M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio: Apple's AI desktop, compared

Apple's top-tier Mac, the Mac Studio, has been given a big AI bump with the M5 Ultra. Here's how it compares against the M3 Ultra model it replaces.

The new Mac Studio arrived on Tuesday, with the all-new M5 Ultra now the top-of-the-range chip for tough productivity workloads. Apple is positioning it squarely as a desktop for doing a lot of AI-related processing, including running models locally.

The design stays faithful to the outgoing model, so the story lives inside the chip. This time, the headline is artificial intelligence rather than raw core counts.

Here's how the M5 Ultra Mac Studio measures up against the M3 Ultra version that came before it.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Specifications

Specifications	M5 Ultra Mac Studio (2026)	M3 Ultra Mac Studio (2025)
Launch starting price	$5,499	$3,999
Dimensions (inches)	7.7 x 7.7 x 3.7	7.7 x 7.7 x 3.7
Weight (pounds)	8.0	8.0
Processor	Apple M5 Ultra, up to 36-core CPU (12 super cores, 24 performance cores)	Apple M3 Ultra, up to 32-core CPU (24 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores)
AI processing	32-core Neural Engine, GPU Neural Accelerators	32-core Neural Engine
Graphics	Up to 80-core GPU, third-generation ray tracing	Up to 80-core GPU, hardware ray tracing
RAM	96GB, 256GB, 512GB	96GB, 256GB, 512GB
Memory bandwidth	1.2TB/s	819GB/s
Networking	Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 10Gb Ethernet	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 10Gb Ethernet
Storage	1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 16TB	1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 16TB
Ports	Six Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, 10Gb Ethernet, Two USB-C (front), SDXC (front), 3.5mm headphone (front)	Six Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, 10Gb Ethernet, Two USB-C (front), SDXC (front), 3.5mm headphone (front)

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Design, Weight, Size

Apple has left the Mac Studio exterior untouched for this generation. The compact round-cornered aluminum block measures 7.7 inches square and 3.7 inches tall, unchanged from the M3 Ultra model.

Weight also holds steady at 8 pounds for the Ultra configuration. As a firm desk-based model, you're not expecting to move it, but at least it isn't any heavier.

Anyone upgrading from an older Studio will slot the new one into exactly the same desk space.

The front has remained the same, with a pair of USB Type-C ports visible alongside a memory card reader. An indicator light hides to the right-hand side, as always.

Turning to the back is the usual row of ports, which are again unchanged between generations. The back also has a massive grille section, which is the same size and design in both models.

Each also resides on a raised circular section in the base, which also has vent holes.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Processor and graphics

Beyond AI, which we will get to, the M5 Ultra sharpens the traditional performance story, as you would expect for the model.

The M5 Ultra starts with a 30-core CPU, using 10 super cores and 20 performance cores. However, you can scale this up to 36 cores, with 12 super cores and 24 performance cores.

That is a jump in chip spec from the M3 Ultra, which started with a 28-core CPU with 20 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. The 32-core counterpart used 24 performance cores with 8 efficiency cores.

In both cases, Apple is using the trick of combining equivalent Max chips together with a high-speed interconnect known as UltraFusion. However, for the M5 Ultra, Apple is combining two dual-die M5 Max chips for a quad-die architecture, which is a first for the company.

The result is an inter-die bandwidth of a staggering 4.4TB/s and a connection density increase by a factor of six.

Apple quotes up to 1.3 times the multithreaded performance of the older chip for the M5 Ultra.

On graphics, the M3 Ultra shipped in a choice of 60-core or 80-core versions, complete with hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

However, the M5 Ultra is a little bit better, with choices for a 64-core or 80-core GPU.

Apple claims that the M5 Ultra's architecture comes into play again, enabling up to 1.8 times the graphics performance of the M3 Ultra. There's also some AI benefits to take into account, which we will bring up momentarily.

There are Media Engines at play for both models, capable of encoding and decoding video using hardware acceleration. However, there's not much difference here.

Both can handle h.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW, with each having two video decode engines, four video encode engines, four ProRes encode and decode engines, and AV1 decode.

