Apple Mac Pro (Mid 2012) vs Apple Mac Studio (M4 Max or M3 Ultra)

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Mac Pro (Mid 2012) compared with Mac Studio (M4 Max or M3 Ultra)

	AppleMac Pro (Mid 2012)	AppleMac Studio (M4 Max or M3 Ultra)
Overview
Released
Released	June 2012	March 2025
Performance
Processor
Processor	Intel Xeon W3565, 2 × Intel Xeon E5645, Intel Xeon W3680, 2 × Intel Xeon X5650 or 2 × Intel Xeon X5675	Apple M4 Max or Apple M3 Ultra
CPU cores
CPU cores	4, 6 or 12	14, 16, 28 or 32
CPU threads
CPU threads	8, 12 or 24	–
Graphics
Graphics	ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB GDDR5), ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1 GB GDDR5) or 2 × ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB GDDR5 per card)	32-core GPU, 40-core GPU, 60-core GPU or 80-core GPU
Memory
Memory	6 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, 16 GB, 24 GB, 32 GB, 48 GB or 64 GB	36 GB, 96 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB or 512 GB (better)
Storage
Storage	512 GB to 2 TB	512 GB to 16 TB (better)
CPU
CPU	Standard single 3.2 GHz quad-core Xeon W3565 (up to 3.46 GHz Turbo Boost) or two 2.4 GHz six-core Xeon E5645 processors (up to 2.67 GHz; twelve physical cores and 24 threads in total). Apple offers a single 3.33 GHz six-core processor or two six-core processors at 2.66 or 3.06 GHz; EveryMac identifies these original factory options as W3680, X5650 and X5675 respectively. Processor count in configurations means physical sockets, with chip figures per processor.	M4 Max: 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, or 16-core CPU; M3 Ultra: 28-core CPU with 20 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, or 32-core CPU
GPU
GPU	ATI Radeon HD 5770 or HD 5870 with 1 GB GDDR5; optional two HD 5770 cards with 1 GB each. Both cards have two Mini DisplayPort outputs and one dual-link DVI port. Graphics memory is per card.	M4 Max: 32-core or 40-core GPU; M3 Ultra: 60-core or 80-core GPU; hardware-accelerated ray tracing
AI engine
AI engine	–	16-core Neural Engine (M4 Max); 32-core Neural Engine (M3 Ultra)
Memory type
Memory type	Single-processor systems have four slots and maker-supported memory up to 32 GB; dual-processor systems have eight slots and up to 64 GB. DDR3 ECC SDRAM at 1066 MHz with the 3.2 GHz CPU and 1333 MHz with the other listed CPUs; 1, 2, 4 or 8 GB DIMMs.	M4 Max: 36GB; 48GB, 64GB or 128GB with the 16-core CPU / 40-core GPU. M3 Ultra: 96GB or 256GB in the current specification table. Apple announced 512GB at launch and documents a 32-core CPU / 80-core GPU, 512GB, 16TB system in its power test; that historical option is retained separately.
