Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple could announce its most powerful chip yet at WWDC 2023

Promotional logo for WWDC 2023.
This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

Tantalizing new rumors are cropping up ahead of Apple’s upcoming WWDC 2023 keynote. This time, we’re hearing more about the future of Mac desktops, and it seems that the things Apple’s got up its sleeve are going to give its competitors a serious run for their money.

According to the latest reports, Apple is readying two new Mac desktops equipped with the M2 Max and the (yet unreleased) M2 Ultra chips. The M2 Ultra certainly sounds exciting, but some people might still be disappointed by the news, and it’s all because of the device that will receive the upgrade.

The Apple Studio Display alongside a Mac Studio computer on a desk.
Apple

The scoop comes from a reliable source of all things Apple, meaning Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman claims that Apple is currently testing two new desktops and that we’ll be hearing more about them during WWDC 2023. The good news is that these PCs are likely to offer a significant upgrade over their predecessors, but the bad news is that we’re still not seeing a new Mac Pro.

Recommended Videos

The two new Macs are codenamed “Mac 14,13” and “Mac 14,14.” Both are said to utilize the M2 Max chip, which we’ve already seen in the latest MacBook Pros. Just as a refresher, that chip comes with a 12-core CPU and a 30-core GPU, and it can also support up to 96GB of memory.

Up until now, the M2 Max was the best that Apple had to offer, but Gurman reports that the company is about to usher in the M2 Ultra. Apple’s own chips tend to double their specs with each new variant, so it should come as no surprise that the M2 Ultra is said to sport a 24-core CPU, a 60-core graphics card, and a massive 192GB of RAM. There might also be an even better version of the M2 Ultra that adds an extra 16 GPU cores, for a total of 76 cores.

According to Gurman, the M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra are said to supercharge a new version of the Mac Studio. It makes sense, seeing as the current (and only) version comes with the M1 Max and M1 Ultra. This portable computer continues to be aimed at professionals and should breeze through video editing, rendering, and encoding.

Aside from the Mac Studio, Apple is rumored to be working on a 15-inch MacBook Air, although there’s no way that device will receive the M2 Ultra chip. Instead, 9to5Mac speculates that the 15-inch MacBook Air might launch the upcoming M3 chip. There might also be a 13-inch MacBook Pro in the works, also powered by the M3 chip. These M3 Macs are unlikely to launch before the end of the year, though.

A top-down view of the Mac Mini.
Digital Trends

The M2 Ultra chip appears to be intensely powerful — it will certainly top the list of Apple’s best processors. However, for Apple to — once again — overlook the Mac Pro in order to refresh the Mac Studio is certainly an interesting choice. The Mac Studio is barely a year old, having been launched in March 2022. Even if the new model arrives in the fall, it’ll still be just a year and a half. Meanwhile, the last version of the Mac Pro was launched in 2019.

Is Apple finally killing the Mac Pro for good or is it simply delayed? Only time will tell.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
Everything announced at Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event: iMac, M3, and more
Apple revealing new Macs at an event.

Apple's unexpected "Scary Fast" event has wrapped, and the 30-minute presentation was packed full of announcements. Headlining the showcase was Apple's new M3 chip, which is showing up in a variety of devices in just a week from now.

We have the lowdown on everything Apple announced at its unprecedented fall event, which kicks off the third generation of Apple's silicon with two major product updates.
M3 family of chips

Read more
Apple’s new M3 looks fast, but will it really be worth the upgrade?
Logos for Apple's M3 chips.

The new Apple M3 is the "most advanced chip ever built for a personal computer," according to Apple. Debuted during Apple's "Scary Fast" event and sporting a new process, the M3 promises up to 60% higher performance in some apps. But will it really be worth an upgrade over the M1 or M2?

We've already seen the M2 at work in devices like the Mac mini, and we'll have to wait until the M3 launches to really know how it performs. But based on what we know right now, here's how the M3 stacks up to the M2.

Read more
The M3 iMac is here, but it’s missing its most requested change
Someone using an iMac at a salon.

At its Scary Fast event, Apple announced a refresh to the 24-inch iMac, bringing the M3 to its popular all-in-one desktop. The M3 is a big deal, especially since the iMac was the only Mac to not get an M2 update.

There were some things Apple didn't announce that many were hoping for: new accessories. Rumors leading up to the event pointed to a new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, but that didn't come to fruition. With the iPhone's recent change to USB-C, some speculated that the Mac peripherals would also move away from Lightning. That didn't happen.

Read more