That was fast: A day after rumors broke about Apple preparing new Mac devices for release, the company announced some updated desktop computers. Today, Apple unveiled a portable Mac mini with the new M6 chip and a hulking Mac Studio with new M5 Ultra silicon — its “most powerful chip ever,” according to a press release.
These new processors offer “the next giant leap in performance and AI compute,” said Sri Santhanam, Apple’s vice president of Silicon Engineering Group. They also bring some slightly higher prices. (Blame RAMageddon.) The M6 Mac mini starts at $899, or $100 more than its M4 predecessor. The M5 Ultra Mac Studio starts at $5,499. That’s $200 more than the M3 Ultra model, and more expensive configurations cost up to $18,299.
Both new Macs are available in a second configuration with other existing chips from the M5 series. Their external designs remain unchanged.
Preorders for the refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio are now live in the Apple Store, though they won’t start shipping until Sept. 22.
These announcements come ahead of Apple’s annual September hardware event, where the company is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 series, a new foldable iPhone, updated smart home devices, and new Apple Watches.
M6 debuts on the Mac mini
Credit: Apple
The new Mac mini, Apple’s inaugural M6 device, features the company’s first-ever processor built using a 2-nanometer manufacturing process, which crams more switches onto a smaller piece of silicon. (Apple’s M3, M4, and M5 chips used 3nm technology.) This translates to “a major leap in performance and power efficiency,” Apple said.
The M6 chip has two more CPU and GPU cores than the M5 chip for a total of 12 apiece, plus a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Per Apple, it gives the new Mac mini up to four times faster AI performance up to two times faster graphics than the M4 model. The company recommends it for “everyday users, students, developers, AI hobbyists, and enterprises.” It starts at $899 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and now maxes out with 32GB of RAM. (The M4 model tapped out at 24GB.)
The Mac mini is also now configurable with the M5 Pro chip. That model has up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU with up to 64GB of RAM and 8TB of storage. It starts at $1,699 with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Apple plugs it for “pro users” with “demanding workflows like app development, video rendering, scientific simulations, and more.”
Both new Mac mini models support 2.5Gb Ethernet, with a 10Gb upgrade available, as well as WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6, the latest wireless technologies.
This year, Mac mini desktops have become a popular choice for people running AI agents, and some M4 models have been hard to find in stock.
M5 Ultra beefs up the Mac Studio
Credit: Apple
The M5 Ultra marks another Apple innovation: It’s the company’s first chip with quad-die architecture, made by fusing two dual-die M5 Max chips together. It has up to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU with up to a whopping 512GB of unified memory and 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth. (The M3 Ultra was capped at 32 CPU cores and 96GB of RAM, and it only had 819GB/s of memory bandwidth.)
Compared to its predecessor, the M5 Ultra Mac Studio delivers up to 4.5 times faster AI compute speeds and up to 40 percent faster graphics. Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, called it “the ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows.”
The new Mac Studio starts at $5,499 with a 30-core CPU, 64-core GPU, and 36GB of memory plus 512GB of storage. It’s also configurable with the M5 Max chip for $2,499 to start. Both support WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
Source: https://mashable.com/tech/apple-mac-mini-m6-mac-studio-announcement
