Code suggests Apple is working on an M4 Ultra chip for new Mac Pro

Macworld

Apple introduced a new generation of Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra and M4 Max chips back in March, and many of us have been wondering when the company will update the Mac Pro with an even more powerful chip. While details about a release date remain unclear, Macworld now has a clue about an upcoming Mac Pro with a surprising M4 Ultra chip.

Internal code published by Apple seen by Macworld confirms that Apple is still experimenting with a new, high-end Mac Pro powered by an unreleased M4 Ultra chip. The findings reveal the internal identifier t8152, which matches the “M4 Ultra” scheme and also goes by the codename “Hidra.”

The discovery aligns with a Bloomberg report in January 2025 about the M4 chip family, which revealed Apple’s plans for a more powerful version of the chip for the Mac Pro. The report had already mentioned the codename “Hidra” seen by Macworld today.

The M4 Ultra would be the successor to the current M2 Ultra model, which features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, and supports up to 192GB of unified memory. While details about the M4 Ultra’s configuration remain unknown, the M4 family is based on Apple’s latest 3nm architecture and includes Neural Engine improvements aimed at AI and machine learning tasks. The chip could have a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU and start with 96GB of RAM, based on the current M4 chips.

It was assumed that Apple had skipped the M4 Ultra altogether after releasing the Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 Ultra processors and skipping the Mac Pro. The current model still has an M2 Ultra from 2023 despite claiming the machine offers “mind-blowing performance.”

While these code references confirm the chip’s existence and its intended pairing with the Mac Pro, they don’t guarantee a release window. Apple has previously tested chips that never reached the public. However, given that Apple created M3 Ultra for Mac Studio even after the launch of M4, shipping a Mac Pro with an M4 Ultra in the middle of the M5 cycle doesn’t seem impossible.