Apple is excited to announce the latest editions to the Mac mini and Mac Studio lineup, now powered by Apple's own M6 and M5 Ultra chips. With a strong focus for on-device AI processing, Apple has boosted the performance of both the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, giving everyone from creatives to developers a strong foundation. Let's take a closer look.
Mac mini
M6 and M5 Pro Chips
The latest Apple M6 chip brings new heights of computational power to the Mac mini! These 12-core chips feature a hybrid design that leverages six efficiency cores, four performance cores, and two super cores to enhance throughput across the entire system. Handling high-end graphics is the 12-core GPU along with hardware-accelerated ray tracing to give enhanced visuals for developers and gaming enthusiasts alike. The M6 also includes enhanced Neural Accelerators and a dual 16-core Neural Engine to expand memory bandwidth up to 153 GB/s!
The built-in Media Engine includes various hardware-accelerated encoding protocols including H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. It also offers ProRes encode and decode engines as well as the AV1 decode engine.
The M5 Pro chip is also making its way over to the Mac mini, giving you a greater uplift in performance, ideal for creatives who want to take advantage of the M5 Pro's enhanced architecture. It includes 15 cores, spread between 10 performance cores and five super cores to assist with high-end computational workloads. It also includes a 16-core GPU, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 16-core Neural Engine, and Neural Accelerators, giving you up upwards of 307 GB/s memory bandwidth. If you want even more power, there is also an M5 Pro with an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU. All the features found in the M6's Media Engine are also available on the M5 Pro chips.
Expandability
Retaining the beloved form factor while incorporating powerful components like the M6 and M5 Pro chips, additional configuration options are made available with multiple memory and storage options. For the M6, it starts at 16GB of storage and can be expanded up to either 24GB or 32GB which also enhances the memory bandwidth speed up to 170 GB/s. Meanwhile, the M5 Pro offers 48GB or 64GB configurations. Storage wise, M6 options include 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB. The M5 Pro starts with 512GB and can be expanded up to 8TB for extreme projects.
Display Support
Both the M6 and M5 Pro models support up to three external displays using Thunderbolt and HDMI ports. Resolution and refresh rate both adjust according to how many displays you connect to the Mac mini. With three displays on the M6, you can support two displays at either 6K resolution at 60 Hz refresh rate or 4K at 165 Hz. The third display can support 5K at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K at 60 Hz over HDMI. When using two displays, you have greater support for higher resolutions with the first monitor supporting either 8K at 60 Hz, 5K at 120 Hz, or 4K at 240 Hz. The secondary display supports up to 5K at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K 60 Hz over HDMI.
Audio
Integrated audio includes support for various formats including AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital, Dilby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos. The Mac mini also features a built-in speaker alongside a 3.5mm headphone audio jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones.
Connectivity
Both the M6 and the M5 Pro models include a wide range of ports with various adjustments to connection speeds. The front panels include two USB-C ports running at USB 3.2 speeds, offering up to 10 Gb/s data transfer speeds and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Slight changes to the back panel can be found between the M6 and M5 Pro. A configurable ethernet port is available, offering either 2.5 or 10 Gb speeds. A single HDMI port is also available alongside three USB-C Thunderbolt ports which support Thunderbolt 4 on M6 systems and Thunderbolt 5 on M5 Pro systems.
Apple's N1 wireless networking chip is built directly into the system, giving you access to Wi-Fi 7 speeds alongside Bluetooth 6 technology for wireless peripherals. Thread networking technology is built into the Mac mini, giving you optimal wireless performance no matter what you are doing.
Mac Studio
Coming out the gate with the latest chips, the Mac Studio takes creativity to new heights thanks to the latest M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. Taking workloads to the extreme, the new Mac Studio delivers a monumental leap in performance, leveraging massive power to run various creative suites as well as resource-demanding AI applications. This makes the Mac Studio great for creatives as well as AI researchers, developers, data scientists, and more!
M5 Max
The M5 Max is a fantastic chip designed for creatives who want to take their editing skills to new heights. Musicians, photographers, software engineers, and designers pushing real-time 3D effects and motion graphics can leverage the immense amount of power that the M5 Max provides.
