Apple's first quad-die SoC, built from two dual-die M5 Max packages, with up to 36 CPU cores, an 80-core GPU, and 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
Apple restored the 512GB configuration it spent last year deleting, and put the RAM shortage on the Mac mini's sticker instead. The ceiling is the product. The ceiling is also what disappears.
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The M5 Ultra is pitched as an alternative to CUDA workstations, but the 512GB configuration that carries the argument ships in late October with no announced price.
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Cupertino is now selling desktops as an alternative to token bills. On the configurations that can host a useful model, payback runs two to four years, and the model you can host is a tier down.
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The mini takes the new M6 while the Studio stays on M5 Max and Ultra, and every published gain is measured against an M4 baseline. Anyone expensing Apple TV has a fourth price rise to re-forecast.
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Tom's Hardware puts the M5 Ultra at up to 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth over as much as 256GB of soldered unified memory, so the capacity that decides which weights stay resident is settled at checkout.
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A maxed 256GB Mac Studio has gone from $7,499 to $11,299 in 18 months, and the reported rise in LPDDR5X prices explains under a third of that. Anyone refreshing a local-inference box needs both numbers.
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Apple's M5 Ultra Mac Studio starts at $5,499 and reached $12,299 as tested, and the reviewer running local agents on it every day says the most expensive Anthropic subscription would still have cost less for years.
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The review's own processor numbers run from 8 to 22 percent, and its case for replacing an M4 Max or M3 Ultra Studio rests on disk throughput. Memory and storage are soldered, so that gain arrives only with a whole new machine.
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A dev.to post says Apple announced the M6 on August 25 as a single die on TSMC's N2 and put the top of its lineup on a quad-die M5 Ultra built on last year's N3P, leaving a Pro-class refresh with no part to order.
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Apple says the M5 Ultra reaches 512GB of unified memory at 1.2TB/s, which settles how big a local agent can get, though the September launch arrives without prices and every AI speed figure is measured against an M1.
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Apple held the Mac Studio's Max tier at $2,499 while pushing the Ultra to $5,499, where the entry machine carries just 96GB of unified memory, so the premium only starts earning its keep at the 256GB rung and above.
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The 2025 configurations are gone from the store rather than fading out, which turns a refresh most shops would have taken at renewal into a purchase they have to justify on this quarter's numbers.
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The quad-die design breaks the recipe Apple has used for Ultra chips since M1. Interconnect goes to 4.4TB/s from 2.5TB/s, while the 512GB memory ceiling and the 80 GPU cores do not move.
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