Review: Apple Mac Studio (M5 Ultra)

Over in Draw Things, I ran some on-device image and video generation to really see what an 80-core GPU can do. Using the MiniMax H3 model, it took over 11 minutes to generate a 15-second video completely on-device. There’s a long way to go before this feels like a viable alternative to cloud-based options or needing a high-powered discrete GPU like an RTX 5090 or 5080 for this kind of task. Obviously, paying this much to run AI locally is a niche endeavor. But as models get more efficient and quality improves, the M5 Ultra Mac Studio’s capabilities should improve over time. We’re still in the early days.

During these AI tests, in particular, I noticed how warm the Mac Studio gets when it’s fully under load. You definitely don’t want to touch it or set anything on top of it. You also want to leave some room behind it, since it blows a lot of hot air out of the vents. The fans can spin up quite loudly too—though, like all modern Macs, it takes a couple of minutes for the fans to really get going. The front-facing ports stay cool, though, thanks to the vents in the thermal system sitting right underneath the Mac Studio.

Only the Beginning

The Mac Studio is certainly unique. Because mini Windows PCs typically use laptop chips, they don’t typically support more than 64 GB of RAM. That’s where this top-end M5 Ultra Mac Studio really feels unbeatable (and even earns its sky-high price from that perspective). Add the upcoming option for 512 GB of memory (and the ability to connect four Mac Studios and use them as a single computer), and you have something extremely niche—but wholly unrivaled.

The base M5 Max Mac Studio does have stronger competition, though. For $2,399, you can get a Geekom A9 Mega Mini PC with 64 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max+ 388. That’s more memory and more storage for less money. Importantly, that AMD chip uses unified memory the same way Apple Silicon does, which is crucial for running local AI workloads. We’ll hopefully be getting the Geekom A9 in for testing to see how it stacks up in real-world tests.

More competitors are coming soon, too. Nvidia’s RTX Spark “superchips” are the main upcoming rival, offering up to 128 GB of unified memory in both laptops and mini PCs. They still can’t do 256 GB of memory like the Mac Studio, but these will hopefully turn up the heat on the Windows and Linux side.