Apple Unveils New Mac Studio With M5 Max and M5 Ultra Chips

[atonaldenim]

I ordered a 96GB / 2TB M5 Ultra Studio to upgrade my 64GB / 2TB M1 Ultra. Honestly the M1 Ultra is still really good today for most things I do, but all signs point toward all major creative software rapidly integrating ML / AI features in the coming months-years. (Not talking about LLMs here.) The M5 Ultra claims to have ~10X faster AI performance compared to M1 Ultra, and apart from that should be about ~2X faster or more in traditional single-core/multi-core performance tests etc.

I do like to be able to run older MacOS / software versions for compatibility reasons because I work on long term projects. The new M5 Ultra will probably only support MacOS 27 Golden Gate and nothing earlier. But Golden Gate looks like it'll be a good OS for a change, and I did just pickup a used M3 Max MBP which can handle the older apps if I need them.

My pre-order won't ship until early October so I have time to change my mind, but at the moment it doesn't seem to make sense to hang onto the older system for another 4 years, when this new one does seem like it should be quite a leap forward for rapidly evolving "new normal" workflows.

 

[davitur]

Welp, my M4 MAX is going to have to limp along a little bit longer

My M1 Max will continue to limp along just fine. $2,799 to get a Studio with a 1TB SDD is ridiculous.

 

[krell100]

So does the M5 Max get PCIe Gen 6 as well or is it just the Ultra? The article isn't clear.

 

[bxs]

The new M5 Studio offers "super cores" "Performane cores". I have an M3 Ultra with 20 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores.

What is the performance difference between my M3's Performance core and the M5's super core ?
What is the performance difference between my M3's Performance core and the M5's Performance core ?

I note the M5 no longer provides Efficiency cores, right ?

 

[skippermonkey]

I was set to upgrade my M1 Ultra Maxed out spec with a m5 Ultra similar spec but MAN! 11k for the machine I want.

I'm also thinking about how fine my current machine feels... And if I really should upgrade at all. I have been waiting and waiting for the m5 drop, but man how times have changed. Not just rising costs from Apple, but more economic pressure in general. Plus, my "purchasing power" doesn't qualtiy for a lease of this magnitude with Klarna.

I'm feeling so disappointed! Argh.

Move to an M3 Ultra. Second hand prices will be low when the M5 is out, and it's a solid machine with great performance. You'll get a good one for maybe three or four grand.

 

[atonaldenim]

The new M5 Studio offers "super cores" "Performane cores". I have an M3 Ultra with 20 Performance cores and 8 Efficiency cores.

What is the performance difference between my M3's Performance core and the M5's super core ?
What is the performance difference between my M3's Performance core and the M5's Performance core ?

I note the M5 no longer provides Efficiency cores, right ?

This article from Ars Technica should help some.

All of the M5 family’s large high-performance cores are now called “super” cores as of macOS 26.3.1, including the ones that originally launched as “performance” cores in the regular M5 last fall. The standard M5 still has smaller, slower efficiency cores, but M5 Pro and M5 Max use a third kind of CPU core instead, confusingly also called “performance” cores.

	FASTEST CORES	MEDIUM CORES	EFFICIENCY CORES
M5 MAX	Up to 6 (“super”)	Up to 12 (“performance”)	0
M5	4 (“super”)	0	6
M4 MAX	Up to 12 (“performance”)	0	4
M4	4 (“performance”)	0	6

 

[bxs]

I was set to upgrade my M1 Ultra Maxed out spec with a m5 Ultra similar spec but MAN! 11k for the machine I want.

I'm also thinking about how fine my current machine feels... And if I really should upgrade at all. I have been waiting and waiting for the m5 drop, but man how times have changed. Not just rising costs from Apple, but more economic pressure in general. Plus, my "purchasing power" doesn't qualtiy for a lease of this magnitude with Klarna.

I'm feeling so disappointed! Argh.

Hey @swamyg1 I may just have the right M3 Ultra Studio for you in a short while. My specs for this are...

Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Studio
Model Identifier: Mac15,14
Model Number: Z1CE0017VLL/A
Chip: Apple M3 Ultra
Total Number of Cores: 28 (20 Performance and 8 Efficiency)
Memory: 96 GB
System Firmware Version: 20457.1.29
OS Loader Version: 20457.1.29
Storage: 2TB SSD
6x TB5 ports
10G ethernet

 

[atonaldenim]

So does the M5 Max get PCIe Gen 6 as well or is it just the Ultra? The article isn't clear.

It seems that the M5 Max as released in the MBP was considered to be PCIe 5.0 class speeds, so it may just be the Ultra that gets the PCIe 6.0 speeds?

 

[bxs]

This article from Ars Technica should help some.

