Yesterday, Apple launched the last chip of the M1 series, which is the M1 Ultra with the same power as two M1 Max processors. Currently, the M1 Ultra chip is only available in the new Mac Studio. And when checking the parameters, technology experts have found that the Mac Studio equipped with the M1 Ultra chip weighs 1kg more than the version equipped with the M1 Max.
While the difference between these two versions of Mac Studio is only the processor chip. So that means the M1 Ultra chip is 1kg heavier than the M1 Max? The truth is not so and Apple has also revealed the real reason behind.
In an email to The Verge, Apple explained that the M1 Ultra chip is equivalent to the two M1 Max chips, but does not make a difference in weight up to 1kg. The extra weight is actually due to the fact that the M1 Ultra chip has a copper heatsink module, while the M1 Max chip only has an aluminum heatsink module.
The M1 Ultra chip uses heavier metal in its heatsink design. According to The Verge, at room temperature, copper has a density of 8.96 grams per cubic centimeter, while aluminum is only 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter. It also means that if the heatsink design is the same, the copper version will be 3 times heavier than the aluminum version.
Copper tends to be more widely used in high-performance and high-heat designs. Copper is denser and has a higher thermal conductivity than aluminum, so it can absorb more and move that heat around faster. It is not uncommon for PC heatsinks to use a copper plate to contact the CPU.
Apple says that placing two M1 Max chips side by side generates more heat, so they had to design a more efficient heatsink to work efficiently.
Apple’s latest M1 Ultra processor chip is equipped with up to 20 CPU cores, including 16 high-performance cores and 4 power-saving cores. The integrated GPU has 64 cores, which is 8 times more powerful than the GPU of the first M1 chip. The M1 Ultra can even beat the 28-core Intel processor in the Mac Pro, in terms of performance.
Reference: 9to5mac