Overview
- Apple announced the refreshed Mac mini and Mac Studio on Tuesday, August 25, opening preorders the same day and scheduling on‑sale delivery for September 22.
- The Mac mini now ships in two main chip lines: the new 2‑nm M6 with up to 32 GB unified memory and three Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an M5 Pro option that adds Thunderbolt 5 and clusterability for linking machines to run local AI models.
- Mac Studio gains expanded M5 Max and a new M5 Ultra that pair higher CPU/GPU counts with Neural Accelerators in GPU cores, boost unified memory caps as high as 512 GB for the Ultra, and add RDMA over Thunderbolt 5 for multi‑machine workloads.
- Apple positioned the updates squarely for on‑device AI and enterprise customers, highlighting faster neural performance and larger memory limits while also warning that strong demand could strain supply for some high‑end configurations.
- Prices rose notably with the refresh — the Mac mini base jumps to about €1,049 and Mac Studio Ultra starts much higher — reflecting tighter memory and chip markets and signaling a shift in how Apple prices its entry desktop and pro systems.