M3 Ultra Mac Studio: Who Needs Ludicrous Speed?

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Fun fact: I’ve never reviewed or owned a Mac Studio. In fact, I think I’ve only ever been in the same room as one of Apple’s desktop powerhouses when I’ve been in an Apple Store.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it is an expensive investment, content-wise, and I’ve never felt that the Mac Studio will offer a big enough return for it to make sense. Secondly, I have absolutely no need for one. The most powerful Mac I have is my M3 Max MacBook Pro, and even that is completely overkill for the limited production work I do these days.

This doesn’t stop me from admiring the Mac Studio, though. Just like the M4 Mac mini, it’s a testament to the technical marvel that is Apple silicon. The power the Mac Studio delivers from such a small footprint and – contrary to what I said earlier – relatively modest price tag is breathtaking.

This month, Apple finally unveiled a new Mac Studio. It has taken the leap from M2 to M4 (and, weirdly, the M3).

But the biggest question I have is: who on earth needs all of this power?

The new M4 Mac Studio

There are no design changes to the new Mac Studio. There didn’t need to be; as noted earlier, it’s a masterclass in delivering colossal computing power with minimal impact on your desk (and, to a degree, your wallet).

The modifications are all internal, and there are two worth talking about. The first is the chip choice – you can choose from the M4 Max or M3 Ultra (yes, in that order – I’ll get to that in a moment). The second is that the Mac Studio now supports Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, which makes sense for this kind of computer.

Back to the chip choice. The first is the M4 Max, which can also be found in decked-out MacBook Pros. Apple calls it a “performance juggernaut” in its press release for the new Mac Studio, which is backed up by the specs. You can configure it with up to 16 cores of CPU and GPU, 128GB of unified memory, and 8TB of storage, and the price will range from £2,099/$1,999 to £5,999/$5,899, depending on what you choose.

Next up, we have the M3 Ultra. That’s right – if you want a more powerful Mac Studio, you have to go from the M4 to the M3. Quite why this is the case is anyone’s guess, although it’s almost certain that Apple is holding something back in the M4 family for a Mac Pro refresh.

Regardless of generational confusion, the M3 Ultra is clearly quite a step up from the M4 Max. For starters, it can be configured with up to 32 cores of CPU and GPU, and the unified memory can be expanded to a frankly ludicrous 512GB. Oh, and storage? You can take that up to a mortgage-inducing 16TB. The starting price for an M3 Ultra Mac Studio is £4,199/$3,999, and it tops out at – hold onto your trousers – £14,299/$14,099 if you tick every box during checkout.

Are you tempted? Or confused? Or both? Let’s try and figure out who they’re for, shall we?

Who is the M4 Max Mac Studio for?

I’m going to level with you, guys – I haven’t got a clue who should buy either of these Macs. My use case falls so far below what they’re capable of that it would require weeks of research, multiple surveys, and countless interviews for me to gain the knowledge required to provide accurate buying guidance.

So, I asked ChatGPT instead.

I did this by feeding it Apple’s official press release and asking who would benefit from each chip. The answers it gave me should, of course, be taken with a pinch of salt – this is AI, after all.

According to ChatGPT, the Mac Studio with an M4 Max chip is designed for “creative and technical professionals who need extreme performance for demanding workflows”. The examples provided include video editors who need fast rendering speeds and support for high-resolution projects, 3D artists who need access to “improved” ray tracing, and music producers who work with large track counts and real-time effects.

Game developers were also name-checked, as were people who work in AI, and photographers who work with AI-powered enhancements for their images.

Granted – a lot of this sounds fairly generic and, to be brutally honest, a lot of those use cases would be served very well with a souped-up M4 Pro Mac mini. The big differentiator for the Mac Studio is the amount of unified memory you can add, and for anyone who works in the fields just mentioned and who knows they need a shed-load of memory, the M4 Max Mac Studio would clearly be a sensible investment.

Who is the M3 Ultra Mac Studio for?

Now for the even bigger question: who needs the ludicrous speed offered by the M3 Ultra Mac Studio?

Well, according to ChatGPT, Apple’s most powerful Mac ever is for “high-end professionals”. I’m not sure what one of those is, but I’m pretty sure it’s the sort of person you would not want to disturb while they’re working for fear of inadvertently tampering with the space time continuum.

These people, apparently, require “extreme performance across complex workflows” to reach the bottom of their to-do list. I don’t know what that means, but ChatGPT has, once again, provided some examples.

Filmmakers working with 8K+ video, 3D artists who need real-time raytracing, and data scientists who handle massive datasets and complex simulations are most likely to be pleased with an M3 Ultra Mac Studio.

That sounds sensible, even for my tiny brain. Slightly more oblique, however, is the suggestion that “high-end music producers” could do with an M3 Ultra Mac Studio. I’ve always been into music production both as an external admirer and as someone who invested an unnatural amount of time during his youth into bedroom music production. And I have no idea what separates a high-end music producer from a regular music producer.

Regardless, it’s pretty clear that, once again, if you need a quadruple shedload of memory for your profession, an M3 Ultra Mac Studio is likely to be one of the best investments you could make.

Final thought

I’m tempted to get my hands on a Mac Studio so that I can put together an ultimate Mac buying guide for 2025, but I still have no desire to own one myself.

I’m glad it exists, though. And I’m glad that Apple decided to keep it within the lineup, despite revolutionising the desktop computer market (again) with the M4 Mac mini. They could just as easily have kicked the Mac Studio to the curb, but it’s clear that there’s a market out there for this rocketship of a computer.

Long may that continue. Although, it does raise one big question about the Mac Pro: who on earth is that for?!