I recently reviewed the M5 Max Mac Studio , and it’s a powerhouse. But there’s a higher-end version that’s even more powerful.
What happened
It’s the M5 Ultra Mac Studio, and our German colleagues at Macwelt have a full review of it. Macwelt shared their benchmarks with us, so here’s a look at the M5 Ultra Mac Studio and how it compares to the M5 Max and older Mac Studios. This is still a developing thread, so the useful part is knowing which source signals are hardening and which ones still need caution. In software, the upgrades worth caring about are the ones that make workflows cleaner, reduce mistakes, and remove the need for extra tools.
Where the sources line up
The M5 Ultra tested here is the top-end chip configuration with a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU. It also has a 4TB SSD and 256GB of RAM–the most you can get for now. Apple says that a 512GB option will be available in October. This model sells for $12,299 The 512GB model will likely cost an additional $5,000 or more. In software, the upgrades worth caring about are the ones that make workflows cleaner, reduce mistakes, and remove the need for extra tools. The people who feel the value first are often operators, editors, creators, and teams stitching multiple apps into one daily workflow.
Practical impact for readers
The M5 Ultra has twice the CPU cores as the M5 Max in our tests. In general, the M5 Ultra offers a 47 percent increase in multi-core CPU performance over the M5 Max. Unsurprisingly, the single-core CPU results are basically the same, as is the case with all M-series generations. The people who feel the value first are often operators, editors, creators, and teams stitching multiple apps into one daily workflow. The next step is to see whether the current signals harden into a durable change or fade as a short-lived experiment.
Who should pay attention now
Compared to the chip the M5 Ultra replaces in the Mac Studio lineup, it offers a 47 percent multi-core CPU boost. The M5 Ultra’s single-core CPU speeds are 27 percent faster. The next step is to see whether the current signals harden into a durable change or fade as a short-lived experiment. That is why the useful reading move is not to stop at the headline, but to compare the promise, the workflow change, and the likely cost before deciding anything.
What is still unclear
The advantage of the M5 Ultra over the M5 Max in Geekbench 6 isn’t as drastic (25 percent) but that has more to do with the test than the chip. Geekbench 7 redesigned its multi-core tests and changed its workloads to better reflect real-world usage, so while this data point isn’t relevant anymore, it’s presented in case you’re curious. Geekbench 6 and 7 numbers are not comparable.
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