Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) first look: a weekend with an $8,000 powerhouse
Appleâs new top tier Mac Studio, powered by the M3 Ultra chip, contains so much computing horsepower that itâs never going to be on the radar of most tech enthusiasts â let alone your average consumer. It starts at $3,999, but if you upgrade every spec to the best on offer (including an astonishing 512GB of unified memory), you land at a mind-boggling $14,099.
As the price makes clear, the Mac Studio is not a computer for the everyman. Itâs a workstation for those who already have an idea of just how itâll make their lives easier and more productive. If thatâs you, the investment could pay for itself in relatively short order with faster exports and more completed projects. Time is money, after all. And this thing does scream. As just one example, itâs the first Mac to break the one minute barrier on our long-running 4K export test in Premiere Pro.
Even so, Iâd steer the vast majority of people shopping for a desktop Mac to the M4 Mac Mini, and if you need some extra wallop, the M4 Pro version of that machine has never broken a sweat during my photography workflows. Videographers and those doing resource-intensive 3D work could be better served with the M4 Max …
