Apple Mac Studio: Specs, Price, And Release Date

Key takeaways: Mac Studio with M1 Max and the new M1 Ultra delivers unprecedented performance and extensive connectivity in an incredibly compact design. Studio Display features an expansive 27-inch 5K Retina screen, an advanced camera with Center Stage, and amazing high-fidelity audio.

Apple announced Mac Studio and Studio Display, an entirely new Mac desktop and display designed to give users everything they need to build the studio of their dreams.

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If you weren’t surprised to see how fast Apple’s M1 Max was, there’s another shocking surprise for you. Apple has shocked everyone with the most powerful chipset on earth, the Mac Studio. It’s basically two M1 Max, joined together.

A breakthrough in personal computing, Mac Studio is powered by M1 Max and the new M1 Ultra, the world’s most powerful chip for a personal computer. It is the first computer to deliver an unprecedented level of performance, an extensive array of connectivity, and completely new capabilities in an unbelievably compact design that sits within arm’s reach on the desk.

With Mac Studio, users can do things that are not possible on any other desktop, such as rendering massive 3D environments and playing back 18 streams of ProRes video. Studio Display, the perfect complement to Mac Studio, also pairs beautifully with any Mac.

It features an expansive 27-inch 5K Retina display, a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with Center Stage, and a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system with spatial audio. Together, Mac Studio and Studio Display transform any workspace into a creative powerhouse. They join Apple’s strongest, most powerful Mac lineup ever, and are available to order today, arriving to customers beginning Friday, March 18.

In this guide:

Mac Studio

Mac Studio delivers even more capability to users who are looking to push the limits of their creativity — with breakthrough performance, a wide range of connectivity for peripherals, and a modular system to create the perfect setup.

Revolutionary Desktop Design Enabled by Apple Silicon

With the power and efficiency of Apple silicon, Mac Studio completely reimagines what a high-performance desktop looks like. Every element inside Mac Studio was designed to optimize the performance of M1 Max and M1 Ultra, producing an unprecedented amount of power and capability in a form factor that can live right on a desk.

Built from a single aluminum extrusion with a square footprint of just 7.7 inches and a height of only 3.7 inches, Mac Studio takes up very little space and fits perfectly under most displays. Mac Studio also features an innovative thermal design that enables an extraordinary amount of performance. The unique system of double-sided blowers, precisely placed airflow channels, and over 4,000 perforations on the back and bottom of the enclosure guide air through the internal components and help cool the high-performance chips. And because of the efficiency of Apple silicon, Mac Studio remains incredibly quiet, even under the heaviest workloads.

Game-Changing Performance with M1 Max and M1 Ultra

Powered by either M1 Max or M1 Ultra, Mac Studio delivers extraordinary CPU and GPU performance, more unified memory than any other Mac, and new capabilities that no other desktop can achieve. With M1 Max, users can take their creative workflows to new levels, and for those requiring even more computing power, M1 Ultra is the next giant leap for Apple silicon, delivering breathtaking performance to Mac Studio. M1 Ultra builds on M1 Max and features the all-new UltraFusion architecture that interconnects the die of two M1 Max chips, creating a system on a chip (SoC) with unprecedented levels of performance and capabilities and consisting of 114 billion transistors, the most ever in a personal computer chip.

Mac Studio Powered by M1 Max Enables:

Up to 2.5x faster CPU performance than the fastest 27-inch iMac with 10-core processor.
Up to 50 percent faster CPU performance than Mac Pro with a 16-core Xeon processor.
Up to 3.4x faster graphics performance than the 27-inch iMac, and over 3x faster than Mac Pro with its most popular graphics card.
Up to 7.5x faster than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 3.7x faster than 16-core Mac Pro when transcoding video.

Mac Studio Powered by M1 Ultra Enables:

Up to 3.8x faster CPU performance than the fastest 27-inch iMac with 10-core processor.
Up to 90 percent faster CPU performance than Mac Pro with 16-core Xeon processor.
Up to 60 percent faster CPU performance than 28-core Mac Pro.
Up to 4.5x faster graphics performance than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 80 percent faster than the fastest Mac graphics card available today.
Up to 12x faster than the 27-inch iMac, and up to 5.6x faster than 28-core Mac Pro when transcoding video.

With its ultra-powerful media engine, Mac Studio with M1 Ultra can playback 18 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video, which no other computer in the world can do. Mac Studio also shatters the limits of graphics memory on a desktop, featuring up to 64GB of unified memory on systems with M1 Max and up to 128GB of unified memory on systems with M1 Ultra. Since the most powerful workstation graphics card available today only offers 48GB of video memory, having this massive amount of memory is game-changing for pro workloads. And the SSD in Mac Studio delivers up to 7.4GB/s of performance and a capacity of up to 8TB, allowing users to work on massive projects with incredible speed and performance.

Connectivity within Easy Reach

The compact design of Mac Studio puts an extensive array of essential connectivity within easy reach. On the back, Mac Studio 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 pro audio jack for high-impedance headphones or external amplified speakers. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are built-in as well.

And because users frequently connect and disconnect devices, like portable storage, Mac Studio includes ports on the front for more convenient access. There are two USB-C ports, which on M1 Max supports 10Gb/s USB 3, and on M1 Ultra supports 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 4. There is also an SD card slot on the front to easily import photos and video. And Mac Studio provides extensive display support — up to four Pro Display XDRs, plus a 4K TV — driving nearly 90 million pixels.

