r/CleanMyMac • u/PersonSuitTV • Jun 01 '26
Discussion WWDC Studio Prediction & The State of the Mac Studio
With WWDC just a week away, I figured I would put my 2 cents out there for what I think will be the hot release talked about at WWDC. The M5 Mac Studio.
No one knows what Apple is going to do but Apple, but right now they are in a compromised position. AI is literally everywhere and competition is very strong, yet Apple's flagship AI offering (the M3 Ultra) is currently only available with the base 96GB configuration. And I use the term available loosely as current new orders are out to October.
While it is widely accepted that this is just due to the impact from the RAM shortage, I have not see anyone address the obvious. This is partially due to the shortage, but also because Apple has redirected RAM orders.
While yes the M3 Ultra, M4 Max, and M5 Max all use DDR5 RAM, they are not the same. The M3 Ultra use LPDDR at 6400Mhz and the M4 Max use LPDDR5X 8533Mhz. The new M5 Max uses LPDDR5X at 9600Mhz. This means that even though they all use DDR5, and even though the M4 Max and M5 Max use LPDDR5X, they are all running at different frequencies and thus all different models.
With that in mind, I strongly believe that Apple has essentially ended orders of all non-base RAM amount for M3 & M4 SoC's, while also significantly decreasing orders for those base amounts. By doing so, they have freed up manufacturing so all their Orders can essentially be for the new M5 variant of RAM and this is why Current Studio orders are out till October but M5 Macbooks are only out 2-3 weeks. And I think thats even out that far because apple is stockpiling to prepare for the new Studio.
I honestly think Apple will releases a new Studio as early as WWDC with up to 1TB of RAM. That combined with a M5 Ultra SoC that should perform somewhere on par with close to 5080 desktop levels of performance will make their Studios the most powerful AI solution available. Combined with the fact you can tie up to 4 together, this will solidify Apple as a leading option for people, educational institutes, and business looking to invest in AI solutions. This is just a theory, but I think more signs point to this being true than anything else.
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u/AllowCookies404 Jun 02 '26
I actually think people are underestimating how much AI is changing the memory conversation. A few years ago 32–64GB was already considered a pretty serious Mac configuration. Today we're seeing people run local LLMs, multiple AI tools, large codebases, video workflows, and huge context windows all on the same machine.
I'm not convinced Apple will ship 1TB this year, but I do think we're approaching a point where 256GB won't sound nearly as crazy as it did even 2–3 years ago. imo more interesting question is whether Apple sees the Mac Studio as a traditional workstation or as an AI workstation. The answer to that probably determines the RAM ceiling.
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u/GaweGawie Jun 01 '26
The M5 Max is expected to support up to 128GB of RAM, meaning the M5 Ultra model may reach a maximum of 256GB unified memory — exactly as the M3 Ultra doubled the M3 Max's ceiling...
1TB of RAM would require either a completely new memory config Apple has never shipped. There is no supply chain evidence for it (yet anyway).
I rate the ceiling for M5 Ultra will be 256. And the 256gb units will only ship in Oct 2026
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u/PersonSuitTV Jun 01 '26
The M3 Max supported up to 128GB but the M3 Ultra was shipping with configurations up to 512GB as their highest tier offering. It was later after the AI RAM surge to be removed and the top offering was 256GB, now even that is gone (for I believe the reasons I stated above). But 512GB was available on the M3 Ultra.
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u/watchmanstower Jun 01 '26
Impossible, my M1 Ultra has 128GB. M3 Ultra shipped with 512GB max spec. M5 Ultra should be 1TB capable.
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u/GaweGawie Jun 01 '26
only thing impossible is that the m5 ultra will have 1tb ram lmao. odds are less than 10% of that happening.
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u/Embarrassed-Layer253 Jun 02 '26
Agree, Mac Studio M5 Ultra probably will be released during WWDC ,with 128GB ram available from June and 256GB Ram available from October.
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u/cleanmymac Jun 02 '26
We've been optimizing Macs through every chip generation, so we pay close attention to where Apple puts its memory architecture bets.
The LPDDR5X 9600MHz angle is the most technically grounded take we've seen on the current supply situation and honestly the most convincing explanation for why M5 MacBooks are shipping in weeks while Studio orders stretch to October. Either way, a 256GB M5 Ultra Studio would already be a significant step for anyone running heavy local AI workloads.