Mac Studio's M5 refresh lands this fall — and the M7 Ultra's 1.5TB future is already mapped

Apple brings M5 Max and M5 Ultra to the Mac Studio this October, prices climb again, and a 1.5TB M7 Ultra is reportedly in development for 2028.

Source material: 9to5mac.com

Mac Studio M5 Ultra Apple Silicon M7 Ultra RAM Upgrades

When does the new Mac Studio come out?

Later this fall, with a debut possible as early as October. Apple is updating the Mac Studio for the first time since early 2025, and that gap is the story: the current high-end model still runs the M3 Ultra, so this refresh skips an entire chip generation on the flagship tier. The Mac Studio sits at the top of Apple's desktop lineup, a fixed macOS workstation rather than a portable, and its update cycle runs slower than the MacBook Pro's. For anyone who bought the M3 Ultra model at the last refresh, the fall launch is the first real upgrade path in over a year. Apple hasn't confirmed the exact date, but the October window matches the company's recent fall hardware pattern, and a launch that close means current inventory and pricing could shift before the new models land. The refresh also resets the clock: after years of waiting on an Ultra chip, buyers finally get a current-generation Mac Studio.

Why is the high-end Mac Studio still on M3?

Because Apple never made an M4 Ultra. The company moved the MacBook Pro and other lines to M4, but the Ultra tier skipped the generation entirely, leaving the Mac Studio's flagship option running the M3 Ultra. That decision is why the Mac Studio fell behind Apple's other pro machines on silicon, and it's also why this fall's M5 refresh is a bigger deal than a typical annual update: the M5 Ultra replaces the M3 Ultra directly, doing work that would normally take two generations. For buyers, the practical effect is that the current top-of-line Mac Studio has been on sale unchanged for over a year, with performance that will sit a full step behind the M5 generation. Apple never filled the gap with a stopgap chip, which is why the wait between M3 Ultra and M5 Ultra has stretched so long.

What chips will the M5 Mac Studio use?

M5 Max and M5 Ultra, both debuting with this refresh. The M5 Ultra is the flagship: up to 36 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores, with Apple promising a considerable performance gain over the existing M3 Ultra model. The M5 Max handles the lower tier and will be the entry point for most buyers. The core counts matter for anyone running heavy compute, rendering, or on-device AI workloads on the Mac Studio — the jump from the M3 Ultra's configuration to the M5 Ultra's 36/80 split is the single largest upgrade this generation. Apple hasn't released final specs, but the rumored counts line up with the performance claims attached to the refresh. Because the Mac Studio is a fixed desktop rather than a portable, those core increases translate directly into sustained workload gains, the whole point of a desktop pro machine.

How much RAM will the M5 Ultra support?

Up to 768GB, if Apple can ship it. The M5 Ultra's maximum memory ceiling is set at that figure, but supply constraints make it unclear whether the company will actually offer a 768GB configuration at launch. The ongoing memory shortage across the industry is the same factor that reshaped the Mac Studio's release timeline, and Apple's ability to source DRAM modules will decide which configurations exist on day one. What's certain is intent: Apple designed the M5 Ultra to reach 768GB, a ceiling that would put the Mac Studio well beyond the M3 Ultra it replaces in both memory and compute. For buyers deciding between an M5 Max and M5 Ultra, memory headroom is the clearest differentiator — the Ultra tier is where the large RAM options live, and 768GB would be the largest unified memory pool Apple has shipped in a Mac Studio. Whether it materializes depends on the supply picture between now and launch.

How much will the M5 Mac Studio cost?

Apple's Mac Studio prices already went up once, and the M5 generation could push them higher. The M4 Max and M3 Ultra models launched at $1,999 and $3,999, but the current lineup now sits at $2,499 and $5,299, up from those launch prices. Apple hasn't announced M5 pricing, and the memory shortage that reshaped the release calendar could push component costs up further. The Ultra tier is the one to watch: the M5 Ultra's higher core counts and larger RAM ceiling give Apple room to charge a premium over the M3 Ultra it replaces. If history is a guide, the gap between Max and Ultra tiers stays wide — the current spread between the $2,499 Max and $5,299 Ultra shows how Apple segments the two. Whether M5 pricing lands higher depends on supply and on how Apple values the performance jump, but the trend across recent generations has been upward, not flat.

Why was the M5 Mac Studio delayed?

The M5-based Mac Studio refresh was initially set for mid 2026, but the ongoing memory shortage caused a timeline slip, and rumors now peg the debut for this fall. The delay wasn't a chip problem — Apple's M5 silicon was ready, but DRAM supply constraints made it hard to source enough memory for the configurations Apple wanted to ship. That same shortage is why RAM ceiling announcements carry caveats about supply availability. The slip also explains why the Mac Studio's high-end tier has sat on M3 for so long: with no M4 Ultra and M5's memory supply tight, Apple had no clean way to refresh the lineup sooner. The delay's upside is that the fall launch arrives months earlier than the original timetable.

What upgrades does the 2028 Mac Studio bring?

The 2028 update moves the Mac Studio to M7 Max and M7 Ultra chips, and the M7 family is rumored to take massive leaps in AI performance — potentially making the M7 Ultra a serious machine for running on-device LLMs. The generation also includes a redesigned heatsink for better sustained performance, a meaningful change for a desktop that runs long workloads. Design tweaks are possible too, though Apple hasn't specified what they'd be. The M7 generation is shaping up as a more substantial update than the M5 refresh, which is primarily a silicon swap. The performance gains of the M7 family are the headline, but the thermal work suggests Apple is addressing how the Mac Studio holds up under extended load, not just how fast it peaks.

How much would maxing out the RAM cost?

About $35,000, on top of the machine itself. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple is developing the M7 Ultra to support up to 1.5TB of unified memory, subject to supply availability. At Apple's current memory pricing, upgrading from 128GB to 1.5TB could cost around $35,000 — a figure that doesn't account for required CPU upgrades, so the real total for a fully loaded M7 Ultra Mac Studio would be higher. The 1.5TB ceiling would finally bring the Mac Studio back in line with the 2019 Mac Pro, which supported up to 1.5TB of RAM, the most in any Mac. Apple's memory pricing has always carried a steep premium, and the 128GB-to-1.5TB path is an extreme version of that pattern. The M7 Ultra's memory ambitions are the clearest signal yet that Apple wants the Mac Studio to reclaim the maximum-RAM crown the Mac Pro once held.

Where this came from. This breakdown is based on source material published at 9to5mac.com. Images above are used with the credits shown beneath each one.