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	–	M4 Max: 410GB/s with the 32-core GPU, 546GB/s with the 40-core GPU; M3 Ultra: 819GB/s. M4 Max takes 36GB (32-core GPU) or 48GB, 64GB or 128GB (40-core GPU); M3 Ultra takes 96GB or 256GB, and was offered with up to 512GB at launch
Storage type
Storage type	Four 3.5-inch cable-free drive bays with independent 3 Gb/s SATA channels and included carriers. Each factory bay can hold a 1 or 2 TB 7200 rpm hard drive with 32 MB cache, or a 512 GB SSD. Listed configurations describe one selected drive; optional extra drives can bring total hard-drive capacity to 8 TB. One 18x double-layer SuperDrive is standard, with an optional second optical drive.	SSD
Media engine
Media engine	–	Hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; AV1 decode; M4 Max: video decode engine, two video encode engines and two ProRes encode and decode engines; M3 Ultra: two video decode engines, four video encode engines and four ProRes encode and decode engines
Expansion slots
Expansion slots	One double-wide PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics slot and three further full-length slots (one x16 and two x4); 300 W combined maximum. All slots mechanically accept x16 cards. Optional dual- or quad-channel 4 Gb Fibre Channel card.	–
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	5 × USB-A, 2 × Ethernet, headphone jack	4 × Thunderbolt 5, 2 × USB-C, 2 × USB-A, HDMI, Ethernet, SD card slot, headphone jack
Ethernet
Ethernet	1 Gb/s	10 Gb/s (better)
External displays
External displays	–	Up to 5
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	802.11n	Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	5.3
Front ports
Front ports	Two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 800 ports and a headphone minijack	M4 Max: 2 × USB-C (up to 10Gb/s); M3 Ultra: 2 × Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s); SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
Back ports
Back ports	Three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 800 ports, two independent Gigabit Ethernet ports with jumbo-frame support, optical TOSLINK audio input and output, and analogue stereo line input and output. Graphics outputs vary by card; FireWire and DVI are described here because the main port list has no fields for them. Included keyboard has two additional USB 2.0 ports, excluded from chassis counts.	4 × Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) with Thunderbolt 5 and USB 4 (up to 120Gb/s), USB 3 (up to 10Gb/s) and DisplayPort 2.1; 2 × USB-A (USB 3, up to 5Gb/s); HDMI 2.1 with multichannel audio output; 10Gb Ethernet (RJ-45); 3.5 mm headphone jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones
External displays
External displays	Up to three displays with one graphics card, or six with two HD 5770 cards. Digital resolution up to 2560 × 1600 and analogue up to 2048 × 1536; optional Mini DisplayPort/DVI/VGA adapters. Multichannel audio through Mini DisplayPort.	M4 Max: up to five (four at up to 6K 60Hz over Thunderbolt plus one at 4K 144Hz over HDMI), or three (two at up to 6K 60Hz plus one at up to 8K 60Hz or 4K 240Hz over HDMI); M3 Ultra: up to eight at up to 6K 60Hz or 4K 144Hz, or four at up to 8K 60Hz or 4K 240Hz; VRR, HDR and multichannel audio supported
Speakers
Speakers	Internal speaker and front headphone output; optical and analogue audio input/output	Built-in speaker
Microphones
Microphones	–	None built in
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard and mouse	Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and Magic Mouse; optional Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Mouse or Magic Trackpad	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Compact
Weight
Weight	–	2.74 kg
Width × depth × height
Width × depth × height	206 × 475 × 511 mm	197 × 197 × 95 mm
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	Quad-core standard configuration weighs 18.1 kg; standard twelve-core configuration 18.7 kg. Actual weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process, so a shared weight is omitted.	–
Power supply
Power supply	AC input 100–120 V or 200–240 V, 50–60 Hz; maximum current 12 A at low voltage or 5 A at high voltage	Built-in; 100–240V AC; 480W maximum continuous power
Colours
Colours	–	Silver
Noise
Noise	Apple gives operator-position sound pressure of 26 dB for the 3.2 GHz model and 25 dB for the 2.4 GHz dual-processor model at idle or during hard-drive access; 42 dB during optical-drive access. Corresponding sound power is 3.7/3.5 B at idle and 4.7/5.1 B during optical access.	–
Materials
Materials	Recyclable aluminium enclosure; BFR-free and internal cables PVC-free	–
In the box
In the box	Mac Pro, power cord, keyboard, Magic Mouse, USB keyboard extension cable and documentation. Current maker sheet describes OS X Mountain Lion and iLife; the generation was introduced before Mountain Lion. Apple also offered a server configuration with OS X Server, 8 GB memory and two 1 TB drives, supplied without keyboard or mouse; its distinct bundled software and drive arrangement are described here.	Mac Studio, power lead