Apple Unveils New Mac Studio, Mac Mini, M6 & M5 Ultra Chips With Major AI Upgrades

Apple’s smallest desktop is getting considerably more powerful, but also more expensive, while its most powerful Mac is going even further upmarket.

The company has unveiled new Mac mini and Mac Studio models alongside two new processors, the M6 and M5 Ultra. The launches push harder into local AI computing, with Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip, its first quad-die Apple silicon design, and desktop configurations offering up to 512GB of unified memory.
 

TL;DR

 

• Apple unveiled new Mac Studio and Mac mini models powered by M5 Max, M5 Ultra, M6, and M5 Pro chips.
• The M5 Ultra Mac Studio supports up to 512GB unified memory, while the M6 Mac mini starts at $899 and targets faster local AI performance.
• Preorders are open now, with general availability beginning September 22.

 

Apple Mac Studio Gets M5 Ultra, Up To 512GB Memory And Faster Local AI

The new Mac Studio comes with either the M5 Max or the new M5 Ultra, with Apple positioning the desktop around demanding creative work and increasingly large AI workloads that can run locally.

With M5 Ultra, Mac Studio can be configured with an up-to-36-core CPU, up-to-80-core GPU and as much as 512GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth. Apple says it delivers up to 4.3x the peak AI compute performance of the M3 Ultra-equipped Mac Studio and up to 1.8x faster graphics.

That memory capacity means developers and researchers can run extremely large AI models directly on the machine rather than relying entirely on cloud infrastructure. Multiple Mac Studios can also be connected through Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA, with Apple claiming a four-system cluster can deliver up to 3x faster AI inference than one system.
 

 

Connectivity gets an upgrade too, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 arriving on Mac Studio for the first time, alongside Thunderbolt 5 transfer speeds of up to 120Gb/s. The system can support up to eight displays.

Mac Studio with M5 Max starts at $2,499, while the M5 Ultra version starts at $5,499. Preorders opened August 25, with general availability beginning September 22, although configurations with 512GB of unified memory will arrive in late October.
 

Apple Mac Mini Moves To M6, Starts At $899 With A Major AI Upgrade

The Mac mini brings Apple’s new M6 chip to a much smaller and more accessible desktop, although its entry price has moved in the opposite direction.

The M6 Mac mini starts at $899 with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage. TechCrunch notes that Apple had previously sold a 256GB Mac mini for $599 before discontinuing it, while the more recent M4 base configuration offered 512GB for $799.

In return, the new M6 model brings a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, with Neural Accelerators added to every GPU core. Apple claims up to 4x faster AI performance, 2x faster graphics and storage, and 40% faster CPU performance compared with the M4 Mac mini.
 

 

Unified memory starts at 16GB and can be configured up to 32GB, with bandwidth reaching 170GB/s.

Buyers needing more headroom can choose the M5 Pro model, which starts at $1,699 and can scale to an 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU and 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s of bandwidth. Its base configuration includes 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage.

Both versions gain Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard, with 10Gb Ethernet available as an option. Preorders are open, with availability beginning September 22.
 

 

Apple M6 And M5 Ultra Chips Put On-Device AI At The Center

Behind both Macs are two very different processors built around the same direction, moving more AI computing onto the device: Apple's M6 and M5 Ultra Chips.

M6 is Apple’s first chip manufactured using a 2-nanometer process. It combines a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, Dual 16-core Neural Engine and up to 170GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, with Apple reporting nearly 30% higher peak GPU compute for AI than M5.

It also supports up to 32GB of unified memory for running local LLMs and other agentic AI workloads.

M5 Ultra goes after a very different class of workload. Apple’s first quad-die chip uses UltraFusion to connect two dual-die M5 Max processors, creating an architecture with over 4.4TB/s of inter-die bandwidth.

It scales to 36 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores and 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth, which is 50% higher than M3 Ultra.
 

 

With up to 512GB of unified memory, Apple says the chip can keep massive datasets and LLMs with hundreds of billions of parameters in local memory, putting high-end AI development, scientific workloads, 3D rendering and visual effects at the center of the new Mac Studio.

Sri Santhanam, Apple’s vice president of Silicon Engineering Group, described the new processors as “the next giant leap in performance and AI compute for Apple silicon.”

Between the mainstream-focused M6 and workstation-class M5 Ultra, Apple’s latest desktop refresh makes its direction clear: more AI processing is being pushed onto the Mac itself, from a $899 Mac mini to a Mac Studio that can climb far beyond its $5,499 starting price.