Mac Studio M3 Ultra loses 512GB & 256GB configs, while Mac mini price jumps $200 as cheapest model removed
Publish Date: 2026-05-07 04:50:00
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The ongoing global memory shortage is now starting to affect Apple hardware. The company has quietly removed several higher-end RAM and storage configurations for both the Mac Studio and Mac mini, likely as part of an effort to manage the limited memory supply.
One of the biggest changes affects the M3 Ultra Mac Studio. Customers can no longer configure the machine with 256GB or 512GB of RAM. The system is now only available with 96GB of unified memory, meaning the highest-end memory options have completely disappeared from Apple’s store instead of simply being marked out of stock.
Mac mini has also lost its higher memory configs, and the base price is up
The Mac mini lineup has also been hit. The M4 Pro Mac mini no longer offers the 64GB RAM option, and now maxes out at 48GB. Likewise, the standard M4 Mac mini has lost its 32GB version entirely. Buyers are now limited to either 16GB or 24GB configurations, with the 24GB memory option costing an additional $200 compared to the 16GB model.
Source: Apple store
Apple also recently removed the 256GB SSD version of the Mac mini, leaving 512GB as the new minimum storage option. That effectively pushed the starting price of the Mac mini from $599 to $799 overnight. At the moment, even the remaining configurations are taking a long time to ship. Both M3 Mac Studio and M4 Max Mac Studio models are currently showing delivery estimates of around 9 to 10 weeks in some regions.
Over the past year, AI companies have been buying massive amounts of high-bandwidth memory and DRAM chips to power AI servers, large language models, and data centers. As a result, memory prices have increased significantly, while availability has become more limited for manufacturers.
Unfortunately, this may only be the beginning. The memory shortage is already…
