Mac Studio (M5 Max) review: Shifting into overdrive

The odd M4 Max and M3 Ultra offerings Apple had with the previous Mac Studio were due to Apple skipping a generation with its Ultra chips . This time around, Apple decided that the M5 series would have an Ultra chip, so you can get either an M5 Max or M5 Ultra. The $2,499 M5 Max Mac Studio comes standard with an 18-core CPU (6 super cores, 12 performance cores), a 32-core GPU, 36GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD. However, this CPU is essentially fixed at 36GB of RAM; if you want more, you must upgrade to the 18-core CPU/40-core GPU, which technically costs $300 but actually adds $600 to the price when the cost of the 48GB RAM upgrade is factored in. It can further be upgraded to 64GB ($400) or 128GB ($2,000). This review looks at the M5 Max option with an 18-core CPU, a 40-core GPU, 128GB of RAM, and a 4TB SSD, which adds $4,400 the price of the Mac Studio.