Apple’s next-generation M7 Ultra chip is being designed to support up to 1.5 terabytes of unified memory, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, roughly double the capacity planned for the M5 Ultra and matching the highest RAM configuration available on the 2019 Intel-based Mac Pro, a ceiling Apple Silicon has not reached since the company transitioned away from Intel.
The M7 Ultra’s memory target is significant for the kind of workloads that Apple Silicon Macs are increasingly expected to handle. Unified memory architecture, where the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine share a single pool of high-speed memory, is one of Apple’s key performance advantages, it eliminates the data copying between separate memory banks that traditional architectures require. But it also means the available RAM is physically soldered onto the processor package, making the maximum capacity a chip-level design decision rather than a user-upgradeable one.
The 1.5 TB ceiling would support large-language-model inference workloads that currently require Nvidia-class workstation hardware. A single Mac could theoretically run models that require over a terabyte of parameters entirely in memory, avoiding the performance penalty of swapping to storage.
Gurman cautioned that whether Apple ultimately ships a 1.5 TB configuration “will depend on the state of the industry,” citing widespread memory-chip shortages that have made high-capacity DRAM modules more expensive and harder to source. Even if Apple engineers the M7 Ultra to support 1.5 TB, it may choose to offer lower memory SKUs at launch if supply conditions do not justify the cost.
The M7 Ultra Mac Studio is not expected until 2028. In the nearer term, Apple is preparing the M5 Ultra later this year with up to 768 GB of unified memory, itself a record for Apple Silicon. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio will slot into the current product line as the highest-end workstation option, while the M7 Ultra represents the longer-term architectural roadmap.
At Apple’s current RAM pricing, estimated at roughly $25 per additional gigabyte, upgrading to 1.5 TB from a 128 GB base configuration would cost over $35,000, comparable to the pricing tiers of the 2019 Mac Pro’s memory upgrades.
The M7 Ultra’s development follows a pattern of Apple gradually closing the capacity gap between its unified memory architecture and traditional expandable workstations. The M3 Ultra topped out at 512 GB. The M4 Max reached 128 GB. The forthcoming M5 Ultra doubles that to 768 GB. The M7 Ultra’s 1.5 TB target, if realized, would finally match the Intel Mac Pro, seven years after the last Intel-based professional workstation shipped.
Sources: M7 Ultra chip could support up to 1.5TB of unified memory (The Apple Post, Jul 12, 2026); M7 Ultra to potentially feature up to 1.5TB of RAM (9to5Mac, Jul 12, 2026)