New desktop Macs from 22 September: what agencies should check

What is new

The Mac mini comes in two variants. The M6 has 12 CPU and 12 GPU cores, two Neural Engines with 16 cores each, and is Apple's first chip built on a 2 nm process. Memory bandwidth reaches up to 170 GB/s, RAM starts at 16 GB and tops out at 32 GB. The M5 Pro offers up to 18 CPU and 20 GPU cores, 307 GB/s and a maximum of 64 GB.

In the Mac Studio, the M5 Max runs 18 CPU cores, up to 40 GPU cores, a maximum of 128 GB and 614 GB/s. The M5 Ultra is the first quad-die design, built from two M5 Max chips joined by UltraFusion, with 1.2 TB/s and up to 512 GB of unified memory. The SSDs now sit on PCIe Gen 6, and up to eight displays are supported.

Both lines gain Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 through Apple's N1 chip. Ethernet ships at 2.5 Gbit/s as standard, 10 Gbit/s is available only as a build-to-order option. Genlock over USB-C is new.

Swiss prices: Mac mini from CHF 899 (M6) and CHF 1699 (M5 Pro), Mac Studio from CHF 2499 (M5 Max) and CHF 5499 (M5 Ultra). The Mac mini entry price sits 100 francs above the previous generation. Studios with 512 GB will only arrive at the end of October.

Where it gets tricky

The 32 GB ceiling on the M6 is the hardest limit. For layout, image editing and editing work with several Adobe applications open in parallel, that is tight. RAM cannot be upgraded later, so anyone who needs more has to move to the M5 Pro or the Studio.

Ports differ within the same product line. The Mac mini with M6 has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, the M5 Pro variant has three Thunderbolt 5. Existing Thunderbolt 5 RAIDs and edit storage will run at TB4 speed on the M6.

The Mac Studio's RDMA clustering, which according to Apple lets four machines run distributed AI inference up to three times faster than a single one, is a tool for local models. For running Contao, WordPress, Shopware or Laravel it does nothing.

On supply: Apple already raised prices worldwide for 14 products on 25 June 2026, driven by sharply higher DRAM and NAND costs. CFO Parekh expects supply constraints and lower hardware shipments. Waiting for prices to fall means betting against the current trend.

What this means for your fleet

Two clocks are running regardless of any purchase. macOS 27 supports Apple Silicon only, Intel Macs stay on macOS 26 Tahoe. Rosetta 2 is still fully present in macOS 27 and will be reduced in scope after that. Intel-only tools in prepress or database work therefore need an answer before macOS 28 arrives.

For procurement that means fixing the configuration before ordering, because RAM, SSD and the 10 Gbit option cannot be changed afterwards. Order early, since the larger memory configurations are likely to be the hardest to get.

One point remains open. Apple has not said which system version will be preinstalled on the machines shipping from 22 September. Plan for a test machine before you roll macOS 27 out widely.

• Search your fleet inventory for Intel Macs and Intel-only applications

• Choose the Mac mini M6 only if 32 GB and Thunderbolt 4 will remain sufficient

• Check the network: 1 Gbit switches become the bottleneck, Wi-Fi 7 needs matching access points

• Keep macOS 26 machines on at least Tahoe 26.6.2 from 17 August until you approve the upgrade

• Roll out macOS 27 only after testing creative plug-ins, MDM and your build toolchain