Apple refreshes Mac Studio and Mac mini for local AI
Apple cleared the bar for a post this week. On August 25, it announced a new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra and a new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro. For people who run models at home, the headline is simple: the Mac Studio line now stretches to 512GB of unified memory, and the Mac mini line still offers a 64GB M5 Pro step for a much smaller entry price.
The specs page is the part that changes buying advice. Apple says the new Mac Studio technical specs top out at 512GB of unified memory on M5 Ultra, with 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth, while the 128GB M5 Max configuration reaches 614GB/s. On the smaller side, the Mac mini technical specs put the M5 Pro configuration at up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s memory bandwidth. That does not turn the mini into a 70B box, but it does keep a serious Metal option alive for people who want a quiet desk machine without stepping all the way up to Studio pricing.
Apple’s own launch pricing starts at $2,499 for Mac Studio with M5 Max and $5,499 for Mac Studio with M5 Ultra, while the new Mac mini starts at $899 and the M5 Pro model starts at $1,699. I added the new configurations to the catalog so you can watch them as direct entries: Mac Studio M5 Max 128GB, Mac Studio M5 Ultra 512GB, and Mac mini M5 Pro 64GB. If you are deciding between the new Apple tiers, the fastest way to size them up is this compare view.