It’s been nearly two years since the Mac Studio was updated to M2, but on Wednesday Apple announced the next step in its evolution. And if you’re ready to write off the Mac Studio as having skipped the M3 generation entirely… maybe don’t do that? That’s because Apple’s announcing two models of Mac Studio, each based on different chip generations.
With the M4 Mac mini being powerfully tempting for desktop Mac users who crave power, Apple has upgraded the Mac Studio to blast past the mini in terms of performance. The base model, still starting at $1999, is powered by the M4 Max chip previously available only in the M4 MacBook Pro. And the new high-end Mac Studio, starting at the same $3999 price tag, is powered by a monstrous chip with 32 CPU cores (including 24 performance cores) and up to 80 GPU cores. It’s a chip never seen before anywhere—the M3 Ultra.
You heard me. For Apple’s fastest Mac ever—and it’s clear that it will be—Apple’s shipping a chip based on two high-end chips (fused together with Apple’s UltraFusion technology) from Apple’s previous processor generation. Weird, right? It seems like a few things are going on here: first, that the development of the Ultra chip takes longer and that Apple won’t commit to shipping an Ultra chip in every chip generation. Second, that the first-generation three-nanometer chip process of Apple’s chipmaking partner, TSMC, isn’t as dead and buried as generally thought. Just this week Apple also introduced an iPad Air with an M3 processor, and of course the new iPad mini shipped with an A17 Pro processor based on the same process.
Is the old process still alive and kicking? Are all of these M3 chips being sourced from a special parts bin? Has Apple made just enough M3 Ultras to fulfill Mac Studio needs before shutting the whole thing down? I have no idea. But it does mean that at the very last moment when the final M3 Mac was going off the price list forever… a new M3 Mac has been introduced. Tricky Apple!
Most people will probably want the lower-end Mac Studio based on the M4 Max. That chip can be configured up to 16 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores, and those GPU cores mark the first time that Apple’s latest-generation graphics architecture has appeared on the Mac Studio, since it debuted with the M3 chip generation.
Speaking of which, that M3 Ultra model instantly becomes the ultimate Mac for the person who has everything except the ultimate Mac. When fully loaded it’s got 32 CPU cores, 80 graphics cores, 512 GB of unified memory, and up to 16TB of onboard storage. Apple estimates that the M3 Ultra will be nearly twice as fast as the M4 Max in workflows that can take advantage of all that extra everything. (Who needs a Mac Pro? Don’t answer that.)
Actually, if one of the reasons to prefer something like a Mac Pro over a Mac Studio is high-speed connectivity, the addition of Thunderbolt 5 (to both models) might be relevant. The M4 Max model offers four Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back, and the M3 Ultra model offers an additional two Thunderbolt ports on the front.
Though the prices for the two base models remain the same at $1999 and $3999, there’s one wrinkle: more memory. The M4 Max Mac Studio starts at 36GB of RAM, up from 32GB on the same-priced M2 Max model. And the M3 Ultra Mac Studio starts at 96GB, up from 64GB on the same-priced M2 Ultra.
Both models will be available for pre-order Wednesday and ship next Wednesday, March 12.
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