Mac Studio: Should You Buy? Or Wait?
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At a Glance<br>Don't Buy<br>Updates Soon
The Mac Studio is Apple's pro-oriented desktop Mac. Equipped with an M4 Max or M3 Ultra chip and tons of ports.<br>Features
M4 Max/M3 Ultra chips
Up to 32-core CPU, up to 80-core GPU
$2,499 starting price
Up to 96GB Unified Memory
Up to 16TB SSD
Up to 6 Thunderbolt 5 ports
Roundup Last Updated 3 weeks ago
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Should You Buy the Mac Studio?
The Mac Studio is one of Apple's most powerful custom Apple silicon-based Macs, offering extreme performance and a wide range of ports in a compact, desktop form factor. Apple raised prices across its Mac lineup in June 2026. The M4 Max Mac Studio's starting price is up $500 more, and the M3 Ultra Mac Studio is $1,300 more expensive. The M4 Max model starts at $2,499, and the M3 Ultra model starts at $5,299 and maxes out at just 96GB RAM.
The Mac Studio was last refreshed in March 2025, so it is close to the end of its product cycle . An updated model with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips could come as soon as 2026. With the price increase, RAM limitation, and pending refresh, it is not a good time to buy the Mac Studio and we recommend waiting to make a purchase.
If the Mac Studio is out of your price range but you still want a similar Apple silicon-based desktop Mac, there is the entry-level Mac mini with the M4 chip, which starts at $799, or the more powerful M4 Pro version that starts at $1,599. Apple also sells the iMac, which has a built-in display.
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Contents
Should You Buy the Mac Studio?<br>Mac Studio Detailed<br>How to Buy<br>Reviews<br>DesignPorts
Processor and InternalsLow Power Mode<br>Media Engine<br>Unified Memory<br>Storage<br>Connectivity
Available ModelsBuild-to-Order Upgrades
What's Next for the Mac Studio?<br>Mac Studio Timeline
The Mac Studio is aimed at "studio" professionals, as the name suggests, and it uses Apple's most powerful M-series chips , the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra. Apple designed the Mac Studio to provide high-end performance in a less expensive and more compact form than the now-discontinued Mac Pro. Apple refreshed the Mac Studio in March 2025, adding faster chips and Thunderbolt 5, but keeping the design and other specs the same. Apple raised Mac Studio prices in June 2025.
Priced starting at $2,499 , the entry-level version of the Mac Studio is equipped with an Apple M4 Max chip that features up to a 16-core CPU, up to a 40-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, Media Engine, up to 546GB/s memory bandwidth depending on configuration, and up to 64GB Unified Memory. The more expensive $5,299 model is equipped with the M3 Ultra chip and up to 96GB Unified Memory .
The M3 Ultra chip is two M3 Max chips connected together and able to perform as one unified chip, which Apple calls UltraFusion architecture . It features up to a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU , along with a 32-core Neural Engine , 819GB/s memory bandwidth, up to 256GB Unified Memory, and a 2x faster Media Engine.
According to Apple, the M3 Ultra is almost 2x faster than the M4 Max when handling system-intensive workloads, and it supports playback of up to 24 streams of 8K ProRes video and up to eight displays.
The Mac Studio features a square-shaped 7.7-inch all-aluminum enclosure that's 3.7-inches high. The size is meant to allow it to fit under most displays on the market, and the design has not changed between generations.
The Mac Studio is designed for quiet operation , with a unique thermal architecture that pulls air in through the airflow channels on the bottom using double-sided blowers and pushes it out through additional perforations on the back of the chassis.
There are four Thunderbolt 5 ports at the back of the Mac Studio, along with a 10Gb Ethernet port , two USB-A ports , an HDMI port , and a 3.5mm headphone jack with support for high-impedance headphones. At the front, the M4 Max Mac Studio has an additional two USB-C ports and an SDXC card slot , while the M3 Ultra has two Thunderbolt 5 ports and the same card slot.
The Mac Studio with M3 Ultra supports up to eight 6K displays at 60Hz, or four displays with 8K resolution at 60Hz.
The M4 Max version comes with a 512GB SSD and the M3 Ultra model comes with a 1TB SSD, but the M4 Max version is configurable with up to 8TB of SSD storage space and the M3 Ultra model can support up to 16TB .
As for wireless connectivity, the Mac Studio has Wi-Fi 6E for fast Wi-Fi speeds and the option to connect to 6GHz networks, and it supports Bluetooth 5.3 .
The Mac Studio can be paired with Apple's matching $1,599 Studio Display , a 27-inch 5K resolution display that has a built-in 12-megapixel camera with Center Stage support, as well as high-quality microphone and speaker arrays, or it can be...