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Tom's Hardware reviewed Apple's new Mac Studio built around the M5 Ultra chip, which now serves as Apple's top desktop after the Mac Pro's discontinuation. The tested configuration, priced at $12,299 with 256GB of unified memory and 4TB storage, outperformed rivals like Nvidia's DGX Spark and AMD Threadripper systems when running AI models locally, while the base M5 Max model starts at $2,499.
Engadget's review found the Mac Studio M5 Ultra posts some of the highest CPU and GPU benchmark scores among desktop computers, with multi-core performance rivaling AMD's 64-core Threadripper Pro chips and disk speeds nearly double the previous M3 Ultra model. Real-world video editing tests showed dramatic gains too, cutting a 4K export task from over eight minutes to just over one minute compared to a MacBook M3 Pro.
At IFA 2026, AMD introduced the Threadripper Halo Station, a liquid-cooled workstation combining a 96-core Threadripper PRO 9995WX processor with up to four Instinct MI350P accelerators. A fully configured system would offer 576GB of HBM3E memory, enough to run trillion-parameter AI models locally without cloud access. AMD showed a two-card version at the event but has not disclosed pricing, availability, or full specifications.
AMD used IFA 2026 to reveal the Threadripper Halo Station, a workstation built around a 96-core Threadripper Pro 9995WX processor and two liquid-cooled Instinct MI350P accelerators, with 2TB of system DDR5 and up to 576GB of HBM3E memory across GPUs. AMD says the machine can handle trillion-parameter AI models and describes it as the most powerful workstation available, though it has not named any OEM partners to actually build and sell it yet.