Cupertino, CA (March 8, 2022)—Apple has introduced Mac Studio, a new flagship desktop powered—depending on the build—by the company’s own M1 Max or new M1 Ultra chip. Providing considerable connectivity to handle a variety of peripherals, Mac Studio is currently available to order, arriving to customers starting Friday, March 18.
Designed to be readily accessed on a desk so users can plug in peripherals as needed, the Mac Studio is built from a perforated single aluminum extrusion with a square footprint of 7.7 inches and height of 3.7 inches. Depending on the configuration, every Mac Studio is powered by either M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra silicon. According to Apple, M1 Ultra builds on the M1 Max by using an all-new “UltraFusion architecture” that interconnects the die of two M1 Max chips, creating a system on a chip (SoC) consisting of 114 billion transistors—reportedly the most ever in a personal computer chip.
Apple Goes Spatial – Part 1: What’s It All Mean?
Apple stated in its product announcement that “musicians and producers can work on the most complex compositions with hundreds of tracks, plug-ins, and virtual instruments, all played in real time,” but the company is largely focused on touting video-oriented benchmarks—for instance, noting that Mac Studio can play back 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video. That’s due to the computer’s graphics memory, which goes up to 64GB of unified memory on systems with M1 Max and up to 128GB of unified memory on systems with M1 Ultra. Meanwhile, the SSD in Mac Studio delivers up to 7.4GB/s of performance and can sport a capacity of up to 8TB.
Highlighting the machine’s connectivity, the computer’s back includes four Thunderbolt 4 ports to connect displays and high-performance devices, a 10Gb Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm jack for high-impedance headphones or external amplified speakers. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are built in as well. Meanwhile, the front provides two USB-C ports, which on M1 Max supports 10Gb/s USB 3, and on M1 Ultra supports 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4. There is an SD card slot on the front to import photos and video. Mac Studio can also tackle multiple displays—in fact, a lot of them, handling up to four Pro Display XDRs, plus a 4K TV for a total of nearly 90 million pixels.
With an eye towards sustainability, the Mac Studio uses 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board, as well as recycled aluminum and plastic in various components. Mac Studio starts at $1,999 (US),and $1,799 (US) for education. Additional configure-to-order options are available.
