Mac Studio updated with M4 Max and new M3 Ultra chips
Apple announced updated versions of its Mac Studio with the M4 Max and all-new M3 Ultra chips. The latest Mac desktop is aimed at video editors, developers, engineers, photographers, and creative pros.
Apple originally announced the Mac Studio in 2022 with the M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips. The new M4 Max and M3 Ultra models offer sizeable gains for 3D rendering, video editing, code compiling, and other workflows.
The baseline Mac Studio has the M4 Max chip featuring a configurable 14-16-core CPU, 32-40-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. You get 36GB of unified memory as standard, which is upgradeable to 128GB with 546GB/s bandwidth. Storage starts at 512GB and tops out at 8TB.
The M3 Ultra chip takes things up a notch with its 28-32-core CPU, 60-80-core GPU and 32-core Neural Engine. Appleâs premier desktop now starts with 36GB unified memory (instead of 32GB), which is configurable to a bonkers 512GB (800GB/s bandwidth), as Apple proudly claims â âthe most unified memory ever on a personal computer. You can also add up to 16TB SSD storage.
Apple is advertising 1.8x faster CPU performance and 2.6x faster GPU rendering than the M1 Ultra. Apple also shared that the M3 Ultra Mac Studio can run large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters entirely in memory.
Regarding workflow, the new M3 Ultra Mac Studio supports up to 24 streams of 8K ProRes video playback with H.264, HEVC, and ProRes encode and decode. You can also hook up the device with up to 8 displays.
Both the M4 Max and M3 Ultra Mac Studios feature 4x Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports on the back, and the latter also has two more of the same ports on the front side. The remaining connectors on the back include 2x USB-A ports, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 10GB/s Ethernet port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. You also get a UHS-II SDXC card reader on the front. Wireless connectivity is still capped at Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The new M4 Max Mac Studio starts from $1,999, while the M3 Ultra kicks off at $3,999. The top-tier version with 512GB of unified memory and 16TB storage will set you back a whopping $14,099. Pre-orders are now open, with deliveries scheduled for March 12.