Review: Mac Studio (M4 Max, 2025)

In her review of the 2023 edition of the Apple Mac Studio, Brenda Stolyar called the pint-sized powerhouse “the Goldilocks Mac”—suggesting its combination of performance and price was just about perfect for power users, at least those that don’t need the hemorrhage-level bleeding-edge performance of the Mac Pro tower.

Today Apple aims to maintain that verdict, upgrading the device to keep up with the times and again releasing the Studio in two versions, one of which should be ideal for any creative.

The 2025 Mac Studio can be configured either with the new M4 Max CPU or with the M3 Ultra. It may sound counterintuitive, but the M3 Ultra version is the more premium of the two SKUs, by a significant margin; the Ultra design family has been described as merging two Max CPUs that the computer addresses as a single chip. There’s no M4 Ultra CPU yet, so ultra power users get the equivalent of a pair of M3 Max CPUs instead. This isn’t a consolation prize. Most head-to-head benchmarks place the M4 Max as only slightly faster than the 2023-released M2 Ultra, with the M3 Ultra significantly ahead from there. For the moment, Apple bills the new Mac Studio as “the most powerful Mac ever made.”

Petite Powerhouse

Like its predecessors, the Mac Studio is a lunchbox-sized device that does not look at all like it should be the most powerful Mac ever made but rather like something that should be operating a really nice stereo system. But looks are of course deceiving, and inside the sealed box you’ll find plenty of oomph, designed with creators firmly in mind. I tested the entry-level M4 Max version, which includes a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, plus 36 GB of unified memory and a 512-GB SSD for $1,999. That lattermost spec feels a bit stingy in today’s clime, but it can be upgraded (only at purchase) on the M4 Max model all the way up to 8 TB of SSD storage.

For comparison, the $3,999 M3 Ultra version starts with a 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, and 32-core Neural Engine, plus 96 GB of unified memory and a 1-TB SSD. Maxed out with an 80-core GPU, 512 GB of RAM, and a 16-TB SSD, your price tag will hit a cool $14,099. The most powerful Mac ever made may well equate to the most expensive Mac ever sold as well.

It perhaps goes without saying that the machine is meltingly fast, to the point where it’s hard to accurately convey its power in text. The M4 Pro-based Apple MacBook Pro I reviewed last fall probably provides the best comparison I can offer, considering it’s only one step down on the CPU ladder from the M4 Max.

On the industry standard Geekbench 6 test, CPU performance was up 17 percent over the aforementioned MacBook Pro, while GPU performance was up a blistering 67 percent. I measured similar score upgrades when testing with Cinebench 2024. This GPU one-upmanship was a common theme throughout my testing. Image and video rendering was blazing, as were other highest-tier graphics and gaming tests I ran—all smooth and unstuttering. As well, on-device tests using Apple Intelligence, namely AI image generation, were far faster than anything I’ve done using online tools. While these two systems are not exactly apples to apples, the step up from the M4 Pro to the M4 Max was as impressive as any generational upgrade I’ve encountered in recent memory.

Apple’s internal benchmarks are equally instructive, as they are based on the two earlier iterations of the Mac Studio, alternately featuring the M1 Max and the M2 Max. Performance deltas vary based on the specific test, but with the M4 Max Mac Studio you can expect roughly double the performance over the M1 Max, and about a 50 percent gain over the M2 Max.

What other upgrades has Apple got in store for you? Not much, to be honest, although this system marks the start of Apple’s big push for Thunderbolt 5, which is supported by all six of the USB-C ports on the device (four in the back, two in the front). If you’re in need of a desk-full of monitors, Thunderbolt 5 will have you covered: Officially you can simultaneously connect up to four 6K resolution displays to the system plus a 4K TV though the HDMI port. The M3 Ultra version can support up to eight displays at once.

Additional ports will look familiar: Two USB-A ports, HDMI output, Ethernet, and a front-mounted SD card slot round out the device. And the rest of the song remains the same. The footprint of 7.7 inches square (and 3.7 inches tall) has not changed, nor has the need for purchasers to provide all their own peripherals. A built-in speaker also remains standard, but it’s really only usable for playing system sounds.

This is the point in the review where I’d normally make my best value analysis and suggest whether the new Mac Studio is worth its $1,999 (base model) outlay. That’s nearly impossible to do with a computer like this, however, because so few users are going to benefit from the extreme power of the M4 Max (and even fewer from the M3 Ultra version). However, I can safely say that if you need this level of performance, you already know that you do, because your existing rig is likely starting to show its age in the face of modern workloads. As such, this purchasing decision strictly comes down to a question of “speeds and feeds.” To that point, the 2025 Mac Studio has plenty going on both fronts.