Apple Unveils Updated Mac Studios with M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips

Apple has unveiled updated Mac Studio workstations built on both the latest M4 Max chip and the improved M3 Ultra chip. The compact devices, aimed at professionals, feature a Thunderbolt 5 interface, up to 512 GB of shared memory, and up to 16 TB of SSD storage.

Image source: Apple

«“The new Mac Studio is the most powerful Mac we’ve ever made,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “Mac Studio stands out in its class, delivering amazing performance in a compact, quiet design that fits perfectly on your desk. Mac Studio truly is the best pro desktop computer.”

Apple says the Mac Studio on the M4 Max is “up to 3.5 times faster” than the original version on the M1 Max. The new model has a CPU with 14 to 16 cores, depending on the configuration, and a GPU with 32 to 40 cores. The base amount of RAM is 36 GB, expandable to 128 GB. SSD storage capacity ranges from 512 GB to 8 TB.

According to Apple, the Mac Studio with the M4 Max chip delivers:

• Up to 1.6x faster image editing in Adobe Photoshop compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max and up to 2.9x faster compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
• Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster performance compared to a 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
• Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcoding performance in Compressor compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster performance compared to a 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
• Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster performance compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.

The Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra chip is even more impressive. The updated processor has up to 32 cores, 24 of which are performance cores—which Apple says is “50 percent more than any previous Ultra chip.” The GPU has 60 cores in the base configuration, which can be expanded to 80. The 32-core Neural Engine accelerates machine learning and AI applications.

The Mac Studio M3 Ultra comes with a base 96GB of RAM, expandable to 512GB, enough to run some of the largest AI models locally. SSD storage ranges from 1TB to 16TB.

According to Apple’s testing, the Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra chip delivers:

• Up to 16.9x faster token generation using LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra thanks to the massive amount of unified memory.
• Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster performance compared to a 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
• Up to 1.1x faster baseline recall for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster performance compared to a 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
• Get up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster than a 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.

Apple emphasized that the graphics processors in the new Mac Studio will support dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated shading and ray tracing, a first for the company’s graphics chips.

The design of the new Mac Studio has changed little — it’s the same squat, square silver box as before, with two USB Type-C ports and an SD card slot on the front.

The rear panel features four more USB Type-C ports, two USB-A ports, Ethernet, power, and audio. Both Mac Studio models feature Thunderbolt 5, but the M4 Max model only supports four of the rear USB Type-C ports, compared to all six on the Mac Studio M3 Ultra.

The new Mac Studios will be available on March 12, starting at $1,999 for the M4 Max model and $3,999 for the M3 Ultra model.