New Desktop Powerhouse

Apple introduces Mac Studio with M1 Max or new M1 Ultra chip

- By Alex Summersby

APPLE HAS ADDED an entirely new high-performance headless computer to its desktop lineup, aimed at professionals who need raw grunt for tasks such as 3D rendering, code compilation, image processing, or video encoding.

Mac Studio looks much like a pumped-up Mac mini, with an identical footprint of 7.7 x 7.7 inches but 3.7 inches high, half an inch less than three Mac minis stacked on top of each other. It is designed to sit on your desk, tucked under a monitor, а for easy access to its ports more about these in a moment.

Mac Studio comes in two flavors, both with Apple silicon. The base model with Mi Max processor (with 10-core CPU and 24-core GPU), 32GB of unified memory, and 512GB SSD storage starts at $1,999, just $200 more than a maxed-out Mac mini (with 8-core Mi chip, 16GB of memory, and 2TB SSD). Build-to-order options include up to 64GB of unified memory and up to 8TB SSD.

Mac Studio with the new Mi Ultra chip (20-core CPU, 48-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine) starts at $3,999 with 64GB unified memory and 1TB SSD storage. Maxed out with the most powerful M1 Ultra chip (with 64-core GPU), 128GB of unified memory, and 8TB SSD, this ultimate configuration comes in at $7,999. That's $2,000 more than a base-model Mac Pro, but the kicker is that Apple says Mac Studio with Mi Ultra is up to 80% faster than the top-of-the-line Mac Pro, which with all the build-to-order options added would cost a staggering $52,000.