Apple has unveiled two new Apple silicon chips, the M6 and M5 Ultra, promising major gains in performance and AI compute across its latest Mac desktops.
The M6 is Apple’s first chip built using a 2-nanometer process, while the M5 Ultra introduces the company’s first quad-die architecture. The chips debut in the new Mac mini and Mac Studio, respectively.
Apple is putting AI performance at the center of the upgrades. The company says the new chips can handle demanding AI workloads locally, including large language models and agentic AI workflows.
Apple’s M6 is its first 2nm chip
The M6 marks Apple’s move to a 2-nanometer manufacturing process, bringing a redesigned CPU, GPU and Neural Engine to the company’s mainstream desktop lineup.
The chip features a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, with Neural Accelerators built into every GPU core. Apple says the M6 delivers nearly 30% higher peak GPU compute for AI than the M5.
Apple has also equipped the M6 with a Dual 16-core Neural Engine. The company says it can deliver up to twice the peak Neural Engine compute of the previous generation.
The M6 supports up to 32GB of unified memory and up to 170GB/s of memory bandwidth. In the new Mac mini, Apple says the chip delivers up to four times faster AI performance than the M4 model.
That makes the M6 particularly suited to workloads such as coding, creative applications and running AI models directly on the Mac.
M5 Ultra brings four-die architecture
At the high end, Apple has introduced the M5 Ultra as its most powerful chip yet.
The M5 Ultra combines two dual-die M5 Max chips using Apple’s next-generation UltraFusion technology. This creates the company’s first quad-die Apple silicon design, allowing four dies to function as a single processor.
Apple says UltraFusion provides more than 4.4TB/s of inter-die bandwidth while increasing connection density by more than six times compared with the previous generation.
The M5 Ultra can be configured with up to a 36-core CPU and an 80-core GPU. Apple claims up to 1.25 times higher single-threaded performance and up to 1.3 times higher multithreaded performance than the M3 Ultra.
The GPU is also designed heavily around AI. Apple says its 80 GPU cores each include a Neural Accelerator, delivering up to 4.5 times the peak GPU compute for AI compared with the M3 Ultra.
Up to 512GB of unified memory
One of the biggest changes with the M5 Ultra is its memory capacity.
The chip supports up to 512GB of unified memory and up to 1.2TB/s of memory bandwidth. Apple says the bandwidth is 50% higher than the M3 Ultra.
That massive memory capacity is particularly important for AI workloads because large models can require hundreds of gigabytes of memory to run locally.
Apple says the new Mac Studio can run large language models with hundreds of billions of parameters entirely on-device. Developers can also use Apple’s AI frameworks to run and fine-tune models locally on their Macs.
The company is therefore positioning the M5 Ultra not only as a chip for professional graphics and video workloads, but also as a machine capable of handling increasingly demanding AI development.
Apple pushes AI onto the Mac
The M6 and M5 Ultra arrive as Apple continues to expand the amount of AI processing that can happen directly on its hardware.
With the new Mac mini, Apple says users can run local AI models and agentic workflows, while the Mac Studio is designed for much larger models and professional workloads.
This approach also gives developers more control over where their AI workloads are processed. Instead of sending every task to a cloud-based service, compatible models can run directly on the Mac using its CPU, GPU and Neural Engine.
Apple says its developer frameworks automatically optimize AI workloads across those compute resources, allowing developers to build and run their own models locally.
New Mac mini and Mac Studio arrive in September
The M6 debuts in the new Mac mini, which starts at $899 in the US. The Mac Studio is available with Apple’s M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, with the M5 Ultra configuration starting at $5,499.
Both machines are available to preorder now, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning September 22. The Mac Studio configuration with 512GB of unified memory is expected later in October.
With the M6 and M5 Ultra, Apple is making another major push into AI-focused computing.
The M6 brings significantly more AI capability to its compact Mac mini, while the M5 Ultra takes Apple’s desktop silicon into territory aimed at developers and professionals running extremely demanding AI and compute workloads.