	FASTEST CORES	MEDIUM CORES	EFFICIENCY CORES
M5 MAX	Up to 6 (“super”)	Up to 12 (“performance”)	0
M5	4 (“super”)	0	6
M4 MAX	Up to 12 (“performance”)	0	4
M4	4 (“performance”)	0	6

Thank you very much for posting that as it does really helps me understand and compare my M3 Ultra Studio's performance (20Ps + 8Es) to the new M5 Max Studio's (6x Super cores and 12 Performance cores or naming them as 6Ss + 12Ps).

On the face of it I think the M3 Ultra's (20P+8E) cores may well be better than the M5 Max's 18 cores comprising of (6Ss+12Ps).

My CFD App makes use of as many cores it can get hold of, be they Ps or Es on my M3 Ultra. So for the M3 Ultra I have 28 cores (yea different clock rate for the Ps and Es) to multitask vs. M5 Max's 18 cores (6Ss+12Ps - their clock rates unknowns) for multitasking.

For me if I decide to try out the M5 Max I'll need to make a quick benchmark on the M5 Max to compare to my M3 Ultra, and if I note close to zero improvement, return the M5 Max within the 14-day full refund period. This approach can still be done using the M3 Ultra as an Apple trade in as well because if the M5 Max does not provide a significant perforce improvement I would return the M5 Max and not ship the M3 Ultra to Apple within the 14-days.

As an aside... when running my CFD multitasking app, I disable Siri-AI in SS > Siri > Turn Off ALL the Apps in the "App Access" list, and then select "Turn Off Siri" to ensure the Siri background activity does not use any computer resources during my running CFD App. Can Turn On Siri at a later time if required, and acknowledge that I'll be losing some of the Siri's history data that takes time to accrue, by doing this Siri ON and OFF.

Now of course comparing my M3 Ultra (20P+8E with 96GB memory and 2TB SSD) to the new M5 Ultra (10S+20P with its 96GB memory and 2TB SSD) is likely to show the new M5 Ultra to be better- improved CPU horse power and better memory bandwidth, but along with a higher price tag because the a stock M5 Max vs. Custom M5 Ultra is +$3.5k.

I must say, I'm tempted by the M5 Ultra (10S+20P with 96GB memory and 2 TB SSD). My estimate would be this M5 Ultra would 1.5x to 2x that of my M3 Ultra. 😎 I also believe the internal M5 Ultra's SSD I/O data rates could 2x that on my M3 Ultra's 2TB SSD, and if this were correct would equal what 2x 4TB OWC EnvoyUltraPros, as a RAID-0 pair, deliver today over 2x TB5 ports.

 

[bxs]

It seems that the M5 Max as released in the MBP was considered to be PCIe 5.0 class speeds, so it may just be the Ultra that gets the PCIe 6.0 speeds?

I queried Siri-AI about this and it responded with both M5 Studios will have the PCIe Gen 6... and according to Apple's announcements, this updated storage architecture delivers up to twice the storage performance compared to the previous generation.

This then would translate to the new M5 Studios internal SSD delivering some 13,660 MB/s for reads and some 19,424 MB/s for writes using the AmorphousDiskMark 4.0.1. The attached screenshot shows results for my M3 Ultra Studio's 2TB internal SSD.

 

[Siliconguy]

You could save yourself ~ $1500 by going with 2 x 4TB external NVMe



Yeah these are now capital investments...

If you are buying that Mac you probably are a business and therefore it's either deductible or on a depreciation schedule.

 

[bxs]

You could save yourself ~ $1500 by going with 2 x 4TB external NVMe



Yeah these are now capital investments...

Note that the new M5 Studios come with PCIe Gen 6 and this will allow the internal SSD to deliver around 13,000 MB/s for reads and some 19,400 for writes as Apple states the M5 Studio's SSD is 2x that previously used in the M3 Ultra. Using 2x 4TB OWC EnvoyUltraPros setup as RAID-0 using two TB5 ports will deliver around 12,572 MB/s for reads and some 8,230 MB/s for writes. So the read rate would be comparable to the M5 Studio's internal SSD, but the writes would be at least 1/2 that what the M5 Studio's can deliver.

The OWC's 4TB EnvoyUltraPro has limited write rate due to it integral write cache, and so long as the M5 Studio's internal SSD doesn't have the same write limitation, it will, beat out the 2x 4TB OWC EnvoyUltraPros setup as RAID-0.

However, if the read/write performance of the 2 x 4TB external RAID-0 using 2x TB5 ports is acceptable at $1500, it would provide a big savings of around $1500 over having Apple internal 8TB SSD in the M5 Studio.

I can confirm the read/write performance of the 2x 4TB OWC EnvoyUltraPros setup as RAID-0 as I have them connected to two TB5 ports on my M3 Ultra. I was lucky to purchase them on pre-order when they were first released at 1/2 the price they are selling for today.

 

[Vincent Hanna]

The main thing that jumped out at me from today’s announcements is that Apple is being really smart about allocating precious RAM supply across their two headless desktop models.

The base M6 mini is capped at 32 GB and the M5 Pro model at just 64GB. Apple isn’t going to waste supply of RAM on (relatively) low cost machines. If you want triple digit RAM you are getting a Studio where Apple can hide at least some of that cost behind the other features.

