Apple has unveiled two new chips alongside its latest Mac mini and Mac Studio launches: the M5 Ultra, its most powerful processor to date, and the M6, its first chip built on a cutting-edge 2-nanometer process. The M5 Ultra debuts a novel "quad-die" design that fuses four M5 processors into one chip via record-fast 4.4TB/s interconnects, aimed squarely at AI power users and content creators who need to run huge models or handle demanding video work locally. The M6, by contrast, is a more modest chip destined for entry-level Macs, with reports suggesting Apple will skip Pro and Max variants entirely and move straight to the M7.

The M5 Ultra offers up to 36 CPU cores and an 80-core GPU, delivering up to 25% faster single-threaded and 30% faster multithreaded performance than the M3 Ultra, alongside 4.5 times the peak AI compute. It supports up to 512GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/s bandwidth, enabling huge language models to run entirely on-device, though high memory prices could push a fully specced Mac Studio well into five-figure pricing from a $5,499 starting point. The M6, meanwhile, packs a 12-core processor and delivers the world's fastest single-threaded performance along with a 30% neural processing boost, but is limited to 32GB of memory and is expected to prioritise power efficiency for laptops and low-end machines over raw power.