Apple has unveiled the newest iterations of its Mac mini and Mac Studio lineup, which are powered by the latest M6 and M5 Ultra Chips.
As a pint-sized powerhouse, the new Mac mini boasts a dramatic boost in performance with an ultracompact desktop design thanks to the integration of Apple’s new M6 chip, which features a 12-core CPU with Neural Accelerators in each core, a first for the Mac mini lineup, which delivers up to four times faster AI performance and 40 percent faster CPU performance compared to its predecessor. The Mac mini M6 also features 16GB of standard unified memory configurable up to 32GB, and a higher memory bandwidth of up to 170GB/s, making it perfect for multitasking.
The new Mac mini is also available with an M5 Pro chip variant, which takes pro performance to the next level thanks to an 18-core CPU and a 20-core GPU. With Neural Accelerators in each GPU core, the M5 Pro also features significantly improved AI compute performance compared to its predecessor, allowing users to tackle more advanced AI workflows like photo and video upscaling or running large diffusion models faster than ever. To tackle even the most complex AI tasks, the Mac mini M5 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Apple’s most powerful Mac, the Mac Studio, has also seen a similar boost, powered by the new M5 Ultra chip, which is built for users who demand only the most powerful system for the most extreme workloads. As the ultimate pro desktop of the bunch, the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra features an up-to-36-core CPU with 12 super cores and 24 performance cores, delivering up to 1.3x higher multithreaded performance than the previous M3 Ultra chip. It also boasts an up-to-80-core GPU, the most powerful Apple silicon graphics chip ever, adding Neural Accelerators to the Ultra chip for the first time.
The Mac Studio is also available with an M5 Max chip variant, which features performance boosts of its own thanks to an 18-core CPU with 6 super cores and 12 performance cores, alongside an up-to-40-core GPU with Neural Accelerators. With these improvements, developers can compile code even faster and build more complex motion graphics thanks to third-generation hardware-accelerated ray tracing and enhanced shader cores.
The new Mac mini lineup starts from S$1,299 for its M6 chip variant and S$2,499 for its M5 Pro variant, while the upgraded Mac Studio starts from S$3,499 for the M5 Max variant and S$7,999 for the M5 Ultra variant. More information on the newest Mac mini and Mac Studio devices can be found on the Apple Newsroom.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
