Apple M2 Ultra - 24-Core Processor with Up to 76 GPU Cores

The Apple M2 Ultra was released in June 2023 as the top-end chip in the M2 family. It was used in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, and featured 24 CPU cores, while its integrated GPU was available in 60- and 76-core versions.

The M2 Ultra is built from two M2 Max dies connected through UltraFusion. The number of CPU cores was doubled, while the GPU offered 60 or 76 cores versus a maximum of 38 in the M2 Max. Unified memory bandwidth increased to 800 GB/s.

M2 Ultra Architecture and Versions

The M2 Ultra is manufactured using a second-generation 5nm process and contains 134 billion transistors.

The CPU includes 24 cores-16 performance cores and eight efficiency cores. The two M2 Max dies are connected through UltraFusion with inter-die bandwidth of more than 2.5 TB/s. macOS and applications use them as a single SoC.

The GPU was available in two configurations, with 60 or 76 cores. The number of CPU cores is the same in both, so the versions differ primarily in GPU performance.

The M2 Ultra supports 64, 128, or 192 GB of unified memory with bandwidth of 800 GB/s.

M2 Ultra Performance in Real-World Devices

The M2 Ultra was installed only in desktop systems-the Mac Studio and Mac Pro. Both computers use active cooling, so the difference between them in CPU tests is small.

A Mac Studio with the M2 Max has been added to the table for comparison.

The M2 Ultra’s single-threaded performance is almost identical to that of the M2 Max because they use cores from the same generation with similar clock speeds.

The difference is much larger in multi-threaded tests. In Geekbench 6, the M2 Ultra scores around 21,000 points versus approximately 15,000 for the M2 Max. In Cinebench R23, the gap is even larger-around 27,000-28,500 versus 14,800.

The additional CPU cores accelerate rendering, compilation, and other highly parallelizable workloads.

The Mac Studio and Mac Pro with the same M2 Ultra deliver similar CPU performance. The Mac Pro’s higher price is primarily related to its enclosure and PCIe expansion capabilities, rather than a faster processor.

M2 Ultra Graphics Performance

The M2 Ultra has 60 or 76 GPU cores, compared with 38 in the top-end M2 Max.

The 60-core M2 Ultra is approximately one-quarter faster than the 38-core M2 Max in Geekbench Metal. The 76-core version’s advantage reaches approximately 58%.

In OpenCL, the score rises from approximately 89,600 for the M2 Max to 104,900 for the 60-core M2 Ultra and around 132,900 for the 76-core version.

Separately, in the Blender 3.5 GPU Benchmark, the 76-core M2 Ultra scores around 3412 points versus approximately 1917 for the 38-core M2 Max. In this test, a higher score indicates higher performance. The difference is approximately 78%.

Because different systems were tested, some of the variation is related to the device configuration.

The M2 Ultra belongs to the generation that predates the introduction of hardware-accelerated ray tracing in Apple silicon. These units appeared only in the M3 family, so the M2 Ultra is slower in ray tracing than Apple silicon generations with hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Memory and Media Engine

128 and 192 GB of memory are primarily useful for large video projects, 3D scenes, virtual machines, and computational workloads in which the CPU and GPU simultaneously use large amounts of data.

The M2 Ultra’s media engine is doubled relative to the M2 Max. The chip has two video decode engines, four encode engines, and four ProRes encode and decode engines.

Hardware support is provided for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. The M2 Ultra can simultaneously play back up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422.

The memory and SSD cannot be upgraded after purchase, so the memory and storage capacity must be selected when buying the device.

Apple M2 Ultra in 2026

In multi-threaded CPU and GPU workloads, the M2 Ultra is noticeably faster than the M2 Max. The 24-core CPU accelerates rendering, compilation, video processing, and other highly parallelizable workloads.

In single-threaded and lightly parallelized workloads, the difference from the M2 Max is considerably smaller.

The 60-core-and especially the 76-core-GPU is significantly faster than the M2 Max in Metal, OpenCL, and Blender.

When buying a Mac with the M2 Ultra in 2026, the main factors to consider are the price, memory capacity, and GPU configuration. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro with the same M2 Ultra are close in computing performance, while the Mac Pro’s advantage is primarily its PCIe expansion.