The M5 Ultra Mac Studio is a small desktop computer with performance that reaches far beyond its size. The review unit includes a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, 256GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage, giving it a hardware setup built for demanding work.
That level of power comes with a huge price: $12,299. The cost puts this Mac Studio in a very different category from a typical desktop, but its benchmark results show why the machine attracts attention. It is aimed at AI developers and some of the most demanding 3D visual effects houses, where processing time can matter as much as the computer itself.
Antonio G. Di Benedetto described the review unit in direct terms: “The Mac Studio review unit that Apple sent us to test this year is, put simply, kind of outrageous.” The combination of extensive CPU and GPU cores, large memory capacity, and fast storage gives the M5 Ultra Mac Studio a clear focus on maximum performance.
Performance That Leaves Older Results Behind
The M5 Ultra Mac Studio is around 30 percent faster than a similarly configured M3 Ultra in both single-core and multicore synthetic CPU tests. That gap gives the newer system a strong lead in tasks that depend on one processing core as well as workloads that use many cores at once.
Its Cinebench results show the same split between single-core and multicore performance. The system scored 751 in the single-core test and 17,960 in the multicore test. Those numbers help show how much processing power is packed into this compact desktop, especially when the machine can spread work across its 36-core CPU.
Di Benedetto wrote, “Our usual benchmarks aren’t cutting it.” That comment captures the central challenge of testing this system: familiar tests do not always make its performance easy to describe. In another assessment, he added, “I’ve never tested anything this fast before.”
The results also show that the M5 Ultra Mac Studio is not built around one narrow strength. Its performance reaches across CPU tests, graphics work, storage, video exports, and 3D rendering. The 80-core GPU adds another major part of the system’s hardware, giving the computer the graphics capacity expected from a machine aimed at demanding visual effects work.
Storage and Creative Tests Show the Difference
The Mac Studio’s storage speeds are off the charts. Write speeds reached 18,782.91 MB/s, while read speeds reached 14,867.60 MB/s. Those figures show how quickly the system can move data across its 4TB of storage, adding another major advantage to its already powerful processor and graphics hardware.
The practical tests are just as striking. In Blender, the M5 Ultra Mac Studio renders the classroom test faster than tying shoes. Di Benedetto put it this way: “It renders the classroom test in Blender faster than I can tie my shoes.” The short comparison makes the result easy to understand without turning the test into a list of numbers.
Video work also finishes in a small amount of time. “Our Premiere 4K video export test, which yields an MP4 file of about 1.7GB, is done in about 40 seconds,” Di Benedetto wrote. A 4K export producing an MP4 file of about 1.7GB in roughly 40 seconds gives the Mac Studio another clear demonstration of its performance.
These tests matter because they show what the hardware can do beyond synthetic scores. The Cinebench results measure CPU performance, while Blender and Premiere show how the system handles graphics rendering and video export. Together, they present a desktop that can move from one demanding task to another without losing its central advantage: speed.
A Small Desktop With a Very Large Premium
The M5 Ultra Mac Studio’s small size makes its performance stand out even more. It is capable of incredible performance despite that compact design, combining a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, 256GB of RAM, and 4TB of storage in one desktop computer.
Still, the price is impossible to ignore. At $12,299, this is not a casual purchase. The system’s hardware and test results point toward AI developers and demanding 3D visual effects houses, the audiences identified by Di Benedetto, rather than people looking for a basic desktop.
That leaves the M5 Ultra Mac Studio in a simple position: it offers extraordinary performance, but at a huge premium. The 30 percent CPU advantage over a similarly configured M3 Ultra, storage speeds of 18,782.91 MB/s for writes and 14,867.60 MB/s for reads, Blender rendering faster than tying shoes, and a Premiere 4K export completed in about 40 seconds all support the same conclusion.
The Mac Studio review unit is one of the fastest desktop computers tested in this review, and its $12,299 price matches that ambition. For the kind of work that needs this much CPU, GPU, memory, and storage performance, the system delivers a remarkable package in a small space.
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