Apple Unveils Mac Studio Featuring M5 Max and M5 Ultra Chips

Apple announced its next-generation Mac Studio desktop computers powered by the new M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips on August 25, 2026, offering up to 4.3 times faster artificial intelligence performance for professional workflows.

The updated lineup introduces Thunderbolt 5 connectivity with up to 120Gb/s bandwidth, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6 support powered by Apple's N1 networking chip. The computers also feature a next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6 that doubles previous storage speeds.

The flagship M5 Ultra model packs up to a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, and supports up to 512GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth. Built by joining two dual-die M5 Max chips via UltraFusion technology, the M5 Ultra integrates dedicated Neural Accelerators into each GPU core to accelerate complex artificial intelligence inference tasks.

Apple hardware executives emphasized the desktop's enhanced performance and system expansion capabilities for professional users.

"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," said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer.

The M5 Ultra configuration offers up to 1.3 times higher multithreaded CPU performance and up to 40 percent faster graphics compared to the previous M3 Ultra generation. Up to four Mac Studio systems can be clustered via Thunderbolt 5 and Remote Direct Memory Access to deliver up to three times faster distributed AI inference performance.

"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. 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," Srouji said.

The entry-level M5 Max configuration features an 18-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU, up to 128GB of unified memory, and up to 614GB/s of memory bandwidth. It delivers up to 3.9 times faster artificial intelligence performance than the previous generation model.

Pricing for the M5 Max Mac Studio starts at $2,499 with 512GB of storage, while the M5 Ultra version starts at $5,499 with 1TB of storage. Pre-orders opened on August 25, 2026, with general retail availability starting September 22, while the 512GB memory M5 Ultra configuration will ship in late October.