Apple unveils new Mac mini and Mac Studio
Apple has quietly updated its computer lineup, introducing new generations of Mac Studio and Mac mini. The devices feature advanced M5 and M6 chips, significantly improved processing power, and increased memory capacities.
Apple again prefers to do it without much noise, and instead of a flashy announcement event, the company simply updated its online store with the new generation of its computers, intended primarily for developers, designers, and content creators: Mac Studio and Mac Mini.
New Mac Studio
Apple has equipped the Mac Studio workstation with its advanced M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. This is a leap forward in terms of processing power, especially for users running large language models, video editors working with ultra-high resolution files, or anyone compiling heavy code in their development environment. The Max processor comes with up to 40 graphics cores, alongside support for 128 GB of unified memory. The Ultra version (composed of two M5 Max chips connected via UltraFusion technology with a bandwidth of 4.4TB/s, creating Apple's first-ever Quad-die chip) doubles the figures and reaches up to 36 processing cores (12 "super" cores and 24 performance cores), up to 80 graphics cores, and support for 512 GB of memory.
In terms of connections and upgrades, the computer offers twice the storage speed of the previous generation thanks to PCIe Gen 6 SSD drives, six Thunderbolt 5 ports, and support for up to four Apple Studio Display XDR monitors at 5K/120Hz. The price remains $2,499 for the base version and starts from $5,499 for the Ultra.
New Mac mini
An interesting surprise came from the Mac mini, which became a hit this year as users from all over the world wanted to equip themselves with it to run their OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot and Clawdbot) agents.
Apple chose to skip the M5 generation almost entirely in its compact computer, jumping straight to M6 processors on its 2-nanometer architecture and TSMC (although for those who need more power, Apple does offer the option to configure the mini with the M5 Pro chip for $1,699). The M5 series was designed from the start to provide huge memory bandwidth and connectivity capabilities between chips intended for heavy workstations using UltraFusion technology; the M6 architecture, on the other hand, focuses on single-core efficiency and a big jump in neural processing capabilities for various AI applications. The M6 chip is manufactured using a more advanced process, which allows packing more computing power into such a small case as the Mac mini, without compromising on heat emission or excessive noise. It is designed to optimally handle AI tasks built into Apple's operating system, with minimal power consumption.
The M6 processor of the Mac mini comes with 12 processing cores (2 "super-cores", 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores) and a 12-core GPU including neural accelerators in each core (making it 4 times faster in AI processing and 2 times faster in gaming compared to the M4, according to Apple's data), along with 2 neural processors of 16 cores for various AI tasks (a total of 32 cores). The real good news is that Apple is finally abandoning the unnecessary 8 GB version, and now offers 16 GB of unified memory in the cheaper base version, with an upgrade option up to 32 GB for the M6 processor (with a bandwidth of 170GB/s), while the upgrade option to 64 GB (with a bandwidth of 307GB/s) is reserved only for the M5 Pro model.
The mini includes Thunderbolt 4 connections in the M6 model (fast Thunderbolt 5 connections are located at the back only in the M5 Pro model), two useful USB-C connections on the front, Wi-Fi 7 support, and an upgraded 2.5 Gbps network port. The starting price is $899 (a jump of $100 compared to the previous model), and it comes with a basic storage volume of only 256 GB.
