Apple has finally released the long-awaited Mac Studio M3 Ultra, bringing unprecedented power to the compact desktop form factor.
This beast of a machine packs up to 32 CPU cores, 80 GPU cores, and for the first time ever in an Apple Silicon device, a staggering 512GB of unified memory.
But at a price reaching up to $14,099 fully configured, is this compact powerhouse worth the investment?
Let’s dive deep into this computational marvel to find out.
The new Mac Studio comes in two variants: the M4 Max for professionals needing substantial power, and the M3 Ultra for those requiring absolute peak performance.
While the M4 chip is technically newer, the M3 Ultra actually delivers more raw processing power for specific high-end workflows, particularly when it comes to memory-intensive tasks.
Mac Studio M3 Ultra Specifications: A Technical Overview
Before diving into real-world performance, let’s take a look at the impressive specifications of the new Mac Studio M3 Ultra:
| Component | Mac Studio M3 Ultra |
|---|---|
| CPU | Up to 32-core (24 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores) |
| GPU | Up to 80-core with hardware-accelerated ray tracing |
| Neural Engine | 32-core |
| Memory | Starting at 96GB, configurable up to 512GB unified memory |
| Memory Bandwidth | 819 GB/s |
| Storage | Starting at 1TB, configurable up to 16TB SSD |
| Ports (Rear) | Four Thunderbolt 5 ports, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, 10Gb Ethernet, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Ports (Front) | Two Thunderbolt 5 ports, SDXC card slot |
| Display Support | Up to eight 6K 60Hz screens or four 8K displays |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Maximum Power Consumption | 480W (up from 370W in previous generations) |
| Dimensions | 7.7 × 7.7 × 3.7 inches (19.7 × 19.7 × 9.5 cm) |
| Weight | 3.64 kg (8.0 lbs) |
The specifications alone make it clear that this isn’t your average desktop computer.
The M3 Ultra is essentially two M3 Max chips connected via Apple’s Ultra Fusion technology, effectively doubling the performance potential.
Design and Build: Compact Powerhouse
The design of the Mac Studio remains unchanged from previous generations.
It’s still the same compact aluminum square measuring just 7.7 inches across and 3.7 inches tall.
Despite its small footprint, the M3 Ultra variant weighs in at a solid 8 pounds due to its advanced cooling system designed to handle the increased power draw.
Nikias Molina notes the excellent build quality with its premium feel and strategic placement of ports.
The Mac Studio features a significantly improved port layout compared to the Mac Mini, with the power button conveniently located on the back instead of the bottom.
The SD card slot on the front is a feature photographers and videographers will deeply appreciate.
Cooling is handled by an advanced system of fans and heatsinks that keep temperatures in check even under extreme loads.
The Mac Studio remains surprisingly quiet even when pushed to its limits, which is impressive considering the power it’s packing.
Another nice touch is the LED indicator on the front panel that lets you know when the machine is powered on.
Performance: Pushing Boundaries with the M3 Ultra
The raw performance of the M3 Ultra is where this machine truly shines.
According to benchmark testing, the Mac Studio with M3 Ultra consistently outperforms its predecessors and even high-end custom PC builds in many tests.
Synthetic Benchmark Results
In Geekbench multi-core tests, the M3 Ultra scored significantly higher than any other Apple chip, including the newer M4 Max.
iPhonedo demonstrated that in GPU benchmarks, the M3 Ultra completely dominates the competition, far outpacing even the M4 Max.
While the M4 family chips do win in single-core performance due to their newer architecture, the multi-core performance of the M3 Ultra remains unmatched in Apple’s lineup.
The M3 Ultra delivered approximately 18% more performance than a custom PC with the latest Intel chip in Cinebench R24 multi-core testing.
It was also about 41% faster than the M4 Max and roughly 46% faster than the previous M2 Ultra.
In the Cinebench GPU test, the M3 Ultra easily takes the lead with no competition from other Apple chips.
During a 30-minute stress test in multi-core mode, the score only dropped from 355 to 316, showing excellent thermal management and sustained performance.
Real-World Application Performance
In real-world application tests, the M3 Ultra showed impressive performance gains.
When rendering in Blender, the M3 Ultra finished in just 66 seconds, significantly outpacing previous generations.
Matthew Moniz found that in video editing tests using Premiere Pro, the M3 Ultra outperformed the M4 Max by approximately 43% and offered 50% better performance compared to the M2 Ultra.
Only a custom PC with an RTX 4090 was able to beat it, and likely only because of the additional media encoders in NVIDIA’s GPU.
