cUPERTINO, California — August 25, 2026: Apple has introduced its latest generation of desktop processors, the M6 and M5 Ultra, promising significant improvements in computing performance, graphics, memory bandwidth and artificial intelligence capabilities. The new chips are designed to power the latest Mac mini and Mac Studio, targeting consumers, developers, creative professionals and enterprise users.
The M6 is Apple’s first chip built using a 2-nanometer process technology. It features a redesigned 12-core CPU, a 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators, a Dual 16-core Neural Engine and up to 170GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. Apple says the new architecture delivers the company’s fastest single-threaded CPU performance and up to 1.2 times faster multithreaded performance compared with the M5.
A major focus of M6 is on-device AI. Its Dual 16-core Neural Engine can provide up to twice the peak compute of previous generations, while Neural Accelerators integrated into each GPU core increase peak GPU AI performance by nearly 30% compared with M5. The improvements are expected to benefit applications involving large language models, image processing and other AI workloads.
The chip also introduces updated graphics technologies, including improvements to Dynamic Caching, shader architecture and hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Apple says M6 delivers a 50% increase in geometry rates, supporting faster rendering and more detailed visuals in demanding creative applications and games.
Meanwhile, the M5 Ultra is positioned as Apple’s most powerful M-series processor yet. It uses next-generation UltraFusion technology and, for the first time in an M-series system-on-chip, combines four dies into a quad-die architecture. The processor can include up to a 36-core CPU and 80-core GPU, supported by up to 1.2TB/s of unified memory bandwidth — 50% more than M3 Ultra.
Apple says the combination of increased processing power, advanced AI acceleration and improved energy efficiency will allow the new chips to handle demanding professional workflows and large AI models directly on desktop systems.
With M6 and M5 Ultra, Apple is continuing its push toward increasingly powerful on-device computing, particularly as AI workloads become a larger part of everyday and professional computing.
