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Mac Studio Speculation [Merged]

fathergll said:
Got it!
Click to expand...

How was I to know my comments would age as well as milk left out in the sun? Gurman was right, again.

Gotta admit it’s making me think should I sell my MacBook Pro for a new Studio M4 Max hmm.. it would certainly give me some desk space for a dual monitor setup I want. My Mac hasn’t left my desk, I use my iPad Pro for portability.
 
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For some workloads the m3 ultra will be a lot faster. Just look at tasks that require more memory bandwidth. M2U is still faster for massive photo management and video exports. Just look at
Same goes for CPU based 3D rendering (still useful!) and AI/ML. Sure, a m4 ultra would have been even better but this M3U will still be a really good computer.
 
Assuming M5 is released later this year, I suppose M5 Mac Studio (if Apple is releasing one) would come out around the same time as before, Mar-Jun 2026. I know it's a wishful thinking, but coming from 2019 Intel Mac Pro, I hope that's the case so that I can transition to Apple Silicon gracefully before Intel machines' last update.
 
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Rian Gray said:
Assuming M5 is released later this year, I suppose M5 Mac Studio (if Apple is releasing one) would come out around the same time as before, Mar-Jun 2026. I know it's a wishful thinking, but coming from 2019 Intel Mac Pro, I hope that's the case so that I can transition to Apple Silicon gracefully before Intel machines' last update.
Click to expand...

Intel's last update is this fall.
 
Apple just dropped the M5 Max/Ultra Studio out of nowhere lol!

Screenshot 2026-08-25 at 14.07.04.png


https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/mac-studio
 
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M5 Ultra costing an arm and a leg.

M3 Ultra used should come down in price in a couple of weeks—might go that route.
 
The price increases across the board have moved me from "definitely buying" to "waiting ... perhaps for M7" 😅

My current M2 Max will chug along for another year I guess. Probably upgrade my camera instead.

LLMs killing the fun for everyone.

Also starting once again at only 512GB storage hasn't helped either.
 
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US$18,299 for a maxed out Mac Studio:
  • M5 Ultra
  • 36-core CPU
  • 80-core GPU
  • 256GB RAM
  • 16TB SSD
  • 10GbE port
Holy hell...!

I figure the 512GB RAM variant would come in at US$30,000 maximum...?

The interesting thing (to me at least) is what a maxed out Mac Pro Cube might be, both specs & cost...

  • M7 Extreme
  • 64-core CPU
  • 256-core GPU
  • 128-core Neural Engine
  • 2TB ECC RAM
  • 32TB SSD
  • Dual 10GbE ports
  • US$120,000
All in an eight inch cube...! ;^p
 
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It’s quite the gambit. Wait until late October to see the pricing on 512gb, but by then surely all of the 256gb configs will be sold out through well into 2027.

I secured my M5 Ultra unbinned, 256, 4tb for launch day on Sep 22. At $13k, that is absolutely the most I’m willing to spend, but the fun it’s going to bring makes it worth it. That config has already slipped to late October.
 
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Was lucky enough to get a 'launch day' (?) Studio preorder.

Arrives 22/09/2026​

* 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU
* 256GB memory
* 2TB storage

A$18,199. Kinda an ouchie, but I'm planning to use it both for Resolve rendering, and local LLMs. Glad I got the pre-order date units.
 
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Boil said:
US$18,299 for a maxed out Mac Studio:
  • M5 Ultra
  • 36-core CPU
  • 80-core GPU
  • 256GB RAM
  • 16TB SSD
  • 10GbE port
Holy hell...!

I figure the 512GB RAM variant would come in at US$30,000 maximum...?
Click to expand...

More like $5-7K more than that $18K. To go from 96 -> 128 is $4K (just a 160GB jump) so another $4K only likely only gets to 416GB. So another $1-3K (maybe 4K) to close that gap ( low volume tax and scarcity ) . Pretty good chance Apple will make folks buy a bigger SSD also, but that is already factored into the $18K figure.

I suspect this is just denser and stacked higher RAM ( perhaps on a shared bus.... because doubling capacity but bandwidth is going no where up. ). So an even more semi-custom RAM package.


Boil said:
The interesting thing (to me at least) is what a maxed out Mac Pro Cube might be, both specs & cost...

  • M7 Extreme
Click to expand...

M5 Ultra is already a quad-die package. There is no Extreme coming. The Holy Grail of quad die has already arrived.

The Studio Ultra pushing basically all the way through the Mac Pro 2019 price point, is illustrative of there is very likely not anything coming at an evey higher level of the stratosphere. The Mac Pro was so low volume it is retired.
 
tothemoonsands said:
I secured my M5 Ultra unbinned, 256, 4tb for launch day on Sep 22. At $13k, that is absolutely the most I’m willing to spend, but the fun it’s going to bring makes it worth it. That config has already slipped to late October.
Click to expand...

November.

If these slide out into. Dec-January is the 512GB even going to start orders in October. Or could be a different memory package procurement pool.
 
deconstruct60 said:
I suspect this is just denser and stacked higher RAM ( perhaps on a shared bus.... because doubling capacity but bandwidth is going no where up. ). So an even more semi-custom RAM package.
Click to expand...
Surely it would just be the same as the M3 Ultra, but with faster LPDDR5X (~9600MT) instead of the LPDDR5? (6400MT for M3 Ultra)

The memory bus (1024 bit, 8x128bit channels) is identical between the M3 Ultra and M5 Ultra. Everything we know suggests the memory subsystems and config is the exact same; the bandwidth improvements come from them using higher-speed LPDDR5X.

deconstruct60 said:
If these slide out into. Dec-January is the 512GB even going to start orders in October. Or could be a different memory package procurement pool.
Click to expand...

The 256GB version already uses 32Gbit chips, which is the maximum that anyone makes. So they would be the same chips.
 
gladoscc said:
Was lucky enough to get a 'launch day' (?) Studio preorder.

Arrives 22/09/2026​

* 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU
* 256GB memory
* 2TB storage

A$18,199. Kinda an ouchie, but I'm planning to use it both for Resolve rendering, and local LLMs. Glad I got the pre-order date units.
Click to expand...
What will your LLMs do?
 
4sallypat said:
Curious, why does Apple price higher in the UK ?

I see the base M5 Studio GBP converting equivalent of $3400 USD vs our US pricing at $2499 USD.

I also see financing is different too - 6.9% is high IMO - does Apple Card 0% work in the UK or is it just a US only feature ?
Click to expand...
The biggest thing is sales tax- VAT in the UK, 20%. Sales taxes are applied per state in the US, so I imagine that'll be then added to your invoice depending on location. So, yes UK (and EU) buyers pay a premium, but it's not as much as the base price implies. Apple Card hasn't made it to this side of the pond.
 
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