M5 Ultra Mac Studio Dominates Benchmark Tests

The Mac Studio we received for testing this year is nothing short of extraordinary. Equipped with an M5 Ultra chip featuring a 36-core CPU and an 80-core GPU, along with 256GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, it comes with a hefty price tag of $12,299. This powerhouse isn’t aimed at your average content creator; it’s designed for AI developers and the most demanding 3D visual effects studios.

Our usual benchmarks just don’t do it justice.

The latest iteration of Apple’s most robust computer is now shipping, boasting new chips and prices that soar even higher. The Mac Studio retains the same design introduced in 2022, complete with ultra-fast ports on both the front and back, and is now available with either the M5 Max or M5 Ultra chip, replacing last year’s M4 Max and M3 Ultra.

The M5 Max model starts at a more accessible $2,499, featuring an 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. We’ve already tested the M5 Max in the MacBook Pro, which starts at $4,099 with the same memory and 2TB of storage (the equivalent Mac Studio is priced at $3,299). The M5 Ultra is a different beast entirely, starting at $5,499 with 30 CPU cores, 64 GPU cores, 96GB of memory, and 1TB of storage.

I’ve only had a few days with the new Mac Studio and a couple of the latest Mac Minis. That’s enough time to run our standard benchmarks on the M5 Ultra and adequately test the M6 and M5 Pro chips in the Mac Mini, but not enough to fully push the limits of this machine.

Fortunately, we still have the similarly configured M3 Ultra Mac Studio from last year, which was priced at $8,099. Aside from the CPU core count and architecture, they’re nearly identical, making for a straightforward comparison.

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio outperforms our M3 Ultra by about 30 percent in both single-core and multicore synthetic CPU tests. The graphics performance varies more, but in tests like the new Geekbench 7 OpenCL, we also see around a 30 percent improvement. In more demanding GPU rendering tests like Cinebench, the M5 Ultra scored 63 percent higher.

I’ve never encountered anything this fast before. The storage speeds are astonishing, allowing it to render a classroom test in Blender faster than I can tie my shoes. Our Premiere 4K video export test, which produces an MP4 file of roughly 1.7GB, completes in about 40 seconds. I can’t even grab a cup of coffee that quickly without risking a serious burn.

Apple is making bold claims about the M5 Ultra being “a monumental step for AI.” While I don’t typically run local AI applications (I haven’t found generative AI and LLMs particularly useful for my work), I’m eager to give it a serious try, so I’m open to suggestions. I’ve already reached out to our audience for ideas, and I appreciate all the input. (Yes, even the “Can it run DOOM” jokes. I see you, and they never get old. I mean, they do, but they don’t. I love DOOM.)

How long will this take? Hopefully not too long, but the next couple of months will be busy. Google is unveiling its new line of laptops just as this article goes live, and there’s a Microsoft event next week that seems poised to kick off Nvidia’s RTX Spark initiative. There’s always a flood of laptops to test, but this Techtember and Techtober look like they’re about to unleash a deluge on Your Friendly Neighborhood Laptop Reviewer.

I know, I know; “So many cool computers to test, what a burden.” It truly is an exciting time for computers. An expensive one, for sure, but the landscape has never been this dynamic. I’ll do my best to keep you updated with any cool findings about the M5 Ultra Mac Studio. Feel free to share more ideas and tips in the comments or reach out via email or DM on Bluesky. I also welcome words of encouragement and compliments. 🙂

The M5 Ultra Mac Studio is a formidable machine. Let’s see how far we can push its limits. Stay tuned.