The new Apple Mac Studio with M5 Ultra now offers 512GB of unified memory. Apple lists the option in its online store, arriving in late October, the timing Apple gave when it announced the new Mac Studio in August.
On Apple’s chips, the CPU, GPU and Neural Engine share one pool of memory, so the more you have, the larger the AI models you can run. Apple says 512GB, with 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth, lets you run enormous large language models (LLMs) entirely on the device, with no tokens to count and no cloud bills to worry about.
Only the top M5 Ultra, with a 36-core CPU and an 80-core GPU, gets the 512GB option. The 30-core M5 Ultra stops at 256GB, and the Mac Studio with M5 Max tops out at 128GB, on its 40-core GPU version. Unified memory can’t be added later, so this is a decision you make at checkout.
Several Mac Studios can also be linked over Thunderbolt 5 into one shared memory pool, for the biggest open-weight models. Apple claims a cluster of four runs AI inference up to 3x faster than a single Mac Studio.
Mac Studio with M5 Ultra (512GB) key specs
- Processor: Apple M5 Ultra, 36-core CPU (12 super cores, 24 performance cores), 32-core Neural Engine
- Graphics: 80-core GPU with Neural Accelerators in each core, hardware-accelerated ray tracing
- Memory: 512GB unified memory, 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth
- Storage: 1TB SSD, configurable to 2TB, 4TB, 8TB or 16TB
- Ports: rear: four Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s), two USB-A (up to 5Gb/s), HDMI 2.1, 10Gb Ethernet, 3.5mm headphone jack; front: two Thunderbolt 5, SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
- Displays: up to eight external displays
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread
- Size and weight: 3.7 x 7.7 x 7.7 inches (9.5 x 19.7 x 19.7cm), 8.0 pounds (3.6kg)
- Color: silver
Apple’s Philippine store lists the 512GB Mac Studio at Php 1,471,990 (about $23,000) with 1TB of storage, and Php 1,959,490 (about $30,600) with the maximum 16TB. In the US, the same two machines cost $22,299 (about Php 1,427,000) and $29,799 (about Php 1,907,000).
The memory upgrade alone is Php 1,007,500 (about $15,700), or $15,500 (about Php 992,000) in the US. That’s more than two Mac Studios with the same chip and the standard 96GB would cost, at Php 464,490 each.
We don’t know who exactly is the target market for this kind of computer but we’re pretty sure they won’t be adding it to their online cart by accident.