But most importantly, we have seen the (October) return of the 512GB RAM tier, at what will still be cheap pricing for the people and orgs that actually need (not want) such a machine. You won’t be able to get anything close to a 512GB RAM M5 Ultra Mac Studio on any other platform at anywhere near the same price.

But it doesn’t stop at 512GB. You can get 2TB of RAM via RMDA. It’s just that it comes with the tax of buying three more 512GB Mac Studios.

But even at 4x (let’s say) $23K, it’s still the only and cheapest way to get that amount of effectively pooled memory outside of a commercial server room.

So if you are complaining about (or just simply amazed by) these prices, you are not the target customer. The people who will actually buy them will consider them a steal.

 

[Matt2012]

Been waiting for the new Ultra since the M3 Ultra which was disappointing but this release has left me also disappointed too 🙁
No reviews yet however so things could change but seeing numbers like 2.5x faster, 4.9x faster, 10.7x faster etc really seems like random numbers pulled out of the air with nothing (as yet) to back it up.

Then the big number... £11,299 is the what the spec I would want would be. Even when buying via business, that is a big figure for a machine that I can't upgrade or sell off for parts. If wanting to upgrade to the next Studio, good luck on getting anywhere near that £11,299 figure. Oh and that's with just a meagre 2TB drive too - which should be the default entry size on this type of machine.

It would be used with a big ultrawide monitor so I'm going to need a dock (approx £700) and then several TB4/5 drives all hanging out of the dock so the price just keeps climbing.

The RAM price is still insane. Apple want £4000 to upgrade from 96GB to 256 GB. £4000 for 160GB is crazy!!

One of the biggest issues for me is the lack of Cuda/Comfy AI support which is where a lot of my work lies now so for now, I'm out and will be staying with my 5090 PCs.
It will be interesting to see how the new Studio compares to Nvidia 5090 on other tasks though as the 5090 is now over 18 months old into its lifespan.

 

[LillDrutten]

There is no need for ECC on consumer devices.

There is a lot people think the studio is a replacement for the pro.

 

[apple4everOG]

Yes! I can finally upgrade my Intel 2020 27" iMac!

 

[xyz01]

There is no need for ECC on consumer devices.

This is not a consumer device.

 

[zombierunner]

screw them man ...

 

[mode11]

Convenience and potentially safety. Some people aren’t comfortable with strangers coming by.

There's a brilliant new invention, where you can drop off an item at a building, then it's transported to the buyer within a few days...

 

[mode11]

The config I want, 5max, 128GB with 8TB, even with my discount is over $8k!!!
Going to need to do some financial re-adjustments 😂

You can save at least $2K by using an 8TB NVMe drive and a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure. Not a bad solution for something with plenty of ports that lives on your desk.

 

[mode11]

This has more to do with what I see going forward. I recently retired (but still do a lot of my own video and photo work) and I was already realizing that a proper upgrade to my current desktop would become financially unviable a few years down the road. So this might have been my last Mac desktop purchase. And I wanted to do it now while I could, gaining another 5-7 years at a minimum. But it looks like the point of financial unviability arrived today. It’s now likely that when my M2 Max reaches the true end of its service life for me, it will not be replaced. I have arrived at Peak Apple in my household.

Chin up bro. The AI boom won't last forever. Prices may go down afterwards, especially if Apple sees sales fall during these inflated times.

 

[NightFox]

AI models, containers, VMs, development frameworks for the development crowd and huge amounts of video for the editing crowd.

But are people doing these things at this level generally not using external storage with the redundancy, capacity and network portability benefits that brings?

 

[Vincent Hanna]

I kind of think all three of those guys are a little nuts.

I find all three of them insufferable, though I admit I will enjoy listening to Siracusa agonize over the M5 Ultra this week as if he’s being personally attacked. Serves him right.

I bet he holds out for the M7 Ultra too (proving it was never about actual need).

 

[Varmann]

Computers are much more affordable today than they used to be....

1990: Macintosh IIfx 4/160: 4 MB memory, 160 MB HDD. US$10,969 (it could take 128 MB ram at a silly price)

If you really wanted to touch the sky you could even get a 3rd party overclocked tower version (Dash30fx) for about $40.000 1990 dollars.

The 68000 Dash 30fx, an Accelerated Mac IIfx - Low End Mac

Most early Mac clones were built around 8-16 MHz 68000 CPUs or 16-40 MHz 68030 chips, but the 68000 Dash 30fx ran its 68030 at a blazing 50 MHz – 25% faster than the “wicked fast” Mac IIfx, which was the fastest computer on the market when it went on sale in March 1990. The Dash […]

lowendmac.com

 

[Vincent Hanna]

Cheapest Ultra configuration worth considering is well over $10K. It's not going to sell.

They will sell every one they can build with a three month waiting list and eBay scalpers will get $15-$20K.