Apple’s M5 Ultra Mac Studio delivers exceptional CPU, GPU and storage performance in a compact desktop, making it highly capable for demanding creative and AI workloads. However, its dramatic price increase means the additional performance over the M5 Max model is worthwhile only for professionals with especially intensive requirements.

The reviewed configuration costs $11,299, compared with $5,899 for a top-end M5 Max version and $7,499 for the previous M3 Ultra model. It offers up to a 36-core CPU, 80-core GPU and 512GB of unified memory, while benchmark results show major gains over the M3 Ultra, including multi-core performance of 52,185 and storage speeds of 14GB/s write and 11GB/s read. Its unchanged design retains extensive connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5 and 10Gb Ethernet.