After over a year and a half, Apple is updating the Mac Studio with a curious new quirk: it straddles two generations, with an M4 Max for the base model and an M3 Ultra for the upgraded model. You can preorder both versions at Apple’s site for $1,999 (M4 Max) and $3,999 (M3 Ultra), and they’ll be available to buy on March 12th.

Apple says the M4 Max Mac Studio is “up to 3.5x faster” than the original M1 Max version, with a 14- to 16-core CPU and 32- to 40-core GPU. Like the M4 Max MacBook Pro, this version of the Studio starts with 36GB of RAM (up from 32GB in the M2 model) and can be had with as much as 128GB, a bump from the 96GB ceiling of the M2 Max Studio. Like its outgoing predecessor, it starts with 512GB of SSD storage but can go as high as 8TB.

Meanwhile, the Mac Studio with an M3 Ultra chip sounds like it’s going to scream. It gets up to 32 cores, 24 of which are performance cores — something Apple notes is “50 percent more than any previous Ultra chip.” The GPU has a base 60-core configuration that maxes out at 80 cores, and Apple says it has a 32-core Neural Engine for machine learning and AI applications.

The M3 Ultra version of the Studio has 96GB of RAM to start, but it can go up to a gobsmacking 512GB of RAM — enough to run some very hefty AI models locally. Finally, you can bump the base 1TB internal storage to as high as 16 terabytes.

Apple says the Mac Studios’ GPUs will feature dynamic caching — that is, it will store frequently accessed data in cache to drop latency — and hardware-accelerated mesh shading, both firsts for the company’s graphics chips. It will also have “a second-generation ray-tracing engine for more seamless content creation and gaming.”

On the outside, the new Mac Studio is the same squat, square-ish silver box as before, with two USB-C ports and an SD Card slot on the front. Around the back, you’ll find four more USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and one port each for ethernet, power, and audio, as well as an audio jack and the power button. Both CPU configurations come with Thunderbolt 5 connections, but as with older-generation Studios, only the four rear USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 5 on the M4 Max — you’ll need an M3 Ultra Mac Studio to get it on all six.

The CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme brings powerful performance in a convenient, prebuilt system for plug-and-play gaming

Framework, the modular computer company, has just announced its first desktop PC, which is something it absolutely did not need to do — but I’m glad it did.

Partly because the world needs more tiny 4.5-liter mini-ITX PCs, partly because it uses AMD’s most powerful APU ever (Strix Halo) with some actual gaming chops and up to 128GB of unified LPDDR5x memory… and partly because it looks like this.

Yes, you can create your own front panel out of 21 interchangeable (and freely 3D printable) tiles, pick your own two front I/O ports, and yes, that’s a standard-size mini-ITX motherboard below, along with a custom thermal system co-developed by Cooler Master and Noctua with standard 120mm fans, a semi-custom 400W Flex ATX power supply co-developed by FSP, a whole lot of seemingly perfect-length cables for a relatively cable-light system, your choice of black or translucent side panels… and, at left, an optional LAN party carry handle!

Just don’t look for any memory slots — it’s soldered. “We spent months working with AMD to explore ways around this but ultimately determined that it wasn’t technically feasible to land modular memory at high throughput with the 256-bit memory bus,” writes Framework.

Below, find a closer look at Framework’s desktop motherboard and cooling; you only get a PCIe x4 port, not PCIe x8 or x16, and no legacy connectors like SATA, but it’s more loaded than the image lets on: Framework says it’s got onboard 5Gbps Ethernet, two USB4, two DisplayPort, one HDMI, not one but two M.2 2280 NVMe SSD slots for up to 16TB of storage, and a Wi-Fi 7 module, plus what appear to be two full-size USB-A ports and a headphone jack (at the rear).

Here’s a little bit of the build process, as told by the images Framework sent us:

And here are some better images of the Framework Desktop mainboard’s I/O, in a rack-mounted, daisy-chained configuration that the company expects some AI enthusiasts might snap up — thanks to the local AI chops and 128GB of memory on the highest-end Ryzen AI Max Plus 395 Plus config.

