New Mac Studio's Biggest Upgrade Isn't the M5 Ultra Chip, Review Says

Monday September 21, 2026 6:46 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Ahead of the new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips launching this Tuesday, the first reviews of the computer have been shared by selected tech websites and YouTube channels. According to one review published by Macworld's Roman Loyola, the biggest upgrade isn't even the M5 Ultra, but rather significantly faster storage speeds.

"Typically, we start our reviews by looking at overall performance with Geekbench, and then we work our way through more specific aspects," he said. "But the SSD performance is so overwhelmingly good, it's the story here."

Loyola ran Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test benchmark tool on the new Mac Studio with an 18-core M5 Max chip, 128GB of RAM, and a 4TB SSD, and the computer achieved around 2.6× faster SSD read speeds and around 2.1× faster SSD write speeds compared to a previous-generation Mac Studio with the M4 Max chip. The results are shown in the image below.

Indeed, Apple advertised up to 2× faster storage speeds for the new Mac Studio, and these benchmark results show an even bigger boost. As always, real-world performance may vary, but expect significantly faster SSD speeds overall.

M5 Ultra benchmark results already surfaced last week if you are interested in that.

Unsurprisingly, the M5 Ultra is Apple's fastest chip ever. Based on Geekbench 7 results so far, it has up to around 30% faster single-core CPU performance and up to around 35% faster multi-core performance compared to the M3 Ultra.

Apple said the M5 Ultra has up to 1.25× faster single-threaded CPU performance and up to 1.3× faster multi-threaded CPU performance compared to the M3 Ultra, so the benchmark results roughly align with or even beat those advertised claims.

All in all, the new Mac Studio is super fast, with The Verge's Antonio G. Di Benedetto describing the M5 Ultra model's performance as "outrageous" and PCMag's Brian Westover calling the computer "a serious powerhouse for top-tier local AI inference."

The new Mac Studio and a new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chip options have been available to pre-order since August 25 and launch this Tuesday, September 22.

High performance comes at a high price, especially due to recent price increases, which Apple attributed to the ongoing memory chip shortage. In the U.S., the Mac Studio starts at $2,499 with an M5 Max chip and at a whopping $5,499 with an M5 Ultra chip. The previous Mac Studio with the M4 Max started at $1,999 when it launched.

Popular Stories

Apple Caught Off Guard by AI Demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio

Apple's unusually timed announcement of new Mac mini and Mac Studio models this week was driven by unexpectedly strong enterprise appetite for AI hardware, according to The Information. Apple normally releases new Mac models in the autumn, closer to October or November, making this week's announcement unusually early, falling just before the anticipated arrival of new iPhone models. The...

Apple Seemingly Made a Mistake When Announcing the New Mac Studio

Apple's press release for the new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips last week initially stated that the computer had "next-generation SSD architecture built on PCIe Gen 6." However, as spotted by the French blog MacGeneration, Apple removed the PCIe 6.0 mention from the announcement shortly after it was published. The press release still mentions that the new Mac Studio has a...

M5 Ultra Chip's Impressive Performance Boost Revealed in First Benchmark Result

Tuesday September 15, 2026 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

The first unverified benchmark result for Apple's new M5 Ultra chip surfaced in the Geekbench 7 database today, offering a look at the chip's impressive performance gains. The new Mac Studio will be Apple's first device to be equipped with the M5 Ultra. Here is how the highest-end M5 Ultra chip with a 36-core CPU scored: Single-core CPU score: 3,774 Multi-core CPU score: 52,516Apple...