For Logic Pro users, the M3 Ultra managed to finish bouncing a complex project about 10 seconds faster than the M2 Ultra.
In Final Cut Pro, applying noise reduction was notably faster on the M3 Ultra compared to previous generations.
Storage performance is also impressive, with the 4TB SSD showing only slightly slower write speeds than read speeds in Blackmagic disk speed tests.
Lightroom performance was equally impressive, with the M3 Ultra exporting 100 RAW photos to JPEG in just 13 seconds and applying edits to 100 photos in a mere 2 seconds.
Machine Learning: The Game-Changer
While the M3 Ultra delivers impressive performance across various traditional workflows, its most groundbreaking feature might be its ability to run sophisticated machine learning models locally.
This is primarily enabled by its massive unified memory capacity of up to 512GB.
Dave from YouTube channel Dave2D emphasizes that the M3 Ultra allows users to run large language models locally without sending data to the cloud.
This opens up possibilities for companies and individuals dealing with sensitive data who cannot use cloud-based services due to privacy concerns.
It’s particularly valuable for sectors like healthcare, where patient data privacy is paramount.
Local LLM Performance
The Deep Seek R1 model, which has 671 billion parameters, requires over 404GB of VRAM to run.
DEEPSEEK R1 PERFORMANCE
Insights into DEEPSEEK R1 performance using M3 Ultra and M2 Ultra processors. | Source: Dave2D
The M3 Ultra with 512GB of unified memory was able to load and run this massive model after adjusting the system to allocate 448GB of VRAM through terminal commands.
MEMORY BANDWIDTH
| Device | Bandwidth | Max Memory |
|---|---|---|
| M3 Ultra | 819 GB/s | 512 GB |
| M2 Ultra | 800 GB/s | 192 GB |
| M4 Max | 546 GB/s | 128 GB |
| M4 | 120 GB/s | 32 GB |
| RTX 5090 | 1792 GB/s | 32 GB |
| RTX 4090 | 1008 GB/s | 24 GB |
Comparison of memory bandwidth and maximum memory for leading processors including M3 Ultra and RTX 5090. | Source: Dave2D
It’s important to note that this is a 4-bit quantized version of the model, which reduces accuracy slightly but allows it to fit in memory.
The M3 Ultra achieved around 17-18 tokens per second with this enormous model, which is quite usable for most applications including code generation.
While this 4-bit quantized version isn't as accurate as the full model, the fact that it runs at all on a single compact device is remarkable.
The Meta-built Llama 3.3 model runs locally on the device, completely offline with Wi-Fi turned off.
The model processes requests at impressive speeds while consuming around 60GB of RAM, with everything running smoothly and without lag – even while simultaneously playing a graphically intensive game.
Power Efficiency for Computational Workloads
One particularly impressive aspect of the M3 Ultra's performance is its energy efficiency.
Power consumption at the wall when running the Deep Seek R1 model was well under 200 watts.
Comparable performance on a PC would require multiple high-end GPUs consuming perhaps 10 times more electricity.
This efficiency makes the Mac Studio M3 Ultra particularly appealing for companies wanting to deploy machine learning capabilities without the massive energy costs and cooling requirements of traditional server setups.
It's worth noting that the M3 Ultra does run at a higher wattage than both the M1 and M2 Ultra devices, which used to peak at 370 watts compared to the new 480 watts peak.
Content Creation Performance: A Creator's Dream
For content creators, the Mac Studio M3 Ultra offers significant performance improvements that can streamline workflows and save valuable time.
Video Editing Capabilities
iJustine tested 8K footage from a Sony A1 camera and high-end Sony Venice 2 footage in DaVinci Resolve on the Mac Studio.
Color grading, beauty filters, noise reduction, and relighting effects all worked with nearly flawless performance.
The M3 Ultra handles multi-cam 8K HEVC footage playback without issues, though there was still some stutter when scrubbing through the timeline.
For smoother scrubbing in 8K, converting to ProRes beforehand is recommended.
The M3 Ultra particularly shines with GPU-heavy effects in DaVinci Resolve, though it can drop a few frames initially before smoothing out.
The dual video decoding engines, four video encoding engines, and four ProRes engines give the M3 Ultra a significant advantage in professional video workflows.
Photography and Design
For photography workflows, the M3 Ultra demonstrated excellence in batch processing.
The machine exports 100 RAW photos in just 13 seconds and applies complex edits to 100 photos in a mere 2 seconds.