“With Framework Desktop, you can run giant, capable models like Llama 3.3 70B Q6 at real-time conversational speed right on your desk,” the company claims, adding, “With USB4 and 5Gbit Ethernet networking, you can connect multiple systems or Mainboards to run even larger models like the full DeepSeek R1 671B.”

Framework CEO Nirav Patel says it was also designed with LANs in mind — though with a bit less bulk than the massive CRT moniotrs and desktops of old.

What kind of gaming chops might it really have? My colleague Antonio has seen in his time with the Asus Z13 gaming tablet that Strix Halo is roughly around the performance of an Nvidia RTX 4060 mobile chip. AMD gaming architect boss Frank Azor was also here with some 1080p benchmarks at high settings; it apparently can’t quite play the most demanding games (like Black Myth Wukong and Starfield) at over 60fps at native resolution with everything turned up, but the claim is that even 1440p at 60fps is possible with AMD’s FSR upscaling.

Even if you’re not getting your money’s worth out of AI, though, the prices on these desktops don’t seem all that outlandish. While a desktop with 16 CPU cores, 40 graphics cores, 80MB of cache of the 395 Plus chip, and 128GB of memory will cost $1,999 — not including bring-your-own storage and OS — you can pick one with 8 CPU cores, 32 graphics cores, 40MB of cache and 32GB of memory for $1,099. There’s also a 395 Plus with just 64GB of RAM for $1,599. Or, you can buy a mainboard alone for $799 if you provide your own mini-ITX case and power supply, too.

If you are looking for the most powerful mini-PC, Patel suggested the $1,999 model compares favorably to an Apple Mac Studio, which can cost over twice as much for the same 128GB of RAM.

Framework says these desktops and mainboard should be available to preorder today, with plans to ship in Q3. If you’re reading these words shortly after they were published, I’m currently at a Framework event in San Francisco, where the company also just introduced a new AMD-powered version of its Framework Laptop 13 and the new Framework Laptop 12: its first budget laptop, its first touchscreen, and its first convertible.

As always, the most important Nvidia graphics card is the one you can actually buy, and Nvidia’s talked a big game for its RTX 5070, making the dubious but nuanced claim it can deliver RTX 4090 performance for just $549. On February 28th, AMD will get its chance to intercept with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT, in a streaming event it just announced today. But Nvidia has now made its own wiggle room, delaying the launch of the RTX 5070 from February to March 5th, its product page reveals today.

Nvidia will ship its $749 RTX 5070 Ti ahead of AMD’s event, though, on February 20th, a week from today.

AMD has telegraphed that it won’t be competing with Nvidia’s latest and greatest cards, so price is the one big lever that AMD can potentially pull in order to compete. (The AMD Radeon 9070 cards appeared to be targeting Nvidia 4070 Ti and 4070 Super levels of performance, not necessarily higher.) But Nvidia, a company that can now make $20 billion in pure profit in a single quarter, could theoretically counter that if it feels it needs to, and now has more room to do so.

All that said, there is a rumor that AMD may be working on a more potent card than its already-announced RX 9070 and 9070 XT, one with 32GB of RAM. AMD gaming marketing boss Frank Azor says the 9070 XT won’t be a 32GB card, but did not address the larger rumor.

The Nvidia RTX 5080 cannot match up to the raw processing of a RTX 5090 and is not a huge step over the 4080 Super, but with Multi Frame Gen, it's a card you can't ignore.

After ditching the traditional Dell XPS laptop look in favor of the polarizing design of the XPS 13 Plus released in 2022, Dell is killing the XPS branding that has become a mainstay for people seeking a sleek, respectable, well-priced PC.

This means that there won't be any more Dell XPS clamshell ultralight laptops, 2-in-1 laptops, or desktops. Dell is also killing its Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision branding, it announced today.

Moving forward, Dell computers will have either just Dell branding, which Dell’s announcement today described as “designed for play, school, and work,” Dell Pro branding “for professional-grade productivity,” or be Dell Pro Max products, which are “designed for maximum performance." Dell will release Dell and Dell Pro-branded displays, accessories, and "services," it said. The Pro Max line will feature laptops and desktop workstations with professional-grade GPU capabilities as well as a new thermal design.

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