Apple has officially introduced its new Mac Studio, bringing the company’s latest M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips to its compact professional desktop lineup. The new Mac Studio is designed for demanding creative workflows, software development and increasingly intensive on-device AI workloads.
Availability begins September 22, with the M5 Max configuration starting at $2,499, while the M5 Ultra model starts at $5,499.
Mac Studio Gets Apple’s M5 Max and M5 Ultra
The biggest change in the new Mac Studio is inside. Apple is offering the desktop with two high-end Apple silicon options: M5 Max and M5 Ultra.
The M5 Max configuration supports up to 128GB of unified memory, giving professional users substantial headroom for large creative projects, development environments and AI workloads.
The M5 Ultra takes things considerably further, supporting up to 512GB of unified memory and an 80-core GPU configuration.
That amount of unified memory is particularly interesting for workflows involving large datasets and AI models, where keeping more data accessible to the GPU and CPU can reduce the need to constantly move information between different memory pools.
Up to 512GB of Unified Memory
For professional users, memory capacity is one of the headline features of the new Mac Studio.
The configurations include:
- M5 Max: Up to 128GB unified memory
- M5 Ultra: Up to 512GB unified memory
- M5 Ultra GPU: Up to 80 cores
The 512GB option puts the Mac Studio firmly into workstation territory for users working with extremely large projects, complex simulations, high-resolution media and local AI models.
Built for On-Device AI
Apple is also positioning the new Mac Studio as a machine for on-device AI.
That is becoming increasingly important as developers and creative professionals look for ways to run AI workloads locally rather than relying entirely on cloud services.
The combination of Apple silicon’s unified memory architecture and the M5 Ultra’s high-end GPU configuration gives demanding AI workloads access to a large pool of memory without requiring a separate system memory and graphics memory setup.
For developers, this could make the Mac Studio particularly interesting for experimenting with large models and other memory-intensive AI applications.
Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6
The new Mac Studio also brings modern connectivity options.
Apple lists Thunderbolt 5 alongside Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, giving the desktop faster wired connectivity and updated wireless standards.
Thunderbolt 5 is especially relevant for professional setups involving high-speed external storage, displays and other peripherals.
For studios and professional workstations, the combination means the Mac Studio can serve as the central computer in a much larger high-performance setup.
Mac Studio Pricing and Availability
Apple’s new Mac Studio starts at:
| Configuration | Starting price |
|---|---|
| M5 Max | $2,499 |
| M5 Ultra | $5,499 |
Availability begins September 22.
The large price gap between the two configurations reflects the different performance and memory ceilings. The M5 Ultra version is aimed at users who need extremely high compute and memory capacity rather than simply wanting a compact desktop for everyday tasks.
A Mac Studio Built for Professional Workloads
The new Mac Studio continues Apple’s strategy of putting increasingly powerful Apple silicon into relatively compact desktop hardware.
With M5 Max and M5 Ultra, up to 512GB of unified memory, an 80-core GPU, Thunderbolt 5 and Wi-Fi 7, the latest model is clearly aimed at professionals running workloads that can push conventional desktop systems hard.
The biggest story, however, may be the combination of large unified memory capacity and on-device AI. As AI development moves increasingly toward local execution, machines capable of keeping larger models and datasets in memory could become significantly more useful.
For professionals who need workstation-class performance without moving to a traditional tower PC, the new Mac Studio gives Apple’s desktop lineup another substantial performance upgrade.
