Apple continues its spring cleaning by finally changing its Mac Studio, its computer for creatives who now benefits from two ultra powerful chicken chips, the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra.
Surprise ! After a small salvo from iPad on Tuesday (see our article), Apple continues its pre-trials announcements this Wednesday, March 5; This time presenting new computers. Or, more precisely, new versions of two flagship models: the MacBook Air and the Mac Studio. Here again, no revolution but sweet developments with expected upgrades, which justifies the very discreet communication of the apple form, with simple press releases, without conference-spectacle.
If the arrival of the M4 chip on the MacBook Air was predictable – it has been the subject of many rumors in recent weeks -, the rise in power of the Mac Studio is more surprising insofar as this professional desktop computer has remained far from its initial outing, in March 2022. But its rise in power constitutes excellent news for its users, especially as the Mac Pro – the “monster” of the Apple family – does not seem to be to evolve.
Mac Studio 2025: M4 Max or M3 Ultra, two overpowered chips
In fact, the major evolution of the Mac Studio Millésime 2025 concerns its “engine”. If this model had already benefited from a good update in June 2023, going from the M1 generation to the M2 generation (in max and ultra versions in both cases), it takes a sensitive step today by adopting two even more powerful processors: the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra! Because yes, it would seem that Apple has not yet finalized an ultra declination for the M4 range. But what does it matter, because these new high -end chips offer performances capable of satisfying the privileged target of the Mac Studio, namely “creatives” (graphic designers, video editors, musicians, sound engineers, etc.): users who exploit very delicious applications for their treatments on a daily basis.
And the newcomers obviously have the power to resell! Thus, the M4 Max combines a CPU up to 16 hearts, a GPU up to 40 cores and an NPU (Neural Engine) with 16 cores, manages up to 128 GB of unified RAM with a bandwidth of 546 GB/s. Still stronger, the M3 Ultra aligns a CPU up to 32 cores, a GPU up to 80 cores, an NPU with 32 cores by managing up to 512 GB of unified memory with a bandwidth up to 819 GB/s. Two real racing animals capable of processing without flinching tons of data in real time, whether it be image filters, special audio effects or virtual instruments.
As usual, Apple makes comparisons of progress compared to other chips, but once again taking a bit ancient models as a reference, which can distort the evaluation. It is a question of an image processing in Photoshop up to 1.6 times faster, of video processing in Topaz Video AI up to 1.6 times faster or a code compilation in XCode up to 2.1 times faster than with a Mac Studio equipped with a M1 Max chip. Ditto for the M3 Ultra chip, with, for example, a rendering of scenes with Maxon Redshift up to 2.6 times faster than on the Mac Studio with an Ultra M1. Certainly very fair, but partial, and necessarily well chosen comparisons, which let the gains consider in practice between 20 and 100 % depending on the areas, applications, functions and software optimizations, knowing that Apple indicates the Mac Studio M3 Ultra is generally twice as powerful as the M4 Max chip model.
Mode IA obliges, the manufacturer also insists a lot on the capacities of its new babies to run Apple Intelligence. Not sure that this aspect really makes the creative dream that will undoubtedly be seduced by the graphic capabilities of the Mac Studio, whether for the management of Prore Video Reading Flows in 8K, Encoding and Hardware Decoding in H.264 and HEVC or even the management of multiple screens. Not to mention the material care by the GPU of Mesh Shading and Ray Tracingtwo important technologies for 3D modeling.
For the rest, few changes. The new Mac Studio, in its two variations, retains the superb metal housing from previous models, with a giant Mac Mac design. However, it should be noted that it manages more RAM (from 36 GB in the basic version for the M4 Max and 96 GB for the M3 Ultra) and that most USB-C ports go to the Thunderbolt 5 standard (up to 120 bit/s).
As always at Apple, the previous announcement of the actual release and the new Mac Studio will be available from March 12. The prices comply with the brand’s tradition: from 2499 euros for M4 MAX mode with 36 GB of RAM and an SSD of 512 GB, and from 4999 euros for the M3 Ultra version with 96 GB of RAM and an SSD of 1 TB, the memory and storage options causing the prices towards stratospheric levels, up to more than 17,000 euros. Nothing scandalous, however, for products signed Apple given the capacities of these unparalleled computers in the PC world, especially for pros who will quickly draw from it.