Apple’s latest Mac Studio brings up to 512GB of unified memory to the compact desktop, giving developers and creative professionals more capacity to run demanding AI workloads locally.
The company on Tuesday announced the new Mac Studio, offering the desktop with its M5 Max and new M5 Ultra processors.
The M5 Max configuration features an 18-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory. Apple says its GPU performance is up to 50% faster than the previous generation, while selected AI workloads can run up to 3.9 times faster, depending on the application and configuration.
The M5 Ultra takes the system into another class. It can be configured with up to a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU and 512GB of unified memory, with memory bandwidth reaching 1.2TB per second. Apple says the expanded memory allows the system to run compatible large language models locally, reducing the need to send supported workloads to cloud infrastructure.
“Mac Studio is the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer.
Built for AI and Pro Work
Apple is positioning the Mac Studio as more than a traditional creative workstation. Neural Accelerators are built into every GPU core, while the M5 Ultra gets them in an Ultra chip for the first time.
In Apple’s benchmark tests, the M5 Ultra delivered up to 4.3 times the peak AI compute performance of the M3 Ultra. Apple also measured up to 9.8 times faster LLM prompt processing and up to 8.2 times faster text-to-image generation than an M1 Ultra system, although results will vary by model, application and configuration.
The hardware is aimed at developers, AI researchers, filmmakers, designers and data scientists. The M5 Ultra can also handle up to 33 simultaneous streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 frames per second.
Faster storage and more connectivity
The new Mac Studio gets PCIe Gen 6 SSD technology, which Apple says delivers up to twice the previous storage performance. Thunderbolt 5 offers up to 120Gbps of bandwidth for external storage and expansion hardware.
Wireless connectivity also gets an upgrade with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 through Apple’s N1 chip. The M5 Ultra configuration can drive up to eight external displays, while genlock over USB-C adds a useful feature for professional video workflows. Apple also supports clustering multiple Mac Studio systems over Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA. A four-system cluster can deliver up to three times faster AI inference than a single machine, according to Apple.
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The cost of going extreme
The M5 Max Mac Studio starts at $2,499, while the M5 Ultra version starts at $5,499. The higher-end model represents a substantial increase over the previous M3 Ultra starting price, while the 512GB unified-memory configuration will not arrive until late October.
That pricing makes the M5 Max the more approachable option for professionals who need serious local AI and graphics performance. The M5 Ultra, meanwhile, is difficult to justify for ordinary users but could make sense for teams that can replace cloud AI costs, larger workstations or specialized infrastructure with local computing.
The bigger consideration is that Apple’s headline performance gains are most relevant to workloads that can take advantage of its large memory pool and accelerated AI hardware. For less demanding desktop tasks, the premium is unlikely to deliver a proportional improvement.
Availability
Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra is available to preorder now, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning Sept. 22. The 512GB unified-memory configuration is scheduled to arrive in late October.
For IT teams, the buying decision comes down to workload and utilization. The M5 Ultra could reduce reliance on cloud infrastructure for organizations regularly running large AI models or high-end media workflows, but most professionals are unlikely to benefit enough to justify its price over the M5 Max configuration.
Read more: Explore the Mac Studio’s specifications, upgrade history and intended professional use cases in our complete Mac Studio cheat sheet.
