Apple has updated its Mac Studio desktop computer with the M4 Max chip and the new M3 Ultra silicon, Thunderbolt 5 and other improvements.
The M3 Ultra version files as Apple’s most powerful Mac to date, even compared with the Mac Pro workstation. The M3 Ultra chip brings perks like nearly 2x faster performance than the M4 Max chip, up to 512GB of unified memory, up to 16TB of fast storage, and two extra Thunderbolt 5 ports for a total of six.
The M4 Max used in the base $2000 model starts at fourteen processing cores, 32 graphics cores and sixteen Neural Engine cores. For an extra $300, however, you can configure the chip with sixteen processing cores and forty graphics cores. The more powerful M3 Ultra model starts at double the price ($4000), which buys you 32 processing cores (24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores), sixty graphics cores and 32 Neural Engine cores.
The Mac Studio starts at $2000 in the United States, the same as before, with a maxed-out configuration using the faster M3 Ultra chip costing over $14,000. You can pre-order it today via Apple’s website and the Apple Store shopping app, with shipments and retail availability starting on Wednesday, March 12.
Your dream Apple desktop just got more oomph
The announcement claims that the M4 Max is 3.5x faster than the M1 Max and 6.1x faster “than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.” Basically, the chip doubles the performance compared to the M3 Max. The GPU in the M4 Max supports dynamic GPU caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading and a second-generation ray tracing engine for 2.6x faster graphics performance relative to the original Mac Studio with M1 Ultra. These graphics features are available on the Mac Studio for the first time.
For even greater power, you’ll need to pay an extra $1500 to get an enhanced M3 Ultra chip with 32 processing cores and a whopping eighty graphics cores. You’ll also need this upgrade if you plan on upgrading unified memory to half a terabyte (“the most unified memory ever in a personal computer”) because the M3 Max chips supports no more than 128GB of unified memory.
Furthermore, only the M3 Ultra Mac Studio can be configured with sixteen terabytes of ultrafast SSD storage, enough to hold over twelve hours of 8K ProRes video (media engines in the M4 Max and M3 Ultra have two ProRes accelerators) In comparison, the M3 Max Ultra Studio supports up to eight terabytes of SSD storage.
No M4 Ultra for you!
However, there’s no upgrade path to an M4 Ultra chip that would double the performance of the M4 Max because it doesn’t exist. Apple explains that the M3 Ultra combines two M3 Max chips together using its UltraFusion interconnect.
Moreover, the company has confirmed to Ars Technica that not every chip generation will have an Ultra tier. Furthermore, an Apple spokesperson has confirmed to the French technology site Numerama that the M4 Max chip doesn’t have an UltraFusion connector.
Thunderbolt 5 and other I/O ports
The Mac Studio uses the latest Thunderbolt 5 protocol supporting data transfer speeds up to 120GB/s, which is 3x better than Thunderbolt 4. The machine features the same ports on the front and read as before: 4x Thunderbolt (M4 Max) or 6x Thunderbolt (M3 Ultra), 2x USB-A (M4 Max), 2x USB-C (M3 Ultra), 1x HDMI, 10Gb Ethernet and 1x SDXC with UHS-II speeds.
For more details, visit apple.com/mac-studio. The Mac Studio isn’t for everyone, but if you need a powerful machine for content creation, video editing, music recording and the like, this is it. To help with your purchasing decisions, visit Apple’s Compare Mac Models page and peruse the technical specifications for the M4 Mac Studio (2025) and the M2 Mac Studio (2023) for a side-by-side comparison.
Setting up your Mac Studio will be easy with iOS 18,4, iPadOS 18.4 and macOS Sequoia 15.4 (coming next month) which let you bring your iPhone close to a Mac to quickly sign in to your Apple Account and get all your stuff on your computer.
Pricing and availability
The Mac Studio is available to pre-order via Apple’s website and the Apple Store shopping app in the United States and 27 countries, with pricing starting at $2000 for the base model and $1800 for education.
Both the online store and the app let you customize your Mac Studio with a bunch of configure-to-order upgrades in terms of CPU, memory and storage options. The machine will be available at Apple’s own brick-and-mortar stores and via authorized resellers on Wednesday, March 12.