Apple has never shied away from calling Mac Studio its most powerful desktop, but today’s update pushes that claim further than ever.
The new Mac Studio arrives with a choice of M5 Max or the all-new M5 Ultra, and Apple is explicitly positioning it the premier machine for running frontier-class AI models locally.
Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, said the new Mac Studio “ushers in a new era of desktop computing.” Let’s take a look at why.
Mac Studio with M5 Max
The M5 Max Mac Studio features an 18-core CPU (6 super cores, 12 performance cores) and an up-to-40-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in every core, delivering roughly 50 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. Unified memory support tops up to 128GB with 614GB/s of bandwidth, and the chip includes third-generation hardware-accelerated ray tracing along with a Media Engine capable of handling uncompressed 8K color grading.
M5 Max’s memory support up to 128GB/s and 614GB/s bandwidth make this model solidly capable of running even the most capable 70B parameter local AI models. Apple says M5 Max delivers up to 10.7x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio compared to the M1 Max generation (3.9x faster than M4 Max), up to 7.4x faster text-to-image generation, and up to 5.3x faster Magic Mask performance in DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Mac Studio with M5 Ultra: The Most Powerful Mac Ever
At the top of the range sits M5 Ultra, the first chip built using a new quad-die architecture with Apple’s UltraFusion technology. The result is a CPU that scales up to 36 cores and a GPU that scales up to 80 cores, with Neural Accelerators appearing on an Apple Ultra chip for the first time. Apple says that combination delivers up to 4.3x the peak AI compute of M3 Ultra and up to 1.8x faster graphics performance.
The headline spec, though, is memory. M5 Ultra supports up to 512GB of unified memory paired with an astonunding 1.2TB/s of bandwidth. That’s a 50 percent increase over M3 Ultra and enough capacity to hold multiple enormous AI models entirely in memory. To put it mildly, the M5 Ultra is the ultimate AI machine.
And thanks to the Mac Studio’s Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA (remote direct memory access) support, multiple M5 Ultra Mac Studio systems can be linked together to create a shared memory pool, letting teams load enormous frontier-class open-weight models across systems. Apple says a four-system M5 Ultra Studio cluster delivers up to 3x faster distributed AI inference than a single machine.
Storage, Connectivity, and Display Support
The new Mac Studio also picks up a next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6, doubling storage performance for faster project loading and file transfers. Thunderbolt 5 ports offer 80GB/s of bandwidth, scaling up to 120Gb/s in graphics heavy workloads.
Plus, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 come to Mac Studio for the first time via Apple’s N1 chip. The machine can now drive up to eight displays, or four Studio Display XDR units at full 5K resolution and 120Hz, and gains genlock support over USB-C for syncing with professional cameras like iPhone 17 Pro.
Pricing and Availability
The new Mac Studio will ship with macOS 27 Golden Gate. The M5 Max model starts at $2,499 ($2,299 for education), while Mac Studio with M5 Ultra starts at $5,499 ($5,099 for education).
Both are available for pre-order now, with units arriving September 22. However, the 512GB memory configuration won’t ship until late October. Apple Upgrade leasing is also available for eligible U.S. customers, starting at $48.99 per month for M5 Max and $110.10 per month for M5 Ultra on a 36-month term.
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