Apple Was Apparently Testing Its M3 Ultra With Its Newer MacBook Pro Models, With One User Finding Evidence In An iOS 18 Internal Build Related To Those Unreleased Versions
The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models can be kitted out with Apple’s M4 Max as their most powerful configuration, with the M3 Ultra reserved for the significantly more powerful Mac Studio. From the beginning, it was always apparent that thermal constraints prevented the Cupertino giant from using a chipset with the ‘Ultra’ moniker. However, one possibility existed where Apple might have introduced its workstation-class chipset to its portable Macs, as the technology giant was said to be testing out this hardware, at least according to evidence found in iOS 18.
Software running on an iPhone 16 prototype found iOS 18 references related to the M3 Ultra being tested on the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models
A post published on Bilibili that was spotted by MacRumors mentions that there is code discovered on an iOS 18 internal build running on an iPhone 16 prototype, providing evidence that the M3 Ultra was being tested on Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. The codenames of these machines, J514d and J516d, were found in a file present in the ‘/AppleInternal/Diags/Tests/’ folder.
For readers possessing an eagle eye, the actual codenames of Apple’s MacBook Pro models featuring the M3 Pro and M3 Max are J514 and J516. The presence of the letter ‘d’ indicates that the first two codenames likely belong to the variants being tested with the M3 Ultra because the Mac Studio equipped with the same Apple Silicon is identified with the codename J575d. This discovery proves that if the stars were aligned in our favor, we would have witnessed the first-ever M3 Ultra-powered MacBook Pro lineup.
To remind readers, the M3 Ultra is Apple’s most powerful custom silicon, featuring up to a 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU, and 512GB of unified RAM. It is likely that the thermal limitations played a massive role in preventing the company from bringing this hardware to the MacBook Pro lineup. Additionally, the M3 Ultra sports a significantly larger die than the M3 Max or M4 Max, forcing Apple to change the entire layout of the motherboard to accommodate this SoC, not to mention increasing the thickness to add the improved cooler.
Another reason for not launching the MacBook Pro models with the M3 Ultra is that this move would most probably cannibalize Mac Studio and future Mac Pro sales, and from the looks of it, Apple’s portable Macs will likely be limited to the M5 Max, which is scheduled to arrive later this year.
