New Mac Studio 2026: At a glance
What’s new: The 2026 Mac Studio gains M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, dramatically faster AI and graphics performance, faster SSD storage, increased memory bandwidth, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and enhanced professional connectivity.
Release date: Announced on August 25, 2026
On sale: Shipping from September 22, 2026, but the Mac Studio with 512GB of unified memory is coming in late October.
Price: From $2,499/£2,499
In August 2026, Apple launched a new Mac Studio to replace the M4 Max and M3 Ultra model introduced 17 months previously. The 2026 Mac Studio retains its familiar compact design, but our testing reveals substantial improvements inside – particularly in SSD speed and graphics performance.
The previous generation mixed chip generations, pairing M4 Max with M3 Ultra. The new models bring both tiers into the M5 family: M5 Max offers an 18-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU, while M5 Ultra scales to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU. Both feature Neural Accelerators built into every GPU core to boost AI processing.
Our M5 Max Mac Studio review found approximately 23 percent higher multicore performance in Geekbench 7 and 33 percent higher GPU rendering performance in Cinebench 2024 compared with the tested M4 Max Studio. Storage delivered the biggest leap: our 4TB configuration achieved approximately 2.7 times the read throughput and 2.2 times the write throughput. Results vary by workload, however, with our video export and encoding tests showing more modest improvements.
For M5 Ultra, Apple claims up to 1.3 times the CPU performance, 1.8 times the graphics performance and 4.3 times the AI compute performance of M3 Ultra, depending on the workload and configuration.
When is the new Mac Studio available?
The new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra was announced on August 25, 2026. Shipping of most configurations began on September 22. Apple has confirmed that Mac Studio models configured with 512GB of unified memory will ship in “late October.”
You can order the new Mac Studio from Apple, but you may find it discounted elsewhere.
How much does the new Mac Studio cost?
| Model | Price from |
| M5 Max, 36GB, 512GB | $2,499 / £2,499 |
| M5 Ultra, 96GB, 1TB | $5,499 / £5,499 |
Higher-priced configurations include an M5 Max with a 40-core GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory, or an M5 Ultra with an 80-core GPU and up to 512GB of unified memory.
Has the Mac Studio price gone up?
In June 2026, Apple raised the starting price of the Mac Studio by $500, from $1,999 to $2,499. The M3 Ultra model saw an even steeper increase, rising $1,300 from its $3,999 launch price to $5,299. The hikes were part of broader increases across the Mac lineup, which Apple attributed to sharply higher component costs, particularly RAM.
The new M5 Max Mac Studio remains at the June price of $2,499, but the M5 Ultra model has risen by another $200 to $5,499. That makes it $1,500 more expensive than the previous-generation Ultra model was when it launched in March 2025.
Here’s a breakdown of the key price changes for the Mac Studio:
| Model | Original Price | June Price | M5 Update price |
| M4 Max, 36GB, 512GB | $1,999 / £2,099 | $2,499 / £2,499 | $2,499 / £2,499 |
| M3 Ultra, 96GB, 1TB | $3,999 / £4,199 | $5,299 / £5,299 | $5,499 / £5,499 |
When it comes to high prices, the M5 Ultra Mac Studio is filling the gap left by the removal of the Mac Pro from the line up back in March 2026.
Mac Studio M5 Max and M5 Ultra specs
Petter Ahrnstedt
Mac Studio moves to M5 Max and M5 Ultra, with up to a 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU, 512GB unified memory and 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth. Storage now uses PCIe Gen 6 for twice the performance, while connectivity adds Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and USB-C genlock.
Processor: M5 Ultra and M5 Max chip compared
The Mac Studio comes with either Apple’s Max or Ultra chips. The Max chip is aimed at demanding professional and creative workflows and supports large amounts of unified memory and high memory bandwidth. The Max chip is also available as an option for the MacBook Pro.
The Ultra chip combines two Max chips on one large chip using Apple’s UltraFusion architecture, so they offer double the CPU and GPU resources, and even higher memory capacity and bandwidth. It’s suited to complex 3D rendering, large AI models and scientific computing.
M5 Max: We are already familiar with the M5 Max from the MacBook Pro that launched in March 2026. It offers an 18-core CPU and up to 40-core GPU, versus up to 16 CPU cores in the M4 Max. Its GPU includes a Neural Accelerator in every core, helping deliver up to 3.9x faster AI performance than M4 Max, according to Apple, alongside third-generation ray tracing.
M5 Ultra: The M5 Ultra is a brand new chip that connects two dual-die M5 Max chips using UltraFusion, creating a four-die architecture and offerering up to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU. Apple claims up to 1.3x faster CPU, to 40% faster graphics and 4.5× peak GPU compute for AI versus M3 Ultra.
Mac Studio M5 Max benchmarks
We have tested the Mac Studio M5 Max with 18-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 128GB memory and 4TB SSD, here are the benchmarks for that model. Read our full review of the Mac Studio (M5 Max).
| Test | M5 Max Studio | M4 Max Studio | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 7 single-core | 3,782 | 3,502 | 8% |
| Geekbench 7 multicore | 35,658 | 29,067 | 23% |
| Cinebench 2024 GPU | 22,438 | 16,866 | 33% |
| iMovie 4K ProRes export | 28 seconds | 31 seconds | 10% less time |
Storage
Maximum storage remains 8TB for the M5 Max and 16TB for the M5 Ultra, so capacity hasn’t increased.
