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Apple's Mac Studio with M5 Ultra brings higher CPU performance and up to 512GB of unified memory to the compact desktop, targeting demanding local AI and creative workloads. However, Engadget's review found that its gains over the M5 Max model may be difficult to justify against a starting price of $5,500.
More Compute, Familiar Hardware
The M5 Ultra configuration offers up to a 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU and 32-core neural engine. Unified-memory options currently include 96GB and 256GB, while Apple says a 512GB configuration is coming next month. The aluminum enclosure remains 3.7 inches tall and 7.7 inches wide and long, with no major external redesign.
Connectivity includes six Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports across the front and rear, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, 10Gb Ethernet, a headphone jack and a memory-card slot. Thunderbolt 5 supports speeds up to 120Gbps, although Engadget noted that compatible accessories remain expensive.
Measured Performance Gains
In Engadget's testing, the M5 Ultra system scored 52,185 in Geekbench 7's multicore CPU test, compared with 39,145 for the previous M3 Ultra model. Across CPU, GPU and neural-engine benchmarks, the review estimated improvements of roughly 20 to 30 percent over M3 Ultra. Synthetic AI tests showed a smaller advantage of about 10 percent over M5 Max.
The reviewed machine also exported a nine-minute 4K timeline containing mostly 8K footage in one minute and 13 seconds. In another test, Mac Whisper transcribed a 70-minute podcast in 18 seconds, taking less than one-quarter of the time required by an M4 Max Mac Studio.
Local AI Focus
Apple is positioning the M5 Ultra model for users running large AI models locally. The company says the 512GB configuration provides 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth and can handle models containing billions of parameters. Apple also claims that four linked Mac Studio systems can process AI workloads three times faster than one machine, but Engadget did not test that cluster setup.
A Substantial Price Gap
The tested configuration, with a 36-core CPU, 256GB of memory and 2TB of storage, costs $11,299. That is $3,800 more than a similarly equipped top-end M3 Ultra system. The M5 Max model reaches $5,899 with 128GB of memory and 2TB of storage, leaving the M5 Ultra primarily suited to buyers whose workloads make incremental compute time more valuable than the additional cost.
Source: Apple Mac Studio (M5 Ultra) review: Huge AI and graphics power at a huge premium
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