What You Need to Know About Apple’s New Flagship M2 Ultra Mac Pro

As someone who learned how to edit video on an old nondescript laptop that whirred like a blender anytime it fired up Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, I can tell you while the computer doesn’t make the edit, but it can certainly help quite a bit. Of course, when there’s a will there’s a way, and any aspiring filmmaker or video editor should try to make the best out of their editing tools and resources.

However, if you do have the funds to invest in a top-of-the-line machine to power your high-end video editing workflows and career, then you might want to check out the new M2 Ultra Mac Pro.

Announced by Apple as one of the highlights of WWDC, the M2 Ultra Mac Pro does indeed look powerful and promising—although its existence is also quite perplexing to some Mac fans who wonder how it compares to the M2 Ultra Mac Studio. Still, let’s take a look at this new M2 Ultra Mac Pro and explore how it could be a good option for you and your video editing needs.

Introducing the M2 Ultra Mac Pro

From Apple’s press release, this new Mac Pro promises that “mind-blowing performance now comes standard.” A bold statement indeed, but when you start to look at some of the specs and features for this new Mac Pro it certainly fits the bill for a new flagship for the beloved tech brand.

Plus, with the new M2 Ultra chip powering the whole show, it really is at the forefront of Apple’s (or really any brand’s) latest technology. As we cover more in-depth in our write-up on this new M2 Ultra chip in particular, any Apple product equipped with this chip is going to blow any previous version out of the water—and even in some cases by two-fold when compared to the M2 Max.

Simply put, this M2 Ultra Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful CPU ever. Its GPU with its massive amount of unified memory does things other GPUs simply can’t, and it has the Media Engine with seven Afterburner cards built-in to handle any workflows for video or other work.

But Why Does the M2 Ultra Mac Pro Exist?

However, as many Apple fans and YouTube reviewers have pointed out—as is the case with the video above from GregsGadgets—there are a lot of questions as to why this new Mac Pro exists at all, especially when a comparable build-out can be achieved with the M2 Ultra Mac Studio for a much cheaper price.

We covered the differences between the two in a different article, but it's sufficient to say that it is all a bit perplexing.

The best explanation might simply be that Apple wants to have a Mac Pro as its flagship desktop, and this M2 Ultra Mac Pro represents pretty much everything they have to offer today, yet still with room to add to it for later upgrades of course.

The M2 Ultra powered Mac Pro promises to be quite a video editing workhorse.Credit: Apple

Pricing and Availability

Still, this M2 Ultra Mac Pro is going to be a popular option for video editors and all types of creative artists despite its criticism and possibly shortcomings simply because it’s a familiar brand name and a true workhorse. 

Designed to scale up with Apple silicon, the M2 Ultra brings a huge boost to app performance and capability to this new Mac Pro. With thousands of apps optimized to unlock the full power of Apple silicon, you can expect to render effects to composite 8K scenes faster than ever before.

Here are some of the featured specs as well as a look at the pricing and availability:

• 24-core CPU runs up to 1.8x faster than a 28‑core Intel-based Mac Pro

• Up to 76-core GPU with up to 3.4x faster graphics performance

• 800GB/s memory bandwidth

• Up to 192GB of unified memory

• Up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes video playback

• Support for up to eight displays

Price: $6,999 

The M2 Ultra Mac Pro is available starting on June 13th, 2023.

What are your thoughts on this new flagship Mac Pro though? Let us know your feelings in the comments below.