the report offers a glimpse into just how far Apple was considering pushing its in-house silicon.
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