The current memory crisis will be on buyer's minds, but it doesn't factor into Apple's spec sheet for the Mac Studio anymore.

At launch, the M3 Ultra had options for 96GB, 256GB, and 512GB. However, from March, Apple started to cull some of its memory options.

That cull has been undone for the M5 Ultra, as all three options are available once again.

That said, there's an improvement in memory bandwidth here. The M5 Ultra moves data at 1.2 terabytes per second, a 50 percent jump over the M3 Ultra's 819 gigabytes per second.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - The AI story

This is the heart of the update, and the reason the new Mac Studio exists. Apple has built the M5 generation around accelerating on-device artificial intelligence.

The key change is the GPU. For the first time, the Ultra chip gains Neural Accelerators embedded in each graphics core, purpose-built for the matrix math that drives AI models.

Both models still benefit from a Neural Engine, a 32-core version due to the doubling math from using two Max chips as a base. But the Neural Accelerators provide so much assistance to the Neural Engine.

It's not just 32 cores. It's 32 cores assisted by either 64 or 80 GPU cores, which makes a huge difference.

Apple claims up to 4.3 times the peak AI compute of the M3 Ultra as a result. Against the older M1 Ultra, that figure stretches to a claimed 9.8 times.

The payoff is the ability to run enormous language models entirely on the machine. Apple frames this as freedom from cloud costs and token limits, with the privacy of keeping data local.

This makes the new Mac Studio a great option for those working in the AI field, if only to avoid their bank account bleeding out over remote token purchases.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Benchmarks

At this point, we would try to give you some idea of how the M5 Ultra's performance compares to the existing model. Since the M5 Ultra isn't out in any released device yet, we have to approximate using Apple's claimed changes.

For the single-core result, we can actually work it out using an existing product: The M5 14-inch MacBook Pro.

The single-core benchmark relies on the Mac using one of the fastest cores at its disposal. Since the 14-inch MacBook Pro's M5 uses super cores in the same chip generation, that gives us a point of direct comparison rather than estimating.

According to Geekbench 7's listings, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 28 cores can manage 2,918 on the single-core test, with the 32-core at 2,889. The 14-inch Macbook Pro can score a meaty 3,637, and the Mac Studio with M5 ultra will be about the same.

Apple says the M5 Ultra can get up to 1.25 times higher single-threaded performance than the M3 Ultra. That would put it at around 3,650 for the same test.

So, the claimed multiple is quite accurate in this case. However, for other benchmarks, we cannot go down the same route.

A multi-core test would require employing all available CPU cores on a chip. Add in that we don't know the per-core score of the other cores, as well as considering other elements of the chip architecture, it makes a prediction hard to do.

If Apple used ten super cores in one chip and eight in another, we could approximate a difference just from core counts. The mix in core types and counts complicates things a bit too far.

As such, for the multi-core and Metal discussions, we have to lean more on Apple's own claims.

For multi-core, the M3 Ultra gets to 35,094 or 38,679, again depending on the core counts.

Based on Apple's claim of a 1.3 times improvement in multithreaded performance, the M5 Ultra could be touching 50,000.

On to the all-important Metal scores, the M3 Ultra can go up to 244,854 for the 80-core GPU version. Apple says the M5 Ultra has up to 40% faster graphics performance than M3 Ultra, which puts it at possibly 350,000.

When it comes to how it will impact the all-important AI workloads, Apple says that it can get up to 4.5 times the peak GPU compute level for AI using the M5 Ultra over the M3 Ultra.

We will update this section with M5 Ultra Mac Studio scores once they are published. Until then, Apple's stated multipliers over the M3 Ultra are the best available guide.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Ports and Connectivity

Physical ports are going to be very familiar to all involved. In both cases, you get six Thunderbolt 5 ports, with two at the front and four at the back.

Then there's HDMI, a 10Gb Ethernet connection, a pair of 10 gigabit USB 3 Type-A ports, and a headphone jack that also supports high-impedance headphones.