Interestingly, for Adobe Photoshop specifically, the M4 Max actually outperformed the M3 Ultra, presumably because Photoshop doesn't fully utilize all available cores.
The M3 Ultra was still about 36% faster than the M2 Ultra in Photoshop workflows, however.
For photographers working with extremely high-resolution panoramas or focus stacking, the massive RAM capacity can be a game-changer.
Gaming Performance: Not the Primary Focus, But Capable
While gaming isn't the primary use case for the Mac Studio, the M3 Ultra does deliver impressive gaming performance.
The M3 Ultra can play graphically intensive games at maximum settings while simultaneously running an AI language model in the background – with no noticeable lag.
Games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider showed significant performance improvements over the M4 Max.
Baldur's Gate 3 ran at around 130-140 FPS at QHD resolution (compared to about 100 FPS on the M4 Max).
Shadow of the Tomb Raider saw a 20 FPS boost over the M4 Max.
The release of Cyberpunk for Mac is anticipated, with the improved graphics features of the new models – including dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and second-generation ray tracing – expected to deliver more realistic lighting, shadows, and reflections for gamers.
The new Game Mode in macOS prioritizes performance for games running in full-screen mode, giving a noticeable boost to compatible titles.
M3 Ultra vs M4 Max: Choosing the Right Configuration
One of the most interesting aspects of this Mac Studio release is the presence of both M3 Ultra and M4 Max options.
While it might seem counterintuitive that the M3 Ultra could outperform the newer M4 Max, the reality is that these chips are designed for different workloads.
When to Choose the M3 Ultra
The M3 Ultra is the better choice for workflows that benefit from maximum multi-core performance, enormous memory capacity, and parallel processing.
This includes:
- Running large language models locally
- Complex 3D rendering and simulation
- Editing multiple streams of 8K video
- Working with extremely large datasets
- Heavy computational tasks that can utilize many cores
The M3 Ultra also offers six Thunderbolt 5 ports (compared to four on the back and two USB-C on the front for the M4 Max).
It can drive up to eight 6K displays simultaneously, making it ideal for complex multi-display setups.
The memory bandwidth on the M3 Ultra is 819 GB/s compared to 546 GB/s on the M4 Max, which makes a significant difference for memory-intensive tasks.
When to Choose the M4 Max
The M4 Max might be the better choice for users who:
- Prioritize single-core performance for apps like Photoshop
- Want the latest architecture with better efficiency
- Have a more limited budget (starting at $1,999 vs. $3,999 for the M3 Ultra)
- Don't need more than 128GB of unified memory
- Work primarily with photography or lighter video editing
The M4 Max is built on a more efficient 3nm node (N3E) compared to the M3's N3B node, which might explain its better single-core efficiency.
Who Should Buy the Mac Studio M3 Ultra?
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra is clearly not designed for the average consumer.
At a starting price of $3,999 (and reaching over $14,000 fully configured), this is a professional tool aimed at specific use cases.
Based on the reviews and testing, the M3 Ultra makes the most sense for:
- Machine learning researchers and developers who need to run large models locally for privacy or security reasons
- Professional video editors working with multiple streams of 4K or 8K footage
- 3D artists and VFX professionals handling complex rendering workloads
- Scientific researchers processing large datasets
- Software developers compiling large codebases
- Small studios that need workstation-class performance in a compact form factor
For personal workflows involving editing footage from four 4K cameras simultaneously, even the previous M1 Ultra was already sufficient.
The M3 Ultra does the same work better, but doesn't fundamentally change such workflows.
This highlights an important consideration – the M3 Ultra is likely overkill for many users.
Pros and Cons of the Mac Studio M3 Ultra
Pros
- Unprecedented performance for multi-threaded workloads
- Massive memory capacity of up to 512GB unified RAM
- Ability to run large AI models locally with good performance
- Six Thunderbolt 5 ports offering 120 GB/s transfer speeds
- Support for up to eight 6K displays or four 8K displays
- Excellent energy efficiency relative to performance
- Compact, quiet design despite enormous processing power
- Comprehensive connectivity including SD card reader, 10Gb Ethernet
Cons
- Very high price tag, especially for higher configurations
- No user-upgradeable components - what you buy is what you're stuck with
- Higher power consumption than previous models (480W vs 370W)
- Not ideal for workloads that prioritize single-core performance
- Limited gaming library compared to Windows PCs
- May be overkill for many professional workflows
Frequently Asked Questions About the Mac Studio M3 Ultra
Why did Apple release an M3 Ultra instead of an M4 Ultra?