Studio Display

The all-new Studio Display perfectly complements Mac Studio and also beautifully pairs with any Mac. In a class of its own, it features a gorgeous 27-inch 5K Retina screen, plus sensational camera and audio, delivering that integrated experience Mac users love.

Slim Aluminum Design

Studio Display brings a stunning all-screen design with narrow borders and a refined, all-aluminum enclosure that houses an advanced set of features in a slim profile. Its built-in stand allows the user to tilt the display up to 30 degrees. To meet the needs of a variety of workspaces, Studio Display also offers a tilt- and height-adjustable stand option with a counterbalancing arm that makes the display feel weightless as it is adjusted. A VESA mount adapter option is also available and supports landscape or portrait orientation for even more flexibility.

Immersive 27-inch 5K Retina Display

Studio Display features a 27-inch 5K Retina screen with over 14.7 million pixels. With 600 nits of brightness, P3 wide color, and support for over one billion colors, images come to life with spectacular detail. True Tone technology automatically adjusts the display’s color temperature as the environment changes for a more natural viewing experience. An industry-leading anti-reflective coating enables incredibly low reflectivity for better comfort and readability. And for workspaces with bright light sources, including sunlight, Studio Display offers an innovative nano-texture glass option. Nano-texture glass, first introduced on Pro Display XDR, scatters light to further minimize glare while delivering outstanding image quality.

Sensational Camera and Audio System

Featuring the A13 Bionic chip, Studio Display delivers amazing experiences with its highly advanced camera and audio system. The ultimate video conferencing display, it includes a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera with Center Stage, a feature that automatically keeps users centered in the frame as they move around for even more engaging video calls.

Studio Display also includes a studio-quality, three-microphone array with an especially low noise floor for crystal-clear calls and voice recordings. It also features a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system, the best ever created for Mac, delivering an unbelievable listening experience. Four force-canceling woofers minimize distortion and produce bold, articulate bass, and two high-performance tweeters create accurate mids and crisp highs. The speakers also support spatial audio for music and video with Dolby Atmos, creating a truly cinematic viewing experience. Altogether, Studio Display has the best combination of camera and audio ever in a desktop display.

Seamless Connectivity

Studio Display has three USB-C ports that deliver speeds up to 10Gb/s to connect high-speed peripherals, storage, and networking right into the display. A Thunderbolt port enables users to connect Studio Display and any connected peripherals to their Mac with a single cable. The same cable also delivers 96W of power to a Mac notebook, allowing Studio Display to even fast-charge a 14-inch MacBook Pro. And up to three Studio Displays can be connected to MacBook Pro, creating a powerful edit bay or animation workspace.

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To complement the design of Studio Display, there’s a new silver-and-black color option for Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse that customers can purchase separately.

The Ultimate Studio Setup

Mac Studio and Studio Display will provide creative pros the flexibility to build the studio of their dreams and take their creativity to new levels.

Musicians and producers can work on the most complex compositions with hundreds of tracks, plug-ins, and virtual instruments, all played in real time.
3D artists can work with more extreme geometry, edit massive environments that were previously impossible to render, and run complex particle simulations in a fraction of the time.
App developers can build new versions of code with incredible speed, and run more automated integration and testing than ever.
Photographers can sort through thousands of images with speed and precision, composite massive images with hundreds of layers, and export final images for publish in a flash.
Videographers can edit multi-camera projects and more streams of 8K video than ever before, add more color corrections to projects while maintaining fluid playback, and encode video for final delivery faster than ever.

macOS Monterey

Mac Studio is powered by macOS Monterey, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system. The combination of macOS Monterey with M1 Max or the powerful new M1 Ultra delivers breakthrough performance, security, and productivity for users.

Also read: How to update macOS on your Mac in 2025

FaceTime includes audio and video features that make calls feel more natural and lifelike, and SharePlay enables Mac users to have shared experiences through FaceTime. Live Text and Visual Lookup are intelligence features that surface useful information, Safari includes powerful tab organization with Tab Groups, and Shortcuts bring the ease of automation to the Mac.

Continuity tools like AirPlay to Mac enable Apple devices to work even better together, and with next week’s release of macOS Monterey 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4, Universal Control will make it easy for users to work effortlessly across Mac and iPad for unparalleled productivity.

Mac Studio, Studio Display, and the Environment

Mac Studio and Studio Display were designed to minimize their environmental impact. Mac Studio uses far less energy than competitors to deliver its extraordinary performance. For example, over the course of a year, Mac Studio will use up to 1,000 kilowatt-hours less energy than a high-end PC desktop. Both Mac Studio and Studio Display use 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. Both products also meet Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, are free of numerous harmful substances, and use wood fiber in the packaging that comes from recycled sources or responsibly managed forests.

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net-zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral.

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Pricing and Availability

The new Mac Studio and Studio Display are available to order today on Apple store and in the Apple Store app. They will begin arriving to customers, and will be in select Apple Store locations and Apple Authorized Resellers, beginning Friday, March 18.
Mac Studio starts at $1,999 (US), and $1,799 (US) for education. Additional configure-to-order options are available at apple.com/store.
Studio Display is $1,599 (US), and $1,499 (US) for education. Additional technical specifications, including nano-texture glass and a choice of stand options, are available at apple.com/store.
Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad ($199 US), Magic Trackpad ($149 US), and Magic Mouse ($99 US) in the new silver-and-black color option are available at apple.com/store.