Apple Launches Mac Studio With M5 Max and M5 Ultra, Starting at $2,499

Apple has introduced a new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chip options, faster storage, expanded wireless connectivity, and support for up to 512GB of unified memory. Preorders begin today, with availability starting September 22.

Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $2,499, while the M5 Ultra configuration starts at $5,499.

Mac Studio With M5 Max

Mac Studio with M5 Max features an 18-core CPU and a GPU configurable with up to 40 cores. Every GPU core includes a Neural Accelerator, and the system supports up to 128GB of unified memory with 614GB/s of bandwidth.


Apple says AI performance is up to 3.9 times faster than the previous M4 Max model, while graphics performance improves by up to 50%. The GPU also adds third-generation hardware-accelerated ray tracing and updated shader cores.

The Media Engine provides hardware acceleration for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and AV1 decoding. Apple claims up to three times faster Magic Mask performance in DaVinci Resolve Studio and up to 1.4 times faster scene rendering in Maxon Redshift than the M4 Max model.

Mac Studio With M5 Ultra

The M5 Ultra model can be configured with up to a 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU, and 512GB of unified memory. It provides 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth, 50% more than M3 Ultra. The 512GB configuration will become available in late October.


Apple claims up to 1.3 times faster multithreaded CPU performance, 1.8 times faster graphics, and 4.3 times the peak AI compute performance of Mac Studio with M3 Ultra. The expanded Media Engine can play as many as 33 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video at 30 frames per second.

Clustering and Connectivity

Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA support allow multiple Mac Studio systems to operate as a cluster with a shared memory pool. Apple says a four-system cluster can deliver up to three times faster distributed AI inference than one Mac Studio.

The new model supports Thunderbolt 5 transfer speeds up to 120Gb/s and includes up to six Thunderbolt 5 ports. An Apple-designed N1 networking chip adds Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.

Mac Studio also gains genlock over USB-C and supports up to eight displays, or four Studio Display XDR monitors at their full 5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Its PCIe Gen 6-based SSD architecture is rated for up to twice the storage performance of the previous generation.

Pricing and Availability

Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $2,499, or $2,299 with education pricing. Mac Studio with M5 Ultra starts at $5,499, or $5,099 for education. Preorders are open today in 30 countries and regions, with deliveries and retail availability beginning September 22. Additional configurations are listed on Apple's Mac Studio page.