Apple Refreshes Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips and Apple Intelligence: Price, Specifications

Apple launched a new Mac Studio with refreshed chipset options on Wednesday (March 5). When buying the small-form-factor workstation, customers can choose between either the M4 Max or the newly launched M3 Ultra SoCs. The company says it is positioned above the Mac mini and is built for Apple Intelligence — its suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features. It is capable of running large language models (LLMs) with over 600 billion parameters. The desktop also gets improved connectivity options with the inclusion of new Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Mac Studio Price in India

Mac Studio price in India starts at Rs. 2,14,900 for the base variant that comes with the M4 Max SoC, 36GB of unified memory and 512GB of SSD storage. If you want the higher-spec M3 Ultra variant with 96GB of unified memory and 1TB of SSD storage, it will set you back Rs. 4,29,900.

The new Mac Studio can be pre-ordered right now in 28 countries and shipping will commence starting March 12. Buyers can also configure the Mac Studio with to-order options on the Apple website.

Mac Studio Specifications

Apple says Mac Studio with the M4 Max chip is up to three and a half times faster than its M1 Max equivalent. It is powered by up to a 16-core CPU and up to a 40-core GPU. The desktop can be configured with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to 8TB of SSD storage. The company says it can run on-device AI models and Apple Intelligence features, leveraging a 16-core neural engine.

For content creation and gaming, the device features advanced graphics architecture including dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and a second-generation ray-tracing engine. It can work with multiple streams of 4K ProRes courtesy of the Media Engine with two ProRes accelerators.

Meanwhile, the Mac Studio with Apple's new M3 Ultra chipset comes with up to 512GB of unified memory and up to 16TB of SSD storage, with the latter capable of storing up to 12 hours of 8K ProRes video. The SoC comprises a 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores and an 80-core GPU. Its 32-core neural engine helps it run on-device AI and machine learning (ML). Apple says it has a high-bandwidth memory architecture that delivers over 800GB per second of unified memory bandwidth.

Courtesy of the M3 Ultra chip, the new Mac Studio is claimed to be up to 2.6 times faster than Mac Studio with M1 Ultra SoC. Taking advantage of the same advanced graphics architecture as the M4 Max variant, the desktop delivers GPU-based renderers up to 2.6 times faster than Mac Studio with M1 Ultra.

Both models retain a similar design as their predecessor. The Mac Studio is constructed out of aluminium and features the Apple logo on top, as well as USB Type-C or Thunderbolt ports and an SDXC card slot on the front. What's new is the inclusion of Thunderbolt 5 ports at the back which deliver data transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s, translating into an improvement of up to three times compared to its predecessor. Further, customers can connect an external expansion chassis with higher bandwidth and lower latency. Leveraging the new ports, the Mac Studio can now run eight Pro Display XDRs at the full 6K resolution.

The device also includes an array of ports at the rear including 10Gb Ethernet, HDMI, Thunderbolt 5, and USB-A ports. There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity options.