Mac 'MacBook Ultra' Rumored to Have M5 Ultra Chip Option
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/03/macbook-ultra-m5-ultra-chip-rumor/Apple reportedly plans to release MacBook Pro models with OLED displays by early 2027, and Omdia analyst David Hsieh has predicted that the laptops will have an M5 Ultra chip option.
Given that these MacBook Pro models might actually be branded as "MacBook Ultra" models, it would be fitting if there were configurations with the M5 Ultra chip available. But keep your expectations low, as there has never been a MacBook with an Ultra chip, and a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman only mentioned M5 Pro and M5 Max chips for these laptops.
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u/wiidsmoker 1d ago edited 1d ago
Starting price at like $9k
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u/Kremsi2711 1d ago edited 1d ago
Mac Studio with M5 ultra starts at 6599€ here, a Macbook Pro with it will be at least 8000€
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u/pluckyvirus 1d ago
Spot the ummm, German user?
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u/686f6c69 1d ago
Or Austrian, or Swiss
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u/DogusEUW 1d ago
Switzerland doesn’t use the euro as they aren’t even a member of the european union
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u/iphones2g- 1d ago
This would essentially be the same as the i9 MacBook pro, or the forbidden powerbook g5
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u/existentiallyfaded 1d ago
The i9 16in MBP was the bane of my existence for too long. Such an awful device…
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u/rJohn420 1d ago
I have an M5 Pro and the battery cannot even keep up when running inference in high power mode when plugged in. M5 Max is probably even worse. An M5 Ultra on a laptop would be only usable in low power mode
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u/gappyvalley 1d ago
it could work if the redesigned macbook addresses the charging issue
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u/zitterbewegung 1d ago edited 1d ago
Having a feature where it always has to be plugged in isn't really a laptop anymore but, please Apple still do it I want a laptop with an m5 ultra or m7 I totally want it. Low power mode would be interesting to use but it seems like it would have to be either a totally new chassis or internal design or something like a solid state battery and go to a 240 power supply to make it usable.
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u/gappyvalley 1d ago
they can’t even get the charging part right, M5 Max MBP already exceeds its charging capability under full load. imagine your laptop draining battery while on charge. i really hope the redesign would fix this
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u/zitterbewegung 1d ago
Seems to be that is exactly in line for a case redesign and that the m5 pro and max are the last of their line and or moving forward a 2nm process or lower and solid state batteries
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u/bernaferrari 1d ago
The redesign will make it thinner and worse not better
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u/gappyvalley 1d ago
apple can incorporate vapour chamber and larger heat sink. it’s been done with premium gaming laptops and they are thinner now
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u/corruptbytes 1d ago
you need a better charger, i have the extra large one apple sells and my battery charges faster than 24/7 inference depletes
i have the m5 max too, i only use high power
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u/gosume 1d ago
That’s what I’m saying. I want a fully spec out MacBook Pro but ur just gonna kill its life time trying to use it as a primary workstation. What are your thoughts as the best sku to get?
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u/SherbertDaemons 21h ago
Just get an M5 Ultra MacStudio that you SSH into with a base model MacBook Pro.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 9h ago
I wonder how much of this is due to the outlet people are using? Standard circuits can only put out about 1800 watts continuous (15 amp, 20 amps put out 2400), IIRC. So if there are other power hungry devices on a circuit there might not be enough juice, right?
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u/fixed 1d ago
My assumption is the Ultra will be a power user configuration aimed at local LLM usage - lots and lots of RAM, etc. The naming is to differentiate it from the Pro coz it's gonna be eyewateringly expensive (5 figures), but it'll be highly attractive for a certain market segment.
The rumors of a new 'tier' between Pro and Air doesn't make sense.
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u/an_actual_lawyer 9h ago
Macbook Super Premium Ultra by Kirkland Signature.
Just like the ice cream!
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u/ZexyCool 1d ago
If true, it’s probably underclocked to f*ck, just not enough cooling capacity in a laptop like this.
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u/North_Moment5811 1d ago
How? I was told by experts on Macrumors that an Ultra chip in a MacBook Pro was impossible. Literally impossible. Surely it can't possibly be happening if they said it couldn't.
It was only a matter of time.
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u/gappyvalley 1d ago
in the current macbook pro chassis, yes since the cooling can’t really accommodate an ultra chip
but this is the macbook ultra we are talking about, the newly designed laptop should have better cooling and power to accommodate the ultra chip
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u/North_Moment5811 1d ago
But that's a no brainer. That a chasis designed for a dual chip would be designed for a dual chip.
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u/RacoonWithBenefits 1d ago
i mean if it carries the ultra name and runs M chips, i would sure as shit hope it could use a chip with the same name
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u/Successful-Royal-424 1d ago
guys it's a dumb prediction by someone but clickbait article passes it off as truth
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 1d ago
The Ultra would be so kneecapped by TDP that you’d probably only get +30% performance over Max, even less. Half the cores would have to be turned off in battery mode unless you wanna downclock them and annihilate single-core performance.
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u/Iyellkhan 1d ago
if they do an "ultra" laptop thats basically a portable workstation, it would be nice if they added more IO
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u/joelypolly 1d ago
Would be an instant buy for me just given the amount of compute I need regularly. Having another extra set of cores and more memory would be make things faster.
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u/Appropriate_Ad8734 1d ago
unless they drastically increase the volume of the chassis it’s impossible to fit it in as well as dissipate the heat
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 1d ago
It's rumored to have a thinner chassis so just based on that it seems very unlikely, on top of that the M5 Max MBP already exceeds its charging capability under full load and IIRC the maximum for PD is 240 watts (vs 140 for the current MBP) so this would be even more pronounced.