How has Apple's Mac Studio changed over the years?

Explore how Apple’s Mac Studio has evolved, with internal upgrades, performance gains, and subtle design changes shaping each new generation of the desktop. How has Apple’s Mac Studio changed over the years. The same aluminum block has seen four different generations of silicon.

Apple has stuck with the same 7.7-inch square of aluminum, standing at 3.7 inches tall, for the fourth generation in a row. But what’s inside has changed fundamentally since the Studio’s 2022 inception. That first-gen M1 Ultra topped out at a paltry-by-comparison 128GB versus the M5 Ultra’s 512GB, which also moves data at 1.2TB/s, nearly 50 percent higher than what the M3 Ultra managed.

Apple skipped the M4 Ultra due to hardware limitations. If you’re in the market for a new Mac Studio, though, you’ll be paying more for the privilege: Apple hiked the prices for most of its hardware back in June, with the entry-level Mac Studio M4 Max going from $1,999 to $2,499 due to rising memory costs. 2022: The Mac mini that ate the Mac Pro The original Mac Studio launched in March 2022 with Max and Ultra variants, the latter featuring a neat party trick with its chip.