Top spec build is $29,799 + tx. While local AI is certainly an enticing prospect I can’t really imagine myself ever seeing a return on that investment.
Further they’ve already begun hyping the M7 Ultra and even if that got delayed until 2028, this machine only being SOTA for 1.5yrs is a hilariously short window in which to maximize your investment.
I've had my eye on the normal Mac Studio M5 Ultra (normal plebeian 96GB RAM) and the release (edit: ship) date there keeps slipping, now into January. I'm surprised Apple is pushing the backlog even more.
Bought it without looking too closely to make sure I got in before the rush (comes Nov 25-Dec 3 before my M5 Ultra 256GB which is supposedly shipping end of January).
After taking a look the $11.5k premium over the 256GB might not be worth it. Gonna have to mull over the decision and possibly buy two 256GB machines instead (which might be the smarter option).
512gb being more expensive than just two 256g is a little strange. You mean you can get the same exact total cluster ram but double the compute/storage nodes and save $700?
Holy price increase, in 2025 the equivalent M3 Ultra (32-core CPU / 80-core GPU with 512GB of RAM) cost $9,499.
Now the equivalent M5 Ultra (36-core CPU / 80-core GPU with 512GB of RAM) is priced at $22,299.
This thing will sell out within a month
The 256 GB is backordered by about 20 weeks.
Makes me feel like we're back in the era of SGI workstations in the late 20th century! I got to play with a few of those in college.
chinese memory providers can't come online soon enough.
prices shoot by just choosing the 128gb option and even worse the 512gb option.
Top spec build is $29,799 + tx. While local AI is certainly an enticing prospect I can’t really imagine myself ever seeing a return on that investment.
Further they’ve already begun hyping the M7 Ultra and even if that got delayed until 2028, this machine only being SOTA for 1.5yrs is a hilariously short window in which to maximize your investment.
It is not exactly an investment, but I guess a lot depends on what you actually would want to do with it.
Those are corporate dollars making that spend, thats the only people.
Is this good enough for light web browsing, emails and word editing?
Might even work as a basic Facebook machine.
ALL the Studio configurations are cheaper than a Lenovo P4 with AMD consumer CPU, no GPU and shit storage.
I've had my eye on the normal Mac Studio M5 Ultra (normal plebeian 96GB RAM) and the release (edit: ship) date there keeps slipping, now into January. I'm surprised Apple is pushing the backlog even more.
Release date? I know someone that has one right now.
Bought it without looking too closely to make sure I got in before the rush (comes Nov 25-Dec 3 before my M5 Ultra 256GB which is supposedly shipping end of January).
After taking a look the $11.5k premium over the 256GB might not be worth it. Gonna have to mull over the decision and possibly buy two 256GB machines instead (which might be the smarter option).
As someone also considering getting one, what would make it worth it in your opinion?
Wish I had your economy for sure.
I saw "512GB" and knew deep down it means RAM, but SURELY nobody needs the same amount of RAM as I have total SSD space on my desktop, right?
...Right?
These are very well-suited for running local AI models, which must be held in memory, and are very large.
I guess I'll drive my 15 year old Honda CRV for a few more years.
The fully loaded version costs $29,799.00!!!!
Laughed at the 2499 starting price until I saw the 5499
Been waiting for this!
* 96GB - $6,799
* 256GB - $10,799
* 512GB - $22,299
(M5 Ultra with just 1TB of storage)
512gb being more expensive than just two 256g is a little strange. You mean you can get the same exact total cluster ram but double the compute/storage nodes and save $700?
Which is an especially interesting option given built-in RDMA support with reasonable performance, including fully-connected graphs up to 6 machines…
Didn't take me long to find a nice proof of concept, 5x mac studio cluster in this case:
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/15-tb-vram-on-mac-stu...
It was the same with the M3 Ultra. Two 256GB is a better deal if you want to bother connecting them with thunderbolt.
The 512GB is likely targeting people who want 1TB RAM (2x cluster).