RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The most powerful Mac Studio Apple has ever built to date is here. Just be ready to pay up to $18,299 for it.
That's the price tag on Apple's own configurator for a fully maxed-out Mac Studio with the M5 Ultra chip, 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU, 256GB of unified memory, and 16TB of storage.
Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Apple
Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Apple
It's a staggering leap from where the line starts. The base M5 Ultra Mac Studio opens at $5,499, with a 30-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 36GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. A separate, less expensive configuration built on the M5 Max chip starts at $2,499. Go from the entry price to the ceiling, though, and you're paying tens of thousands more for memory and storage upgrades that carry steep per-tier costs, like the $7,500 jump from 256GB to 1TB of storage.
Apple unveiled the new Mac Studio this morning alongside a refreshed Mac mini built around the company's new M6 chip, positioning both as major steps forward in on-device AI performance. Johny Srouji, Apple's chief hardware officer, called the M5 Ultra Mac Studio "the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world's most demanding pro workflows," per Mashable's report on the announcement .
The eye-watering top-line figure isn't purely a function of more cores and more storage. You can mostly blame the global memory crisis within the tech industry, aka RAMageddon , for the current state of consumer tech affairs.
For context, the crisis has been caused by an unprecedented supply squeeze on memory components, driven largely by the AI data center boom. Hyperscalers building out massive AI infrastructure have been pre-ordering huge volumes of RAM and related silicon for their server farms, tightening the supply available for consumer hardware and pushing up costs for manufacturers.
Knowing that can help explain why maxing out memory and storage on a machine like the Mac Studio costs the same as a starter home in the 1920s.
The new hardware also arrives ahead of Apple's annual September event, where the company is expected to introduce the iPhone 18 lineup, a foldable iPhone, updated smart home devices, and new Apple Watches.
Both the Mac Studio and the M6 Mac mini are open for preorder now, ahead of a Sept. 22 launch.
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