Apple unveils M6, M5 Ultra chips and updates its desktop Macs

In late August, Apple made an unexpected announcement about new processors and updated desktop Macs, just as the world waited for details on the upcoming iPhone generation. The company unveiled two new chips: the M5 Ultra and M6, designed to power the latest versions of Mac Studio and Mac mini computers. Both models are available for pre-order and will ship on September 22, running macOS 27 Golden Gate.

The M6 chip marks Apple's first generation chip using a 2-nanometer production process and features the first 12-core CPU in the base M-series line, up from 10 cores in previous generations. Notably, the M6 combines all three core types: six efficiency cores for low power consumption, four performance cores for complex multi-threaded tasks, and two super cores for maximum single-threaded performance.

Apple claims this design results in record single-threaded performance and up to 1.2x speed improvements over the M5 chip, along with a dual 16-core Neural Engine for on-device AI performance and increased memory bandwidth.

Meanwhile, the M5 Ultra, Apple's first new Ultra chip since the M3 Ultra in March 2025, is the result of the next UltraFusion technology, connecting two dual-die M5 Max chips to create a quad-die chip. This chip boasts up to 36 CPU cores (12 super/24 performance), up to 80 GPU cores, and up to 512GB of memory with a 1.2TB/s unified memory bandwidth.

Mac mini and Mac Studio models have been updated with these new chips, offering improved performance and features such as faster storage speeds, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5Gb Ethernet support. The Mac Studio, positioned as an ideal device for local AI workflows, can be powered by a single wall outlet when clustered with other Mac Studios.