Apple plans to launch an M5 Ultra-powered Mac Studio later this year. But it’s reportedly working on a bigger Mac Studio upgrade for 2028.
Besides a faster M7 Ultra chip, the 2028 Mac Studio will apparently get a beefier cooling system.
M7 Ultra Mac Studio to get a better cooling system
The ongoing DRAM and NAND shortage has made it increasingly difficult to get high-end Mac Studios. They are in high demand, leading to long shipping times. Apple is also now only selling the machine with a maximum of 96GB unified memory, down from 512GB previously.
While rumors of an M5 Ultra refresh for the Mac Studio have floated around for a while, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman made it clear that it won’t arrive until at least October this year.
Now, in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple is working on two Mac Studio upgrades. The first one is the M5 Ultra version due to launch later in 2026.
The company is seemingly working on bigger upgrades for the 2028 refresh. The supposed “internal changes” will include a ” better heat sink to improve thermal performance.”
However, the improved cooling system will not come with a refreshed chassis design.
Ultra Mac Studio already features a beefier cooling system
The Mac Studio already features a robust cooling system that can keep it cool under heavy loads. Even under extreme load, the machine’s fan is barely audible. But it seems Apple wants to focus on even bigger performance gains with its M7 Ultra chip, which will reportedly feature major AI processing advances. That could necessitate a better cooling system on the Mac Studio.
Apple uses a heavier copper heat sink with a larger copper baseplate and vapor chamber on Ultra-equipped Mac Studio models for better cooling. The Max modes use an aluminium heat sink. The company may double down on this approach, using a denser copper heat sink with beefier heat pipes to enhance the M7 Ultra Mac Studio’s cooling.
Rajesh has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade, with a strong focus on iPhones, Macs and Apple’s ecosystem. He enjoys digging into Apple software updates, hardware changes, and discovering new Mac apps that make work faster and more enjoyable.
You can reach out to him at mail[at]rajeshpandey.me.
