Alongside a new M6 Mac mini, Apple has launched new versions of the Mac Studio, using the M5 Max and M5 Ultra processors.
As consistently expected, Apple has updated the Mac Studio with these two processors. It claims up to 4.3 times faster AI performance, 2 times faster storage, and up to 1.3 times faster CPU speed. The new models come 16 months after the last update at the start of April 2025.
"With the powerful M5 Max and the incredible capabilities of M5 Ultra, Mac Studio ushers in a new era of desktop computing, delivering huge performance gains for pro workloads and AI inference with frontier-class models," said Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer in a statement. "By integrating Neural Accelerators directly into the GPU and offering massive amounts of high-bandwidth unified memory, the new Mac Studio is our most powerful Mac ever."
Apple says that the new M5 Max Mac Studio features:
- 18-core CPU
- Up to 40-core GPU with Neural Accelerators
- From 36GB unified memory to 128GB
- 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB SSD
- Support for up to five displays
In comparison, the M5 Ultra Mac Studio:
- Up to 36-core CPU
- Up to 80-core GPU
- 256GB or 512GB unified memory
- 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, or 16TB SSD
- Support for up to eight displays
Both models have the same ports on the back:
- Four Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports
- 10Gb Ethernet
- Two USB-A ports
- HDMI 2.1 port
- 3.5mm headphone jack
On the front, they each have an SDXC card slot (UHS-II). But the M5 Max then has two USB-C ports of up to 10Gb/s, while the M5 Ultra edition as two Thunderbolt 5 ports of up to 120GB/s.
Both models bring Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 to the Mac Studio for the first time.
Pricing and availability
The new Mac Studio starts at $2,499 for the M5 Max version, and $5,499 for the M5 Ultra edition. Pre-orders are now open, and the new Mac Studio will ship to customers from September 22, 2026.
Apple has kept to the same price it recently raised for the Mac Studio M4 Max edition. But the M5 Ultra is now $200 more than the M3 Ultra model.
At launch, the M4 Max cost $1,999, and the M3 Ultra was $3,999. The higher pricing is a direct result of demand causing component costs to rise because of the global chip shortage. And, that is probably why the 512GB version of the M5 Ultra Mac Studio can't be preordered today, and isn't shipping until late October.
Apple notes that in the US, these new Mac Studio models can now also be leased via its Apple Upgrade program. The M5 Max edition costs from $48.99 per month, while the M5 Ultra can be leased from $110.10 per month.
Despite these being the highest-ever starting prices for the Mac Studio, they are likely to sell out quickly. The Mac Studio always tends to, but now it's also probable that supplies will be constrained.
