New Mac Studio stand-alone desktop


Apple introduced a new addition to the Mac lineup with the Mac Studio. Currently, the Mac Studio sits between the Mac mini and Mac Pro stand-alone desktop computers. The design resembles the mini but is taller to accommodate increased processing capacity.

At first glance, you might think it a Mac mini Pro, but Apple went a different direction with naming. Apple may have bigger ambitions for this product segment. Possibly, this could, someday, replace the Mac Pro in Apple's lineup. We also may be seeing a shift in the higher-end, all-in-one iMac as Apple introduced a new consumer display and discontinued the 27-inch iMac. The 24-inch M1 iMac is the other desktop Mac in the lineup.

I've long lamented the loss of mid-range prosumer desktops since the end of the Power Mac. The entry M1 Max Mac Studio seems to fill that space. I always wished for another Mac workstation with 16x PCIe expansion for GPUs. Aftermarket GPUs, however, have been a mixed bag on the Mac, and integrated graphics have come a long way.

The Mac Studio is offered in two stock configurations with an M1 Max and M1 Ultra processor configuration. Storage is available up to 8 TB and 64 GB of RAM, with 128 GB available with configurations equipped with an M1 Ultra.

The Mac Studio has four Thunderbolt 4 ports with up to 40 Gb/sec throughput and two USB-A ports. The base M1 Max model comes with two additional USB 3.1 gen 2 ports on the front, and the M1 Ultra offers an additional two Thunderbolt 4 ports in place of the USB 3.1 ports. Other connectivity included 10 Gb Ethernet, headphone jack, HDMI port, and an SDXC slot.

Pricing starts at $1999 for the base M1 Max model and an eyebrow-raising $3999 for the souped-up M1 Ultra base model.