Apple has officially made available in its online store a high-end Mac Studio configuration featuring 512 GB of RAM, a variant promised for late October. This specific setup is required to run Meta's newly announced Muse Spark Open local AI model, which is optimized for Apple Silicon but necessitates two fully equipped Mac Studios rather than standard MacBook Air or Pro models.
Accessing this memory capacity requires significant hardware upgrades beyond the base specifications. The entry-level M5-Max configuration starts at €2,999 but is limited to 36 GB of RAM with no upgrade options. To reach 512 GB, users must select the fully equipped M5-Ultra processor, which features 36 compute cores and 80 graphics cores. This processor upgrade alone adds €5,030 to the base price.
The cost of the memory itself is substantial, with the jump from 96 GB to 512 GB adding an extra €17,050. If buyers also maximize the SSD storage by upgrading from 1 TB to 16 TB, they face an additional charge of €8,250. The final price for this fully loaded machine totals €33,329. For comparison, a new compact electric vehicle like the Citroën ëC3 costs approximately €20,140 in its base configuration directly from the manufacturer.
Apple positions this extreme configuration not for everyday home office use, but for specific professional workflows. The target audience includes creatives such as filmmakers who need to edit high-resolution 8K footage, as well as data scientists training AI models. Additionally, the system is designed to execute local AI agents like Meta's Muse Spark Open, though running such applications reportedly requires two of these fully equipped Mac Studios.
Sources: t3n.