Apple Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) first look: a weekend with an $8,000 powerhouse

Apple’s new top tier Mac Studio, powered by the M3 Ultra chip, contains so much computing horsepower that it’s never going to be on the radar of most tech enthusiasts — let alone your average consumer. It starts at $3,999, but if you upgrade every spec to the best on offer (including an astonishing 512GB of unified memory), you land at a mind-boggling $14,099.

As the price makes clear, the Mac Studio is not a computer for the everyman. It’s a workstation for those who already have an idea of just how it’ll make their lives easier and more…