Apple has launched the new Mac Studio featuring the M5 Max and M5 Ultra processors. The design retains the 7.7-by-7.7-inch footprint of previous models, though the M5 Ultra version is heavier due to an upgraded copper heatsink. Connectivity includes four Thunderbolt 5 ports, 10Gbps Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, and USB-A ports on the rear, with front-facing ports varying by configuration.
The M5 Ultra chip consists of two M5 Max chips, effectively utilizing four silicon chiplets. It features up to 12 super CPU cores, 24 performance cores, 80 GPU cores, 32 Neural Engine cores, and memory bandwidth exceeding 1.2TB/s. The system supports up to eight external displays, whereas the M5 Max supports up to five.
Apple has increased pricing across the Mac Studio lineup, citing memory shortages. The base M5 Max model starts at $2,499, compared to $1,999 for the M4 Max version. The M5 Ultra configuration with 256GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is priced at $9,499, up from $5,599 for a comparable M3 Ultra setup eighteen months ago.
Performance benchmarks indicate the M5 Ultra is the fastest Apple Silicon processor to date, though it faces power-limiting constraints within the current chassis. In testing, the M5 Ultra CPU outperformed the M5 Max by 80 to 90 percent in general-purpose tasks, while GPU performance showed a 50 to 80 percent improvement over the Max variant.
