The refreshed Mac Studio is here, and it appears that Mark Gurman's reports were accurate once again. The system was updated with the M4 Max and the M3 Ultra SoCs - and once again, that is not a typo. For whatever reason, Apple refused to fit the Mac Studio with an M4-flavored Ultra SoC, instead settling for an undeniably confusing product lineup. The M4 Max, with up to 16 CPU cores and 40 GPU cores, will undoubtedly have the upper hand in single-core performance by as much as 30%, whereas the M3 Ultra will have superior multithreaded and GPU performance, courtesy of its 32 CPU cores and 80 GPU cores. Moreover, the price gap between the base M3 Ultra and M4 Max SKUs will remain the same, despite the former being based on an older generation.

However, the M3 Ultra will allow the system to be configured with up to a whopping 512 GB of unified memory, with memory bandwidth of 819 GB/s. While that number is not particularly mind-bending for a workstation-class system, the fact that the M3 Ultra's 80-core GPU will have access to over half a terabyte of fast-enough memory is a game changer for select few ultra-high-end workloads. Of course, this amount of VRAM is not intended for the average Joe, but the Ultra SoCs were always meant to be a halo product. The M3 Ultra variant can also be equipped with up to 16 TB of storage - at Apple's ridiculous pricing, of course. Needless to say, Apple's performance claims are as vague as always, and interested customers will have to wait for independent reviews and benchmarks to make sense of Apple's confusing SoC strategy with the new Mac Studio.

Apple's Mac Studio is in desperate need of a spec bump. The system is still powered by the M2-era SoCs, whereas the MacBook Pros are already two generations ahead. According to a fresh tidbit shared by comparatively reliable tipster Mark Gurman, Apple is set to announce a much-needed upgrade for the Mac Studio in the coming days, although the upgrade in question is sort of a confusing one. Basically, the report states that the Mac Studio will soon be available with the M4 Max, and the M3 Ultra SoCs - and that is not a typo. Apple apparently has not done the homework for an M4 Ultra chip, and will be shipping the Mac Studio with the M3 Ultra instead.

This is particularly confusing because the industry had widely believed that an M3 Ultra SoC never existed in the first place, and that Apple will be jumping straight to the M4 Ultra chip for the Mac Studio. What's even more confusing, is that Apple's 'Ultra' chips traditionally consisted of two 'Max' chips connected via the 'UltraFusion' die-to-die interconnect tech. However, the M3 Max simply does not have this feature, which means that whatever the M3 Ultra is set to be, it is likely that it won't be two M3 Max dies fused together. It will certainly be quite interesting to see how Apple manages to position the M3 Ultra, or whatever it is named, considering that the 'lower-tier' M4 Max SoC will undoubtedly have superior single-core performance. That said, the M4 Ultra is still in development, which, according to Mark Gurman, will be featured in the future Mac Pro revision, setting it apart from the Mac Studio.

Apple's top-end M4 Ultra desktop-class chipset is allegedly going to feature on upcoming Mac Pro and Mac Studio refreshes—new product unveilings could be on the company's schedule (WWDC 2025). Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has divulged intriguing M4-series information within his latest newsletter. The M4 Ultra SoC—codenamed "Hidra"—was previously believed to be the most powerful processor option available on both next-gen Mac Pro and Mac Studio platforms. Now, Gurman believes that Apple engineers have created a distinct custom chipset design—exclusively designed for the Mac Pro workstation product stack—that sits above their M4 Ultra SoC.

Somewhat confusingly he suggests that "Hidra" is the codename for this top-of-the-line processor. Rumors swirled last month about the cancellation of an alleged "Extreme" model, so there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding unannounced M4 SKUs. Potential customers could choose Apple's (potentially) more powerful "Hidra-equipped" Mac Pro workstation over the highest-end M4 Ultra-based Mac Studio model. Industry experts propose that "Hidra" will arrive with an increased number of CPU and GPU cores—exceeding the M4 Ultra's speculated makeup of a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU.

Apple's M4-equipped MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and 24" iMac lineups are set to debut next week. The M4 family of desktop-class SoCs, which will soon be joined by the M4 Pro and M4 Max, is likely to bring substantial performance improvements to the aforementioned Mac models. If the recently leaked benchmarks are anything to go by, the M4-powered lineup appears poised to outperform Intel's "Lunar Lake" rather comfortably, while bringing the heat to AMD's "Strix Halo" as well as Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake-H"-powered notebooks.

For those interested in the thin-and-light segment, the MacBook Air has always presented itself as a very decent option. According to recent reports by Mark Gurman, the M4-equipped MacBook Air is scheduled for launch sometime during January to March of 2025, with mass production set to start soon. The Mac Studio, which was supposedly slated to launch alongside the MacBook Air, is now delayed by a few months and will possibly see the light of day during the second quarter of 2025.

According to Geekerwan, Apple's latest M4 silicon has achieved a remarkable milestone by using liquid nitrogen to chill Apple's M4 iPad Pro. This unconventional approach unlocked great single-core performance, surpassing even the M3 Max and M2 Ultra processors in Geekbench v6 benchmark tests. The setup involved cooling the M4 iPad Pro, equipped with a 3+6 core configuration, using a Kingpin Cooling T-Rex Rev 4 CPU LN2 pot filled with liquid nitrogen. This extreme cooling allowed the M4 processor to operate at an astonishing 4.41 GHz during the benchmark run, resulting in a staggering single-core score of 4,001 points. This score represents a 28% increase over the M3 Max found in the 16-inch MacBook Pro and an impressive 44% improvement over the M2 Ultra powering the Mac Studio.

Notably, the M4's single-core performance is capable of reaching scores in the 3,000s. With liquid nitrogen cooling, it suprases the 4,000-point mark, making this achievement all the more remarkable. While the M4's multi-core performance did not match the lofty expectations set by its single-core power, it still managed to achieve a score of 13,595 points, outperforming both the M3 Max and M2 Ultra, which scored 20,957 and 21,330 points, respectively. This was done on the 3+6 core configuration with three P-cores and six E-cores, which is not the top-end M4 configuration. This shows that with adequate cooling, like MacBooks, the upcoming M4 Pro and M4 Max chips could achieve much higher performance than their predecessors.

The Mac Studio is an incredibly compact desktop for its capability, and Sonnet figures a bunch of these can be mounted into rackmount chassis in a production studio. It rolled out a couple of products that can help you do just that. The RackMac Studio is a 3U enclosure that lets you secure up to two Mac Studio units in a rack, and cleanly wire them out, while providing access to their two front type-C ports and card slot. The xMac Studio series does the same, except with room for one Mac Studio unit, with the rest doubling up as a feature-packed storage and connectivity enclosure, taking advantage of the Thunderbolt 4 interface.

The xMac Studio Echo I takes in one Mac Studio unit, and uses its remaining space to provide a PCI-Express x16 riser, with room for a full-length graphics card that's ventilated. The xMac Studio Echo III is similar, but with three PCIe slots—one x16 and two x8, with the expansion slot area being ventilated. The xMac Studio Echo Zero (no module) comes with empty space that you can configure to your needs with custom hardware. Available from October 23, the RackMac Studio is priced at $450. The xMac Studio Echo III is slated for September 25, priced at $1,650, while its sibling, the Echo I, will go for $1,250. The bare Echo (no module), will be up for $550.