Apple announced its latest Mac Mini featuring the new M6 and M5 Pro chips, alongside an updated Mac Studio with M5 Max and a new M5 Ultra chip on August 25, 2026 [1, 2, 3]. The new Mac Mini offers up to four times faster AI performance and up to double the graphics and storage speeds compared to the previous generation [1, 3, 4]. Apple’s vice president of Silicon Engineering Group, Sri Santhanam, said the M6 chip is a “giant leap” built on a cutting-edge 2 nm process, featuring a 12-core CPU (with 2 super cores, 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores), 12-core GPU, dual 16-core Neural Engine, and up to 170GB/s of unified memory bandwidth [2, 5].
The Mac Mini with M6 delivers 40% faster CPU performance compared to the M4 generation and doubles graphics and storage speeds [1, 3, 6]. It starts at $899 with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the M5 Pro model starts at $1,699 with 24GB RAM and 512GB storage [6, 7]. Apple’s chief hardware officer Johny Srouji described the Mac Mini as its “most versatile Mac” capable of serving as a home computer, professional studio machine, or always-on device [3].
Mac Studio received a significant upgrade with the M5 Max chip featuring an 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU, along with the introduction of the M5 Ultra chip [1, 2]. The M5 Ultra uses next-generation UltraFusion technology to combine two dual-die M5 Max chips into a quad-die architecture, enabling 4.3 times faster AI performance than previous chips [1, 2, 8]. It supports up to 512GB of unified memory, a 36-core CPU (12 super plus 24 performance cores), an 80-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, and 1.2TB/s memory bandwidth [1, 5, 8].
Prices begin at $2,499 for the Mac Studio with M5 Max and $5,499 for the M5 Ultra model [8, 7]. The top-end M5 Ultra configuration with 512GB RAM is expected in late October, with pricing to be announced [8]. Srouji said Mac Studio is the “ultimate desktop for on-device AI and the world’s most demanding pro workflows” with “tremendous performance and extensive pro connectivity” in a compact design [1].
All new Mac Minis and Mac Studios support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, faster storage, and improved connectivity options including 2.5Gb and optional 10Gb Ethernet [1, 6]. Preorders for the new Mac Mini and Mac Studio models opened today, August 25, 2026, and shipping and in-store availability will begin September 22, 2026 [1, 3, 6].
