Mac Studio gets M4 Max and M3 (read correctly) Ultra
Apple presents the M3 Ultra together with a new Mac Studio. The Californians' most powerful chip to date has up to 32 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores. If you don't restrain yourself in the configurator, you can spend five-figure sums on it.
After a break of almost two years, Apple treats the Mac Studio to two new chips: The M4 Max was predictable. After all, it has been in the MacBook Pro since last autumn. But for even more performance, there is not an M4 Ultra - but "only" an M3 Ultra. This is surprising, as the M3 generation is based on a manufacturing process from 2023.
The M3 Ultra works according to the same principle as its predecessor: Apple sticks two Max chips together. This doubles the number of cores and the memory bandwidth. However, as the name suggests, it is not the current M4 Max that serves as the basis for the latest Ultra, but the M3 Max. This means that the gap between the Mac Studio with Max and Ultra chip should not be quite as large as in other years.
In absolute terms, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio is nevertheless the "most powerful Mac ever", as Apple writes in its press release. It is designed for demanding workloads, such as 3D modelling and professional video editing. For the first time, the unified memory can be expanded up to 512 GB. This enables, among other things, the execution of large language models (LLMs) entirely from the main memory.
How much faster the M3 Ultra is compared to the M2 Ultra is not clear from Apple's announcement. There are only comparisons with the M1 Ultra and an old Mac Pro with an Intel chip. Although they read impressively ("6.4 times faster performance in Maxon Redshift"), they defy logic. For the relevant comparison to the direct predecessor, you'll have to wait for independent benchmarks.
Source: Apple
Can get pretty expensive
Aside from the chips, the Mac Studio gets support for Thunderbolt 5 (120 Gbit/s) and more external displays: the M3 Ultra can handle up to eight screens with 6K resolution at 60 hertz. With the M4 Max, it is up to four 6K plus one 4K. The SSD can now be increased to 16 terabytes - provided you don't mind Apple's exorbitant storage prices.
The base price of the Mac Studio has not changed compared to the previous generation in Switzerland. In Germany, the pretty aluminium cube will be 100 euros more expensive. For versions with more cores, RAM and SSD, Apple is, as usual, charging very high prices. Some example configurations:
- M4 Max, 14 / 32 cores, 36 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD: 2099 francs / 2499 euros
- M4 Max, 16 / 40 cores, 48 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD: 2799 francs / 3124 euros
- M3 Ultra, 28 / 60 cores, 96 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD: 4199 francs / 4999 euros
- M3 Ultra, 32 / 80 cores, 96 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD: 5699 francs / 6874 euros
- M3 Ultra, 32 / 80 cores, 512 GB RAM, 16 TB SSD: 14299 francs / 17624 euros
The new Mac Studio will be available from 12 March and can be pre-ordered now.
Header image: Apple
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Samuel Buchmann
Senior Editor
Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.chMy fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.
