Apple's $12,299 M5 Ultra Mac Studio posts big gains in The Verge's first benchmarks

The Verge has published its first benchmark results for Apple's new Mac Studio, and the machine under review leaves little doubt about its intended audience. The test unit pairs an M5 Ultra chip with a 36-core CPU, an 80-core GPU, 256GB of RAM and 4TB of storage, and carries a $12,299 price tag. According to The Verge, this configuration is aimed at AI developers and high-end visual effects studios rather than typical content creators, and the desktop started shipping the same day the piece went live.

What the numbers show

Measured against a near-identically configured M3 Ultra Mac Studio from last year, the M5 Ultra comes out roughly 30 percent ahead in both single-core and multi-core Geekbench CPU tests. Graphics results varied more by workload, but The Verge reports a similar 30 percent uplift in the new Geekbench 7 OpenCL test, while Cinebench's heavier GPU rendering test scored 63 percent higher. In Geekbench 6, the review unit posted 4,310 points single-core and 37,870 points multi-core.

Real-world tests point the same direction. A 4K Premiere Pro export producing an MP4 of roughly 1.7GB finished in about 40 seconds, ten seconds quicker than the M3 Ultra machine managed. Storage throughput is similarly extreme, with sustained reads measured around 14,868 MB/s and writes around 18,783 MB/s. The reviewer notes that the outlet's standard benchmark suite barely stresses the machine — described as the fastest system they have ever tested — and that more time is needed to seriously challenge it.

Pricing and configurations

The 2026 Mac Studio keeps the enclosure Apple has used since 2022, with fast ports on the front and back, and is offered with either an M5 Max or an M5 Ultra in place of last year's M4 Max and M3 Ultra options. The M5 Max base model starts at $2,499 with an 18-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The M5 Ultra entry point is $5,499, buying 30 CPU cores, 64 GPU cores, 96GB of memory and 1TB of storage.

The year-over-year comparison stings: the equivalently equipped M3 Ultra Mac Studio cost $8,099, meaning the flagship configuration has jumped by $4,200 in a single generation. The Verge also notes that refreshed Mac Minis, running M6 and M5 Pro chips, arrived alongside the new Studio.

The AI pitch awaits proof

Apple is promoting the M5 Ultra as "a monumental step for AI," but The Verge has not yet tested that claim. The reviewer writes that they do not normally use generative AI or large language model tools in their own work and have asked readers for suggestions on what to run locally, with those results to follow in the coming weeks. For now, the AI positioning rests on hardware specs — most notably the 256GB of unified memory in the review configuration, the figure that most determines how large a model the machine can hold while running.

Why it matters

Apple is explicitly aiming its most powerful desktop at the local AI development market, where the realistic competition is GPU-equipped workstations rather than other Macs. The early benchmarks show the raw performance is real, with double-digit gains over the already quick M3 Ultra across both CPU and GPU workloads. What is missing so far is evidence from the workloads the machine is supposedly built for, which makes The Verge's planned follow-up AI testing the results that actually matter for this product. The steep price increase at the top of the range also narrows the pool of buyers who can realistically consider it, reinforcing that this is a specialist box rather than an upgrade for most Mac users.