Apple announced a new Mac Studio on August 25, 2026, featuring M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. The updated desktop introduces Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, faster PCIe Gen 6 storage, and enhanced Neural Accelerators built into every GPU core, delivering up to 4.3x faster AI performance and up to 512GB of unified memory.
Apple has refreshed its compact desktop lineup, announcing a new Mac Studio powered by the M5 Max and the all-new M5 Ultra chips. The release discontinues the M4 Max and M3 Ultra models that had been on sale since March 2025. While the machine keeps the signature aluminum chassis design for a fifth consecutive year, the internal architecture brings substantial performance gains for professional workflows and local artificial intelligence tasks. The machine is made with 35% recycled content overall, including 100% recycled aluminum in the enclosure and 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets.
Mac Studio with M5 Max features an 18-core CPU, an up-to-40-core GPU with Neural Accelerators built into each core, and up to 128GB of unified memory, accelerating complex pro and AI workloads. With the powerful M5 Ultra, Mac Studio scales up to a 36-core CPU, up to an 80-core GPU, and a staggering 512GB of unified memory, enabling users to run enormous LLMs entirely on device. Across both generations, the maximum GPU still contains 80 cores, the Neural Engine still contains 32 cores, display support and media engine is identical, storage still maxes out at 16TB, and maximum unified memory is still 512GB.
M5 Max and M5 Ultra Specifications and Core Upgrades
The updated desktop brings distinct core architecture changes across both processing tiers. The baseline M5 Max configuration features an 18-core CPU—moving away from the previous performance and efficiency split to a design utilizing 6 super cores and 12 performance cores. It pairs with an up-to-40-core GPU equipped with Neural Accelerators built into every core and third-generation hardware-accelerated ray tracing, according to detailed generational comparisons.
At the top end, the M5 Ultra scales up to a 36-core CPU, configurable to 36-core, with 12 super cores and 24 performance cores, and up to an 80-core GPU. Memory bandwidth sees a major jump, feeding the system with 1.2TB/s of bandwidth—which represents a 50 percent increase over the previous generation—alongside up to 512GB of unified memory. Storage performance also doubles through next-generation SSD read and write speeds built on PCIe Gen 6, with up to twice the read and write speeds.
Connectivity Enhancements and Thunderbolt 5 Clustering
Connectivity receives a significant overhaul with the introduction of Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Bluetooth 6, both facilitated by the Apple-designed N1 chip first introduced in the iPhone 17 lineup. Thunderbolt 5 rounds out the I/O options, supporting high-speed external storage, PCIe expansion chassis, and powerful hub solutions for the most intense workloads.
The inclusion of Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA (remote direct memory access) support allows multiple Mac Studio systems to be clustered, bringing up to 3x faster performance for distributed AI inference when compared to a single system. Users can cluster several systems to establish a vast shared memory pool across systems, allowing users to load the largest and most demanding models locally.
“Mac Studio is the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows, relied on by users for its tremendous performance and extensive pro connectivity, all in a quiet, compact design that sits right on your desk — and today, we’re pushing the boundaries even further.”
Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer
Pricing, Configuration Tiers, and Availability
The entry-level Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $2,499 with 36GB unified memory, while M5 Ultra configurations are also available. The new Mac Studio is available for pre-order starting today, with availability beginning September 22.
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