Apple M7 Ultra Chip Planned With Up to 1.5 TB of Unified Memory | TechPowerUp
Monday, July 13th 2026
Apple M7 Ultra Chip Planned With Up to 1.5 TB of Unified Memory
by AleksandarK
Today, 04:38
Discuss (7 Comments)
Apple has recently overhauled its entire M-Series chip plans, scrapping the launch of the M6 Pro and M6 Max processors and jumping straight to the M7 series. While the base M6 SoC is expected to launch, Apple is moving into the M7 series without the M6 Pro/Max variants, with plans to offer some of the most powerful computing solutions in the market. Apple is testing the M6 SoC in the base MacBook Pro model, featuring many improvements in CPU microarchitecture and NPU performance for local AI processing. Reportedly, memory is also being upgraded for higher bandwidth, now targeting around 200 GB/s, up from 123 GB/s in the current base M5 SoC. The integrated GPU will see a 20% increase in core count, featuring 12 GPU cores in the M6, which will be a noticeable improvement from the current 10-core configuration in the M5.
However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, in the PowerOn newsletter, confirmed that Apple's plans for the M7 Ultra chip include much faster local AI with more CPU, GPU, and NPU power, as well as a total memory capacity of 1.5 TB, a configuration only seen on the Mac Pro desktop systems. Next year's base M7 processor is expected to arrive in the first half of 2027 and will also upgrade memory bandwidth to about 240 GB/s. This is supposed to be the first Intel-manufactured Apple Silicon design, utilizing the 18A-P node. The M7 Pro and M7 Max will arrive in late 2027 with much higher bandwidth and performance. An M7 Ultra version will follow in 2028 for Mac Studio, which will be a 1.5 TB DRAM machine. With that unified memory, local model development and heavier tasks will be supported without hassle.<br>The 1.5 TB figure will be about double what Apple is preparing for its M5 Ultra variant. Reportedly, Apple is testing the M5 Ultra SoC in the Mac Studio, featuring about 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and approximately 768 GB of memory. This configuration will be difficult to pull off with the current memory shortages in the industry, but Apple's supply chain will be able to secure some allocation for the highest-end configuration.
Source:<br>Bloomberg
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Add your own comment<br>7 Comments on Apple M7 Ultra Chip Planned With Up to 1.5 TB of Unified Memory
#1
And it will cost like a new Ferrari :D
#2
There is no actual shortage because few data centers are getting built. There is just artificial memory price hike. Anyone can buy ddr5 and there are tons of availability, except its now 5x the price from last year...
#3
True, it's not like GPU shortages during cryptomining crazes. But that's to be expected - crypto miners were buying the same product gamers were buying, so everything was bought straight off the shelves, if it wasn't loaded on the pallets even before that.
AI, servers aren't buying consumer DDR 5 sticks. They are buying specific products meant for them, and memory makers have prioritised their orders. That means that retailers know they have a smaller amount of consumer products available, and in order to maximise the profit they chose to rise the prices sky high - so only people who are loaded, or desperately need to build now are actually buying, and most of the stock is nicely sitting in the shelves.
But apparently analysts show PC sales have hardly moved downward, so is only the DIY sector so affected? Or are those numbers pure guesses out of touch with reality? Stay tuned for next installment of Danger Mouse!
#4
The whole shortage was caused by OpenAI giving the letter of intent to buy up nearly the whole DDR5 wafer supply, and other AI companies placing orders that would take many years to try to fulfill.
And it's debatable whether those companies are even using any of the supply they bought, or if there's any real proof the memory...