M4 Mac Studio: Everything you need to know
The M2 Max and Ultra Mac Studio were released at WWDC23 last June, and the M3 era of Apple’s System on a Chip started last November. So, with WWDC24 far behind us, it’s time to start looking forward to the next Mac Studio. But just how long will we have to wait for the new Mac Studio? We’ll keep track of what’s being said in this article.
M4 Mac Studio: Release date
We’ve had two generations of Mac Studio. The first gen (M1 Max and Ultra) was released in March of 2022. The second-gen (M2 Max and Ultra) was revealed at WWDC23 in June 2023. Apple will probably continue with a March or June timeframe for the next Mac Studio.
The next Max and Ultra Mac Studio could be released in 2025.
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In April 2024, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said in the paid version of his Power On newsletter that the next Mac Studio could launch in the second half of 2024, which at the time pointed to a June 2024 release at WWDC. However, the promise of an imminent update didn’t last long.
In May, Gurman reported that the Mac Studio was not on the schedule of Apple releases for 2024. He claimed it won’t appear until mid-2025. Gurman reiterated this in June when he reported that the Mac released schedule had not changed and the M4 Mac Studio is not expected until the second half of 2025. Gurman repeated this claim that the new Mac Studio will ship in 2025 again in August 2024.
In October, Gurman reported that the new Mac Studio had originally had a similar release schedule as the M4 MacBook Air, with a release planned between January and March of 2025. But Apple has decided to push the Mac Studio back to a March or June release.
M4 Mac Studio: Price
No reports on the price for the next-gen Mac Studio have been made. Here are the standard configuration prices of the current M2 Mac Studio lineup, for reference.
$1,999/£2,099: M2 Max with a 12-core CPU, 30-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 32GB unified memory, 512GB SSD
$3,999/ £4,199: M2 Ultra with a 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine, 64GB unified memory, 1TB SSD
While the price of the Mac Studio has already increased outside of the U.S. (it was originally £1,999 in the U.K.), prices did not change in the U.S. when Apple upgraded from the M1 to the M2 chips, and prices could stay the same with an M4 upgrade.
When Apple released the M3 Pro and Max MacBook Pros, the price for the standard configuration M3 Max model increased by $100, so there’s a possibility that the Mac Studio prices go up.
If prices in the U.S. remain the same we are likely to see prices drop in the U.K. to better align with exchange rates. As per Apple’s math the prices are likely to be: $1,999/£1,999 for the Mac Studio with the Max, and $3,999/£3,999 for the Ultra.
M4 Mac Studio: Design
No reports about design changes to the Mac Studio have been made. The current design works well so Apple likely won’t change it. The only possible exception is a new space black color option to match the MacBook Pro.
M4 Mac Studio: Specs and features
The main (and likely only) change that will happen with the upcoming Mac Studio is with its SoC. The Mac Studio should continue to have the Max and Ultra versions of its M-series chips, so the new chips we will see are likely to be the M4 Max and M4 Ultra.
The ports on the Mac Studio will likely remain unchanged.
Roman Loyola/IDG
Apple’s Ultra chips have doubled the CPU and GPU cores of the Max. In January 2024 Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in the paid version of his Power On newsletter that this should continue, with the M3 Ultra featuring up to 32 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores. Also in January, a report by The Elect stated that the M3 Ultra will be manufactured using an enhanced 3nm process.
In April 2024, Mark Gurman reported that “Apple is testing versions with both a still-unreleased M3-era chip and a variation of the M4 Brava processor.” As for the “M4 Brava,” Gurman states that Apple is working on AI-enhanced M4 chips that could find their way into the Mac Studio in 2025.
In May Mark Gurman reported that the Mac Studio won’t be updated until 2025, probably at WWDC25. If that’s the case, then the Mac Studio will have M4-series chips, and the specs for the M4 Max and Ultra will be very different from the M2 Max and Ultra and what was projected with the M3 Max and Ultra.
One major upgrade to expect is Thunderbolt 5 implementation, an upgrade from Thunderbolt 4 in the current Mac Studio. With the M4 Pro/Max MacBook Pro, Apple implemented Thunderbolt 5, so it will happen with the new Mac Studio. Learn more about Thunderbolt 5.
The other features of the Mac Studio should remain the same. That means no changes to the ports, connectivity, speaker, SSD sizes, or display support.