However, Apple says its next-generation SSD architecture, based on PCIe Gen 6, delivers up to twice the storage performance.
Our testing of the M5 Max Mac Studio with a 4TB SSD showed substantial improvements over the tested M4 Max Studio:
- 2.67× the read throughput.
- 2.18× the write throughput.
These results apply to the tested configurations; performance may vary with SSD capacity. Faster storage could reduce the time spent opening large projects, transferring files and loading large local AI models, although the improvement will depend on your workload and any other bottlenecks.
RAM
Maximum unified memory remains 128GB with M5 Max and 512GB with M5 Ultra, the same as the previous generation.
Bandwidth has improved though. The M5 Max will now reach 614GB/s with the 40-core GPU configuration, up from 546GB/s on the 40-core GPU M4 Max, while M5 Ultra delivers 1.2TB/s, which Apple says is around 50 percent higher than M3 Ultra.
Connectivity: WiFi & Bluetooth
Other upgrades include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, USB-C genlock and Thunderbolt 5 clustering for distributed AI workloads. Display support also improves, with M5 Max supporting up to five external displays and M5 Ultra supporting up to eight, depending on resolution and refresh rate.
Eugen Wegmann
Wi-Fi: The Mac Studio now supports Wi-Fi 7 which replaces the previous wireless standard Wi-Fi 6E.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 6 replaces Bluetooth 5.3.
Ethernet: Existing connectivity including 10Gb Ethernet, HDMI, USB-A, SDXC and a headphone jack remains.
Thunderbolt: Thunderbolt 5 remains, offering up to 120Gb/s and as many as six Thunderbolt 5 ports depending on configuration. Thunderbolt 5 can now be used with RDMA to cluster multiple Mac Studios for distributed AI workloads; Apple says four systems can deliver up to 3x faster AI inference than one.
Genlock: Apple has added Genlock support over USB-C. This is used for synchronising a display and camera (which can be an iPhone 17 Pro) and will be useful for professional video workflows.
Display support: The Mac Studio with M5 Max supports up to five external displays. The M5 Ultra supports up to eight displays at 6K/60Hz, or up to four displays at 5K/120Hz.
Other ports include two USB-C ports and an SDXC card slot on the front of the M5 Max model, and two Thunderbolt 5 ports and an SDXC card slot on the front of the M5 Ultra model. On the back of the Mac Studio are:
- 4× Thunderbolt 5 ports
- 2× USB-A ports
- 1× HDMI port
- 1× 10Gb Ethernet port
- 1× 3.5mm headphone jack
Mac Studio M5 Max vs M4 Max: What’s Changed
| What | Was | Now |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 14-core to 16-core M4 Max | 18-core M5 Max |
| GPU | 32-core to 40-core M4 Max | 32-core to 40-core M5 Max |
| Neural Engine | 16‑core Neural Engine | 16‑core Neural Engine |
| GPU Neural Accelerators | None | One in every GPU core |
| Bandwidth | Up to 546GB/s memory bandwidth | Up to 614GB/s memory bandwidth |
| Max RAM | 128GB | 128GB |
Mac Studio M5 Ultra vs M3 Ultra: What’s Changed
| What | Was | Now |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 28-core to 32-core M3 Ultra | 30-core to 36-core M5 Ultra |
| GPU | 60-core to 80 core M3 Ultra | 64-core to 80-core M5 Ultra |
| Neural Engine | 32-core Neural Engine | 32-core Neural Engine |
| GPU Neural Accelerators | None | One in every GPU core |
| Bandwidth | 819GB/s memory bandwidth | 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth |
| Max RAM | 512GB | 512GB |
Who is the Mac Studio best for?
Apple has designed the Mac Studio with M5 Max to meet the needs of demanding creative and technical professionals. Apple specifically highlights musicians, photographers, software developers, designers and 3D professionals. It’s also well suited to video editing, code compilation, AI image generation and running sizeable LLMs locally.
The Mac Studio with M5 Ultra is intended for professionals with exceptionally demanding workloads: VFX artists rendering complex scenes, filmmakers working with multiple streams of 8K video, engineers running simulations, and AI researchers or data scientists training and running huge models locally. Its 512GB memory ceiling is particularly valuable for frontier-class LLMs.
Should you buy the 2026 Mac Studio?
For new buyers, the M5 Max Mac Studio is an excellent starting point. Pay extra for M5 Ultra only if your workload needs its additional resources.
Existing M4 Max owners should weigh an upgrade carefully. Our video tests showed relatively modest time savings, although workflows limited by internal storage speed may benefit more substantially.
M3 Ultra owners shouldn’t assume M5 Max is faster across the board: it wins Cinebench GPU rendering, but M3 Ultra retains advantages in multicore rendering and Metal compute. Upgrade only if the benefits justify the cost for your work.
Availability may become limited due to the global RAM shortages. For more guidance, read: Should you buy a Mac Studio now or wait?
Considering an alternative? Read our Best Mac buying guide.