The M4 Ultra chip might not be ready yet, or the performance gap between M4 Max and a potential M4 Ultra would have been too wide for a generational leap.
Apple may be saving the M4 Ultra for the Mac Pro or waiting for the M5 generation for the next Ultra chip.
Is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra worth the price premium over the M4 Max?
For most users, probably not.
The M4 Max delivers excellent performance for common professional workflows at a much lower price point.
The M3 Ultra makes sense primarily for those who need maximum multi-core performance, more than 128GB of memory, or are specifically working with large AI models locally.
Can the Mac Studio M3 Ultra really run large language models locally?
Yes, with its up to 512GB of unified memory, the M3 Ultra can run even massive models like Deep Seek R1 with 671 billion parameters.
Performance is usable at around 17-18 tokens per second, though not as fast as specialized server hardware would be.
How does the Mac Studio M3 Ultra compare to a high-end PC workstation?
The M3 Ultra offers comparable or better performance than many high-end PC workstations for multi-threaded tasks, with significantly better power efficiency.
For certain workloads like AI inferencing, the unified memory architecture gives it an advantage over systems that would require multiple GPUs to achieve similar memory capacity.
Does the Mac Studio M3 Ultra support Thunderbolt 5?
Yes, the M3 Ultra version of the Mac Studio features six Thunderbolt 5 ports (four on the back, two on the front) supporting speeds up to 120 GB/s.
How many displays can the Mac Studio M3 Ultra support?
The M3 Ultra can support up to eight 6K displays at 60Hz, or four 8K displays at 60Hz, making it extremely versatile for complex multi-display setups.
Is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra good for gaming?
While the M3 Ultra delivers impressive gaming performance, macOS still has a limited game library compared to Windows.
The gaming capabilities should be viewed as a bonus rather than a primary reason to purchase the machine.
How quiet is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra under load?
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra remains surprisingly quiet even under heavy loads.
The advanced cooling system is effective at managing the increased power draw without excessive fan noise.
Can the Mac Studio M3 Ultra be upgraded after purchase?
No, all components including memory and storage are soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded after purchase.
It's crucial to choose a configuration that will meet your needs for the life of the machine.
How does the M3 Ultra compare to the previous M2 Ultra?
The M3 Ultra offers approximately 46% better multi-core performance than the M2 Ultra, with significantly improved GPU capabilities as well.
The M3 Ultra also supports Thunderbolt 5, which the M2 Ultra does not.
What's the power consumption of the Mac Studio M3 Ultra?
The maximum power consumption is 480W, up from 370W in previous generations.
However, actual power draw varies significantly depending on workload, with many tasks using substantially less power.
Is the Mac Studio M3 Ultra suitable for professional audio production?
Yes, the M3 Ultra excels at audio production tasks.
Tests in Logic Pro showed improved performance compared to previous generations, with complex projects rendering faster and supporting more simultaneous tracks and plugins.
What's the difference between the M3 Ultra and its "binned" version?
The standard M3 Ultra comes with 28 CPU cores and 60 GPU cores, while the fully unbinned version offers 32 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores.
The binned version (with fewer cores) is created from chips where not all cores passed quality control, but it still offers excellent performance at a lower price point.
How does the unified memory architecture benefit performance?
Apple's unified memory architecture allows both the CPU and GPU to access the same memory pool without copying data between separate memory systems.
This significantly reduces latency and increases efficiency, particularly for tasks that require both processing types to work together, like machine learning and complex rendering.
Conclusion: A Specialist Tool for Those Who Need It
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra represents the pinnacle of Apple's desktop computing capabilities.
It delivers extraordinary performance in a compact package, particularly for multi-threaded workloads and tasks requiring large amounts of memory.
The ability to run massive language models locally is a game-changer for certain users, opening up possibilities that previously required expensive server hardware or cloud services.
The new Thunderbolt 5 connectivity also future-proofs the machine for upcoming high-bandwidth peripherals.
However, with a starting price of $3,999 and configurations reaching well over $10,000, this is clearly a specialist tool rather than a mainstream computer.
For many professional workloads, the more affordable M4 Max configuration of the Mac Studio offers similar performance where it matters most.
The M3 Ultra makes sense primarily for those working with large language models or users who need absolute maximum GPU performance in a Mac-based system.
For everyone else, the M4 Max likely represents better value while still delivering exceptional performance.
What's clear is that Apple has created a desktop computer with capabilities that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago – especially in such a compact form factor.
The Mac Studio M3 Ultra isn't for everyone, but for those who need what it offers, it's a remarkable achievement in computing technology.