Apple‘s latest Mac Studio M5 Ultra has arrived – with massive performance, and a massive price tag to go with it. Is it worth it? Well… that all depends. I studied 10 Mac Studio articles in-depth to find the real-world performance gains, and whether the M5 Ultra can ever justify its full cost.
What reviews say
The top-spec Mac Studio is “a small powerhouse PC with strong performance,” said Tom’s Hardware, with Computerworld calling the machine “a genuine step up,” and Tom’s Guide dubbing it “the best kind of overkill.”
So far, so good. This is machine built for exactly that sort of demanding workload – the kind most people will never, ever need. Think “ultra-powerful video editing workstation,” as BGR said.
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Or, as Ars Technica noted, local AI that’s actually “a lot of fun.” MacStories went as far as to call it “a dream machine for local AI agents.”
Graphics is a mixed bag, where the Nvidia 5090 GPU “still has an edge over the M5 Ultra,” though Apple’s machine “outperformed the RTX 5070-based Acer desktop,” in benchmarks.
But then comes the bill. And it’s a shocker. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio doesn’t come cheap.
“Extremely expensive,” “god-tier price,” “well outside the range of what most people want to spend on a desktop computer,” are all common refrains across the reviews.
But, “though incredibly powerful, the leap in performance over the M5 Max-powered Studio can’t justify that extra cash, unless you’re a hardcore power user,” Engadget notes. A sentiment echoed by PCMag, who dubbed it “a high-stakes investment tailored strictly for serious pros .”
In short: You have to need the M5 Ultra Mac Studio – not only want it – for it to be worth that level of cost, which can exceed $18,000 at maximum configuration.
Price
The entry Ultra model now opens near $5,500
Cost is absolutely the killer here – a confluence of rising component costs and high-end hardware price the base M5 Max configuration at $2,500, while the entry-point M5 Ultra comes in around $5,500.
The jump grows steeper further up the line-up, since moving to 256GB of memory on the Ultra chip adds roughly $4,000 on its own.
A fully maxed-out configuration can reach close to or just over $18,000. It sounds like a lot – and it is. You absolutely need a workload to justify it.
But as CNET said, “its price isn’t out of line by workstation standards, and there’s simply nothing else like the Mac Studio.” These machines are, AppleInsider pointed out, “the most powerful Macs ever.”
Design & ports
The physical design remains unchanged from earlier generations, keeping the same compact aluminum enclosure and port layout intact that’s “easy to place almost anywhere on your desk.”
However, the Ultra weighs two pounds more than the Max due to a heavier heatsink cooling system.
This familiar shell now houses Wi-Fi 7, 10Gb Ethernet for high-speed connectivity, and two ultra-fast Thunderbolt 5 connectors up front, delivering “up to a blazing 120 Gbps speeds.”
That’s a pro, with users able to switch to more powerful hardware “without changing your desk layout or replacing your favorite peripherals.”
CPU
Buyers doing heavy 3D work on a budget may still get more raw rendering power from a Windows tower
The M5 Ultra packs a 36-core CPU with a higher core count than the M3 Ultra, targeting demanding multi-threaded workloads.
In benchmark tests, it was found “the new Mac Studio has single-core performance comparable to its M4 Max-powered predecessor,” with performance roughly “the same as the M5 Max version.”
Moving to multi-core benchmarking, the M5 Ultra “destroyed the old Mac Studio M3 Ultra.” But surprisingly, testing showed “the Ultra’s Geekbench multi-core performance is only around 26 percent faster than the Max.”
|
Outlet |
Benchmark |
Score |
|
Tom’s Guide |
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) |
37,777 |
|
Ars Technica |
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core) |
38,444 |
|
Engadget |
Geekbench 7 (Multi-Core) |
52,185 |
|
Tom’s Hardware |
Geekbench 7 (Multi-Core) |
52,293 |
|
Computerworld |
Geekbench 7 (Multi-Core) |
52,350 |
GPU
Its 80-core GPU provides the graphics engine, with dedicated Neural Accelerators built into the architecture for accelerated AI workloads.
GPU benchmarks proved “impressive,” with performance against the older M3 Ultra now around “33 to 66 percent faster.”
However, its graphics performance “fell far behind the RTX 5090 system.”
Gaming was found to be the Mac Studio’s “biggest weakness.”
That’s not to say it’s bad – in some instances, it ran quieter than a 5090 gaming desktop. It can handle modern titles with relative ease, particularly Apple Silicon-optimized games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, both of which “ran smoothly” in tests.
But it “can’t quite match the performance” or true gaming PCs. Ultimately, “discrete GPUs still win” for professionals looking for a workstation that plays games on the side.
AI
Reviewers seem to agree on one thing: the Mac Studio M5 Ultra is built for AI.
The machine “demolished the synthetic Geekbench AI neural engine test”. In other tests, it was discovered the “prompt processing speeds are even faster than Nvidia’s DGX Spark’s” – almost four times higher, in fact.
For heavy AI workloads, “you can’t do better.” That’s particularly true for those running local models, which were found to be “more responsive” with “incredible performance.”
This, then, is a machine for the “AI enthusiast.” A “serious powerhouse for top-tier local AI inference.”
Who should buy it
Taken as a whole, this all implies that buyers focused on creative workloads like video editing may find the cheaper M5 Max configuration entirely sufficient.
Therefore, only professionals running enormous local AI models, clustering several machines together or doing heavy video work can realistically justify the top-tier Ultra pricing.
Apple has built an undeniably capable device, yet the cost increase feels harder to defend for casual buyers.
Verdict
The good
• Built for AI
• Blazing-fast Thunderbolt 5
• Targets demanding multi-threaded workloads
The bad
• Incredibly expensive at max configuration
• PC GPU beats it on raw rendering and gaming
The verdict
Grab the M5 Ultra if you’re running large local AI models or cluster machines where the price is easier to justify. Opt for the M5 Max for general creative workloads. And avoid if gaming is your focus.
|
CPU |
Apple M5 Max |
Apple M5 Ultra |
|
GPU |
32-core (up to 40-core) |
64-core (up to 80-core) |
|
Memory |
36GB (up to 128GB) |
96GB (up to 512GB) |
|
Storage |
512GB (up to 8TB) |
1TB (up to 16TB) |
|
Display support |
Up to 5 displays |
Up to 8 displays |
|
Ports |
4x TB5, 2x USB-A, 1x 10GbE, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x SDXC, 2x USB-C |
6x TB5, 2x USB-A, 1x 10GbE, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm audio jack, 1x SDXC |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 |
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 |
|
Dimensions & weight |
7.7 x 7.7 x x3.7in / 6 lb |
7.7 x 7.7 x x3.7in / 8 lb |
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