The Apple Mac Studio Is More Powerful Than Most Will Ever Need

In her review of the 2023 edition of the Apple Mac Studio, Brenda Stolyar called the pint-sized powerhouse “the Goldilocks Mac”—suggesting its combination of performance and price was just about perfect for power users, at least those that don’t need the hemorrhage-level bleeding-edge performance of the Mac Pro tower.

Today Apple aims to maintain that verdict, upgrading the device to keep up with the times and again releasing the Studio in two versions, one of which should be ideal for any creative.

The 2025 Mac Studio can be configured either with the new M4 Max CPU or with the M3 Ultra. It may sound counterintuitive, but the M3 Ultra version is the more premium of the two SKUs, by a significant margin; the Ultra design family has been described as merging two Max CPUs that the computer addresses as a single chip. There’s no M4 Ultra CPU yet, so ultra power users get the equivalent of a pair of M3 Max CPUs instead. This isn’t a consolation prize. Most head-to-head benchmarks place the M4 Max as only slightly faster than the 2023-released M2 Ultra, with the M3 Ultra significantly ahead from there. For the moment, Apple bills the new Mac Studio as “the most powerful Mac ever made.”

Petite Powerhouse

Like its predecessors, the Mac Studio is a lunchbox-sized device that does not look at all like it should be the most powerful Mac ever made but rather like something that should be operating a really nice stereo system. But looks are of course deceiving, and inside the sealed box you’ll find plenty of oomph, designed with creators firmly in mind. I tested the entry-level M4 Max version, which includes a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, plus 36 GB of unified memory and a 512-GB SSD for $1,999. That lattermost spec feels a bit stingy in today’s clime, but it can be upgraded (only at purchase) on the M4 Max model all the way up to 8 TB of SSD storage.

For comparison, the $3,999 M3 Ultra version starts with a 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine, plus 96 GB of unified memory and a 1-TB SSD. Maxed out with an 80-core GPU, 512 GB of RAM, and a 16-TB SSD, your price tag will hit a cool $14,099. The most powerful Mac ever made may well equate to the most expensive Mac ever sold as well.

It perhaps goes without saying that the machine is meltingly fast, to the point where it’s hard to accurately convey its power in text. The M4 Pro-based Apple MacBook Pro I reviewed last fall probably provides the best comparison I can offer, considering it’s only one step down on the CPU ladder from the M4 Max.