Mac Studio M5 Ultra lands in October 2026 — M7 won't come until 2028

Apple's next Mac Studio will arrive in October 2026 with an M5 Ultra chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The company is jumping straight from M5 to M7 for its pro desktop — M6 Pro, Max, and Ultra chips have all been canceled. The next Mac Studio refresh after that isn't expected until 2028, when it will move to M7 Ultra.

The chip skip

Apple is pulling an unusual move by retiring the entire M6 Pro and Max tier. The M5 Ultra becomes the final chip in the M5 family before the lineup jumps to M7. Gurman's latest report notably omits any mention of an M5 Max variant for the Mac Studio, leaving it unclear whether a lower-cost tier will exist at launch — or whether buyers will face an Ultra-only lineup from day one.

The machine itself won't look any different from the current model. Apple is keeping the same chassis but upgrading the internals, with a new heat sink as the headline hardware change. The improved cooling is directly tied to AI use: running large language models and inference tasks locally generates sustained heat, and the current thermal design isn't built for that. Video editors and developers doing 3D rendering will also benefit from the headroom.

What it costs and when

The October 2026 window was delayed from a mid-2026 target, with DRAM shortages cited as the reason, per AppleInsider. That same supply crunch is already pushing memory prices up, which points toward higher launch prices. The current M3 Ultra starts at £5,300 in the UK — and MacRumors Forums note that the 512GB RAM configuration has already been quietly removed from Apple's store. If DRAM costs stay elevated, the M5 Ultra entry price will likely be higher still.

Pre-orders are expected in late September 2026, with stock at launch potentially limited for high-memory configurations. The roadmap beyond that is settled: M7 Ultra Mac Studio in 2028, with Apple reportedly reserving its most advanced AI-focused silicon for that generation.