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Apple expands its lineup of pro computers with a new Mac Studio. This time the company is focusing primarily on local AI performance, but it hasn't forgotten about video editing, 3D graphics, or working on large projects. The computer features M5 Max chips and the debuting M5 Ultra, and in its most powerful configuration it can be equipped with up to 512 GB of unified memory.
M5 Ultra is meant to be a real AI beast
The biggest change in the new Mac Studio is, of course, the M5 Ultra chip. Apple has equipped it with up to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU, and unified memory can reach 512 GB. Memory bandwidth is as high as 1.2 TB/s, which is 50 percent more than the previous generation. Those specs should allow running very large language models directly on the machine. Apple says the M5 Ultra delivers up to 4.3 times higher peak AI compute performance than the M3 Ultra. Compared with the M1 Ultra, the difference can be as much as 9.8 times. Interestingly, users can also link multiple Mac Studio units into a single cluster using Thunderbolt 5 and RDMA. According to Apple, a four-machine configuration can provide up to 3 times the AI inference performance of a single system.
Mac Studio M5 Max also received a powerful boost
The more affordable model uses the M5 Max chip with an 18-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU. In this version you can configure up to 128 GB of unified memory, with bandwidth reaching 614 GB/s. The GPU also gained integrated Neural Accelerators designed to improve performance for AI-related tasks. Apple boasts, among other things, up to 3.9x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio compared to the Mac Studio with M4 Max. For text-to-image generation the company claims up to 3.5x higher performance, and the Magic Mask feature in DaVinci Resolve Studio should run up to 3x faster. Professional graphics weren't forgotten either. The M5 Max offers third-generation hardware ray tracing, and the computer can easily handle 8K footage and multiple video streams.
33 8K streams simultaneously? Mac Studio is set to handle extreme editing
With the M5 Ultra, Apple pushes multimedia capabilities even further. The chip has twice as many video encoding and decoding blocks as the M5 Max, allowing the Mac Studio to handle up to 33 simultaneous 8K ProRes 422 streams at 30 fps. This hardware is therefore aimed not only at people working in AI. Apple also points to filmmakers, VFX artists, 3D artists, developers, and people working with large datasets. Mac Studio is expected to enable, among other things, real-time color grading of 8K footage and rendering of demanding 3D scenes.
Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7 and up to eight monitors
The new Mac Studio has also gained an expanded set of ports. It can include up to six Thunderbolt 5 ports, offering bandwidth of up to 120 Gb/s. The computer also supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and via USB-C it can use genlock technology, useful for professional video production. Apple lets you connect up to eight displays at the same time. It's also possible to use up to four Studio Display XDR monitors at full 5K resolution at 120 Hz.
Pre-orders for the new Mac Studio began on August 25, while first deliveries and in-store sales will start on September 22. The model with the M5 Max starts at PLN 12,499 in Poland, and the M5 Ultra version is priced at a minimum of PLN 27,999. Configurations with 512 GB of RAM will arrive in late October.
The new Mac Studio is above all a showcase for the capabilities of the M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. 512 GB of unified memory, an 80-core GPU, 1.2 TB/s of bandwidth and a major emphasis on local AI make the most powerful configuration aimed at truly demanding users. Apple also lets you cluster machines together, so Mac Studio can be used even when working with very large AI models.
source: Apple
