Apple Launches M6 and M5 Ultra as New Macs Push Local AI
M6 brings Apple's first 2nm Mac chip to the Mac mini, while M5 Ultra puts up to 512GB of unified memory behind demanding local AI workloads.
Apple announced the M6 and M5 Ultra on August 25. M6 is designed for the new Mac mini, while M5 Ultra powers the high-end Mac Studio. Apple is positioning both chips around faster CPU and GPU performance, higher memory bandwidth, and on-device AI workloads.
M6 and M5 Ultra Put Local AI at the Center of New Macs
M6 has a 12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, and Dual 16-core Neural Engine. Apple says the Neural Engine can deliver up to twice the peak compute of the previous generation, while the GPU adds a Neural Accelerator to every core.
Apple says M6 delivers up to 1.2x faster multithreaded CPU performance than M5 and nearly 30 percent higher peak GPU compute for AI. It supports up to 32GB of unified memory and up to 170GB/s of memory bandwidth. The chip is aimed at everyday work, coding, creative projects, and local AI tasks.
The launch also follows Apple's recent shift toward AI-focused Mac silicon. Saganote previously covered Apple's M6 Pro cancellation and the changing Mac chip roadmap and Apple's planned AI-focused M7 chip.
M5 Ultra Targets Large Local AI Workloads
M5 Ultra is Apple's highest-end desktop chip in this launch. It scales to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU, with up to 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth and 512GB of unified memory.
Apple built M5 Ultra by connecting two dual-die M5 Max chips with its latest UltraFusion technology. The company says the interconnect provides more than 4.4TB/s of bandwidth, allowing the four dies to operate as a single processor.
That memory capacity matters for developers running large models locally. Apple says the new Mac Studio can run language models with hundreds of billions of parameters entirely on the device. Developers can also use Core ML, Metal, Xcode, and other Apple frameworks to run and fine-tune models locally.
The push toward local AI is already showing up in Mac software. Saganote recently covered JetBrains Junie running Qwen3.6 locally on M5 Macs, another example of demanding AI workloads moving onto Apple silicon.
New Macs Start Shipping in September
The new Mac mini and Mac Studio are available to preorder now, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning September 22. Apple says the M5 Ultra Mac Studio can be configured with up to 512GB of unified memory, although the highest-memory configuration has a later availability window.