Consisting of an 18-core CPU that consists of 12 performance cores and six super cores, you get greater computational power backed by an enhanced 32-core GPU. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 16-core Neural Engine, and enhanced Neural Accelerators provide the M5 Max with up to 480 GB/s memory bandwidth speeds, ideal for those who are performing tons of real-time tasks.
Configurations can be made to the M5 Max, giving you an upgraded 40-core GPU for an enhanced memory bandwidth of 614 GB/s.
M5 Ultra
Essentially doubling the performance of the M5 Max, the M5 Ultra takes computational power to unprecedented levels of power and performance essential for managing the most demanding workloads. Filmmakers can color-grade uncompressed 8K footage in real time, VFX artists can render complex simulations quicker than before, and data scientists can rain local AI models on various datasheets with ease.
The M5 Ultra chip features a 30-core CPU made of 10 super cores and 20 performance cores to drive raw performance. Graphics are handled by the massive 64-core GPU outfitted with hardware-accelerated ray tracing capabilities. Naturally, Neural Accelerators and a 32-core Neural Engine work together to enhance throughput across the board. Altogether, this gives you an incredible 1.2 TB/s memory bandwidth!
Additional configurations of the M5 Ultra include an upgrade to a 36-core CPU and an 80-core GPU.
Both the M5 Max and the M5 Ultra include a built-in Media Engine which leverages various codecs and other operational systems to enhance video editing capabilities, enabling power users to perform a multitude of tasks in a timely manner. We have hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW profiles built into the Media Engine.
For those on the M5 Max chip, you get two video encode engines and a single video decode engine. We also get two ProRes encode and decode engines as well as a single AV1 decode engine. Those who opt for the M5 Ultra receive double the performance backed by two video decode engines, four video encode engines, and four ProRes encode and decode engines. A singular AV1 decode engine remains.
Expandability
Designed for scalability, the Mac Studio features various configurations to best suit your workload. The M5 Max starts with 36GB of unified memory that can be configured up to 48GB, 64Gb, or 128GB. Meanwhile the M5 Ultra starts with 96GB of unified memory with 256GB or 512GB options.
Storage wise, the M5 Max starts with 512GB while the M5 Ultra starts with 1TB. Expansion options include 1TB (for the M5 Max), 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB for extreme workloads. The M5 Ultra gets the additional option of a 16TB internal storage drive for even greater application usage.
Display Support
When it comes to display support, the Mac Studio offers a ton of options with ample connectivity across a mix of Thunderbolt 5 and HDMI ports. The M5 Max can support up to five displays while the M5 Ultra supports up to eight.
The M5 Max can support four displays up to a native resolution of 6K at 60 Hz or 4K at 165 Hz, plus a fifth display with up to 5K at 60 Hz over HDMI. When only using three displays, two offer support up to 8K at 60 Hz or 5K at 120 Hz or 4K at 240 Hz, plus a third display with up to 5K at 60 Hz over HDMI.
When connecting eight displays to the M5 Ultra, you get native resolution of 6K at 60 Hz or 4K resolution at up to 165 Hz. When using four displays, you get 8K at 60 Hz, 5K at 120 Hz, or 4K at 240 Hz.
Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) HDR, and Multichannel audio are all supported.
Connectivity and Audio
The Mac Studio offers the largest, most expansive connectivity options to date with a wide range of ports found on the front and back panels. On the front we have two USB-C ports which support USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gb/s) speeds on the M5 Max and Thunderbolt 5 speeds on the M5 Ultra. Both include an SDXC card slot with UHS-II speeds.
Both the M5 Max and the M5 Ultra systems are equipped with four Thunderbolt 5 ports, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a 10Gb Ethernet port. The 3.5mm headphone jack found on the back panel supports high-impedance headphones for extra audio clarity.
Just like the Mac mini, the Mac Studio includes Apple's N1 wireless networking chip that grants users access to Wi-Fi 7 speeds with Thread networking technology and Bluetooth 6 for enhanced peripheral support.
Coming Soon
The latest Mac mini and Mac Studio systems will be available soon. Pre-orders start on August 25th, 2026! For more information including specs and details, check out the links for the Mac mini with M6, Mac mini with M5 Pro, Mac Studio with M5 Max, and Mac Studio with M5 Ultra.
