New Apple Mac computers can drive up to eight 4K 165Hz monitors

Apple has unleashed its most powerful Mac Studio computers to date with M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips, with the latter capable of driving up to eight 4K 165Hz monitors.

The US company, which has been designing its own chips for years, continues to push the boundaries of performance and capabilities as it competes with AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm.

For example, AMD and Nvidia's most powerful consumer graphics cards – RTX 5090 and RX 9070 XT – can each drive up to four monitors simultaneously at 4K 165Hz or 4K 144Hz. Both companies offer professional solutions that can drive more displays, but these are much more expensive.


Eight monitors – 11 billion pixels per second
Verified performance specifications for the M5 Ultra have yet to emerge, but the sheer number of pixels it can push gives us an indication of its capabilities. The M5 Ultra is essentially two M5 Max chips fused together.

M5 Ultra in Mac Studio can drive up to eight monitors, all at 4K 165Hz or 6K 60Hz. This is made possible through Mac Studio's many Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with DisplayPort 2.1, as well as its HDMI port.

M5 Max in Mac Studio can drive up to five displays: four at 4K 165Hz or 6K 60Hz and a fifth at 5K or 4K 60Hz.

Previous Ultra chips from Apple have also been able to drive up to eight displays, but at lower resolutions and refresh rates. Previous Max chips supported up to four displays.

The new M6 chip in Mac mini – Apple's first 2nm chip – can now drive up to three monitors: two at 6K 60Hz or 4K 165Hz, plus a third at 5K or 4K 60Hz. M5, M4 and M3 were limited to two external monitors, while M2 and M1 were limited to one.

Eight displays at 4K 165Hz amount to a staggering 10.95 billion pixels per second.


Or fewer monitors at higher resolutions
There are apps and workflows that can benefit from having many displays, but very few people need eight monitors – or even five for that matter.

M5 Ultra's power can, however, also be used to drive fewer monitors at higher resolutions or refresh rates, such as four monitors at 8K 60Hz, 5K 120Hz or 4K 240Hz. M5 Max can drive up to two monitors at 8K 60Hz.

With this in mind, it becomes clear that there is still some way to go before an ecosystem to support 8K or 10K at high refresh rates can become viable for huge cinema screens or realistic virtual worlds in headsets.

But Mac Studio is also pricey. It starts at $2500 with M5 Max and $5500 with M5 Ultra.