On the wireless side, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio has Wi-Fi 6E, beaten by the M5 Ultra's Wi-Fi 7. Likewise, the Mac Studio has now moved on from Bluetooth 5.3 to Bluetooth 6.

Apple's choice to use the N1 wireless networking chip also includes Thread support on the M5 Ultra model.

In total, you can drive a total of up to eight displays from the Ultra-equipped models. In both generations, that means up to eight 6K displays, or up to four 8K displays.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Storage and clustering

Storage sees a genuine architectural upgrade this time. The M5 Ultra uses a next-generation SSD built on PCIe Gen 6, which Apple says doubles storage speed over the previous Mac Studio.

That matters most when loading huge AI models or moving uncompressed footage. Faster storage shortens the wait before a large model is ready to run.

The new Studio also leans into clustering for AI workloads. Using Thunderbolt 5 and remote direct memory access, several machines can pool their memory into one shared resource.

Apple says a cluster of four Mac Studio systems delivers up to three times the AI inference performance of a single machine. That turns the desktop into a building block for larger local AI setups.

Clustering isn't new in the field of AI, nor are the benefits of pooling memory over Thunderbolt 5. But it is telling that Apple is using this as a way to promote the Mac Studio as a real AI development platform.

For storage capacity, both models benefit from a large amount of variation. Each have five tiers, ranging from 1TB and repeatedly doubling to the top 16TB level.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Price

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio starts at $5,499, with education pricing at $5,099. That is higher than the M3 Ultra's $3,999 starting point.

The M3 Ultra included the 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 96GB of memory, and 1TB of storage. The base chip had an upgrade to 256GB of memory for $1,600.

The upper-tier chip cost $1,500 with 96GB of memory. 256GB was available for $1,600 more, but with 512 as an extra option for another $2,400.

On storage, the base 1TB could be upgraded to 2TB for $400, 2TB for an extra $600 again, and 8TB one step higher for another $1,200. One more step to 16TB added another $2,400 to the price.

The new Mac Studio with M5 Ultra charges $1,300 to get the upper-tier chip option, but that's the least of your financial worries.

Going from 96GB to 256GB on that lower chip will cost you an eye-watering $4,000. The 512GB memory option isn't available until October, but we dread to think how much that will cost.

Storage costs have also inflated, too. Getting from 1TB to 2TB is now $500, with 4TB another $1,500.

8TB is now $3,500 more than the 4TB option, and 16TB is $7,500 more again.

A full-spec M5 Ultra Mac Studio with the upper-tier chip, 256GB of memory, and 16TB of storage will now cost you $18,299, or a mere $398.91 per month for 36 months under Apple's leasing program.

M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio - Which to buy

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio is an internal generational leap, wrapped in a familiar shell. The decision rests almost entirely on AI and performance needs.

For anyone buying now, the M5 Ultra is the clear choice at the top of the range. Its Neural Accelerators, higher bandwidth, and faster storage make it far better suited to local AI than the M3 Ultra.

If you're intending to buy the best model Mac for performance reasons, and you have the budget, it's the only real choice to make.

The gains are largest for AI researchers, data scientists, and studios running large models on-device. For those workloads, the claimed 4.3 times AI uplift is going to be transformative rather than incremental.

For existing M3 Ultra owners, the upgrade depends on whether AI is central to your work. Traditional creative tasks see a solid but smaller gain, so there's much less of a benefit to getting the new kid on the block.

It's pretty simple, summarized. Unless you have a pressing need and heavy AI workloads, you're probably going to be happy enough staying with the M3 Ultra for a while longer. It's more than fast enough, just not bleeding-edge fast.

The Mac Studio is no longer just a compact workstation, but a personal AI machine built to run complicated and massive models on the desk.

That is, if you can afford one in the first place.

Where to Buy the M5 Ultra Mac Studio vs M3 Ultra Mac Studio

Apple's M5 Ultra Mac Studio can be preordered now at B&H Photo, with prices starting at $5,499.

Extremely limited inventory remains of the M3 Ultra Mac Studio, with B&H carrying this 96GB RAM/4TB SSD configuration. You can view the latest pricing and availability in our M3 Ultra Mac Studio Price Guide.