How to read this page. Each section starts Simple, then goes to a Deep dive: stop wherever you have what you need. The small numbers are sources: click one to open the original document. Where the maker has not published a figure -- a price, a die size, a factory address -- this page says so rather than estimate it.
1.At a glance
SimpleStart here
M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max launched together 30 October 2023. M3 Ultra arrived alone, nearly a year and a half later, on 5 March 2025 12.
Deep diveThe technical detail
This split is unusual for the M-series — every other generation on this site (M1, M2) launched its Ultra tier within 8 months of the base/Pro/Max trio. M3 Ultra’s gap of roughly 17 months is the longest of any generation checked, and it landed in the same March 2025 refresh that also introduced a new-tier M4 Max option for Mac Studio 3.
2.Launch and history
SimpleStart here
M3 is the chip that brought hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to a Mac GPU for the first time — the same console-game rendering techniques Apple had brought to iPhone with A17 Pro a month earlier.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Apple’s own words: a new GPU architecture with “Dynamic Caching,” which Apple describes as an industry-first way of allocating local GPU memory in hardware in real time, plus “hardware-accelerated ray tracing” and mesh shading, both new to Mac 1.
3.What’s inside it
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M3: 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU. M3 Pro: 11- or 12-core CPU, 14- or 18-core GPU. M3 Max: 14- or 16-core CPU, 30- or 40-core GPU. M3 Ultra: up to 32-core CPU, up to 80-core GPU 452.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Transistor counts, all Apple-stated: M3 “25 billion”; M3 Pro “37 billion”; M3 Max “92 billion” 1; M3 Ultra “184 billion total” 2. M3 Ultra is built the same way M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra were: two M3 Max dies fused via UltraFusion, “over 2.5TB/s of low-latency interprocessor bandwidth,” connecting “more than 10,000 signals” 2. M3 Ultra’s process node is not independently restated in either the M3 Ultra or Mac Studio (2025) release — this page reports 3-nanometer by inheritance from the shared M3 Max die, not as a separately confirmed statement for Ultra specifically.
4.Full spec table
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CPU cores run 8 (M3) to 32 (M3 Ultra); memory bandwidth runs 100GB/s (M3) to over 800GB/s (M3 Ultra); max unified memory runs 24GB (M3) to 512GB (M3 Ultra) 42.
Deep diveThe technical detail
| Spec | M3 | M3 Pro | M3 Max | M3 Ultra |
|---|
| CPU cores | 8 (4P+4E) | 11 or 12 | 14 or 16 | up to 32 (24P+8E) |
|---|
| GPU cores | 10 | 14 or 18 | 30 or 40 | up to 80 |
|---|
| Neural Engine | 16-core | 16-core | 16-core | 32-core |
|---|
| Max unified memory | 24GB | 36GB | 128GB | 512GB |
|---|
| Memory bandwidth | 100GB/s | 150GB/s | up to 400GB/s | over 800GB/s |
|---|
| Transistors | 25 billion | 37 billion | 92 billion | 184 billion |
|---|
| Process node | 3 nanometer | Not independently restated for Ultra |
|---|
Figures per Apple’s M3/Pro/Max launch release 1, tech-specs pages 45, and the M3 Ultra release 2.
5.Where it’s made
SimpleStart here
Apple calls the M3 family’s process “the industry-leading 3-nanometer process technology” — the first Mac chip generation on 3nm. No manufacturer is named.
Deep diveThe technical detail
Apple’s own words: M3 is built on “the industry-leading 3-nanometer process technology” 1 — the same node family A17 Pro claimed for iPhone a month earlier. No official Apple or TSMC source names a foundry for any M3-family chip.
6.Which systems use it
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M3: 14-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac (2023). M3 Pro/Max: 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2023). M3 Ultra: Mac Studio only (2025) 162.
Deep diveThe technical detail
M3 Ultra’s March 2025 Mac Studio launch paired it with an M4 Max mid-tier option rather than an M3 Max — the first time Apple mixed chip generations within the same Mac Studio lineup, since M4 Max had already launched separately for MacBook Pro five months earlier 3.
7.Official pricing
SimpleStart here
Not applicable. No M3-family chip has ever been sold as a separate, priced component.
Deep diveThe technical detail
No official Apple source lists a standalone chip price for M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max, or M3 Ultra.
9.What came before, what came next
SimpleStart here
Came before: the M2 family. Came after: the M4 family (base/Pro/Max only — no M4 Ultra was ever released, and M3 Ultra remained Apple’s top-tier chip until M5 Ultra arrived).
Deep diveThe technical detail
Because Apple skipped an Ultra tier for M4 entirely, M3 Ultra held the top of Apple’s desktop lineup for an unusually long stretch — from March 2025 until M5 Ultra’s August 2026 launch, spanning the entire M4 generation.
10.Hidden in plain sight
SimpleStart here
For a period spanning the entire next chip generation, Apple’s most powerful Mac chip was already one generation old.
Deep diveThe technical detail
M3 Ultra launched in March 2025. M4 Pro and M4 Max had already shipped five months earlier (October 2024), and Apple never released an M4 Ultra at all — confirmed by the March 2025 Mac Studio pairing M3 Ultra (top tier) with M4 Max (mid tier) rather than a same-generation Ultra 3. M3 Ultra therefore remained Apple’s single most powerful chip through the entire M4 era, only ceding that position to M5 Ultra in August 2026.
11.Sources
6 sources, checked September 2026. Where NVIDIA or another maker has not published a figure, this page says so rather than estimate it.
- Apple Newsroom: Apple Unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, the Most Advanced Chips for a Personal ComputerOfficial
- Apple Newsroom: Apple Reveals M3 Ultra, Taking Apple Silicon to a New ExtremeOfficial
- Apple Newsroom: Apple Unveils New Mac Studio, the Most Powerful Mac EverOfficial
- Apple Support: MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2023, M3) Technical SpecificationsOfficial
- Apple Support: MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, 2023, M3 Pro/Max) Technical SpecificationsOfficial
- Apple Newsroom: Apple Supercharges 24-inch iMac with New M3 ChipOfficial