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Mac Studio 512GB RAM Option Disappears Amid Global DRAM Shortage

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Apple quietly updated Mac Studio configuration options this week, removing the 512GB memory upgrade. As of yesterday, there is no option to purchase a Mac Studio with 512GB RAM, with the machine now maxing out at 256GB.

mac-studio-purple.jpg

The Mac Studio starts with 36GB RAM, but there were upgrades ranging from 48GB to 512GB, with the higher tier upgrades limited to the M3 Ultra chip. Now there are options ranging from 48GB to 256GB, with wait times into May for the 256GB upgrade.

Apple has also raised the price for the 256GB RAM upgrade option. It used to cost $1,600 to go from 96GB to 256GB on the high-end M3 Ultra machine, but now it costs $2,000. 512GB was $4,000 when it was available.

Apple has likely removed the option to purchase 512GB of memory because of global DRAM shortages that have dried up supply and caused prices to soar, and it's also probably why shipping times for a configuration with 256GB RAM range into May.

Demand for the Mac Studio has increased due to consumers seeking machines suitable for running local AI agents, which could also be a wait time factor.

Memory scarcity is already having an effect on DRAM pricing, and it could affect PC and smartphone sales in the months to come. Apple is able to absorb higher memory costs in the short term, and it is well-positioned to minimize the effect on consumers because it is better able to secure available DRAM supply than smaller companies.

We are expecting M5 Max and M5 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio in 2026, but it is not yet clear when Apple might release an update.

(Thanks, Ólafur!)

Article Link: Mac Studio 512GB RAM Option Disappears Amid Global DRAM Shortage
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/05/mac-studio-no-512gb-ram-upgrade/
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Reactions: Ruftzooi and Z-4195
If the M5 Ultra is planned for the summer, they might be subtly discouraging the M3 Ultra for this purpose (LLMs) so that they have plenty of RAM inventory for the M5 Ultra.

If the neural engine on the M5 is 4x the M4...imagine the performance of the M5 Ultra. In fact, it would be almost silly to purchase an M3 at this point for running LLMs.
 
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Reactions: Ruftzooi, haddy, centauratlas and 16 others
Hmm, those who already have the 512GB edition of the Studio should perhaps test the market.
SSDs are upgradable from China, but RAM isn't (as far as I know).
Put them up for sale for 1.5x the cost of new and see if anyone is desperate enough for local AI models to buy them anyway?
 
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Reactions: zecanard
Apple would have bought their RAM allotment from vendors last August/September (before the shortage) for all their new Macs just announced.

I suppose the vendors themselves got caught up in the shortage. But there would have been a contract, which the RAM vendors had to honor.
 
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Reactions: SFjohn and centauratlas
me thinking they're talking about SSD size 😂 I can't imagine they sell many with that ram configuration. We have 64gb studios in this office and they handle everything we can throw at em.
 
if this was a normal computer this wouldn't be Apple's issue to deal with. They could sell with whatever common configs people would want and people would just source their own 2x256 modules and install them if they wanted that much.
 
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Reactions: KeithBN and avro707
LedRush said:
I’m not a techie like some here, but isn’t 512GB RAM as mentioned in the second sentence a teensie bit overkill?
Click to expand...

Like most RAM requirements, whether 16GB, 32, 48, 64, or whatever: If your workflow needs it, it needs it. For most people, anything beyond 16GB is "overkill"—meanwhile, earlier this year, I upgraded earlier than I intended to go from 32 to 64, because my work as a designer means swapping back and forth between Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator—with large projects, I blow past 32GB easily. 64 buys me breathing room and avoids pageouts which, even with Apple's hyper-fast SSDs, slows me down.

Likewise, there are use-cases fort 128, 256, even 512GB of DRAM. Running local AI models is the one you hear about most lately, but any kind of intensive data analysis—medical, financial, longitudinal population studies, and so on—requires massive dataset manipulation. Time is money, so the more of that data you can page into RAM at a time, the more you can get done, faster.
 
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Reactions: Hammerd, SFjohn, Zwhaler and 18 others
Thunderbird said:
Apple would have bought their RAM allotment from vendors last August/September (before the shortage) for all their new Macs just announced.

I suppose the vendors themselves got caught up in the shortage. But there would have been a contract, which the RAM vendors had to honor.
Click to expand...
Or they're diverting the RAM to the new models. As the M3 Studios themselves are about to get discontinued.
 
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Reactions: centauratlas, Nugget, woerden and 3 others
There probably weren't that many people buying it with 512GB memory configuration, so this was an easy decision for Apple to make.
 
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Reactions: xnu
512GB was $4,000 when it was available.

I am thinking the $4,000 premium price tag is why people were not buying that upgrade, and why Apple eventually removed it. That is pretty steep.
 
noraa said:
AI needs to crawl up its own ass and die. While I'm terrified for what the inevitable AI bubble burst will mean for the economy (and for the thousands that will lose their jobs), it really can't happen soon enough.
Click to expand...
A.I is scary for many reasons
 
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