Apple's unexpected August update to the Mac mini and Mac Studio has changed the pricing of the models in a big way. Here's the best desktop Mac you should buy for your budget in fall 2026. In August, while the world was preparing for the expected launch of new iPhone models in September, Apple had a trick up its sleeve. Without any warning, it launched changes to the Mac mini and Mac Studio near the end of August. Chiefly, the change was to introduce a new M6 chip generation in the Mac mini, as well as to upgrade the Mac Studio to include M5 Max and M5 Ultra versions. Thanks to the ongoing memory chip crisis, this has also meant changes to the way the models are sold. This guide will aim to help you decide where you should put your budget if you're in the market for a new desktop Mac in September 2026.

Overall desktop Mac range Apple has just three models of desktop Mac available to purchase. There's the consumer-friendly Mac mini, the 24-inch iMac, and the performance-focused Mac Studio. As is typical for Apple, anyone buying its products can choose from a selection of configurations, including the amount of memory and storage is available. In some cases, you can even select your preferred wired network speed. For the purposes of this article, we are breaking the three product lines into six tiers. The complete price range of Apple's current Macs, as of September 2026 For the Mac mini and Mac Studio, this is easily handled by pricing based on the chip category, that is M6 or M5 Pro for the Mac mini, M5 Max and M5 Ultra for the Mac Studio. The 24-inch iMac is also split into two versions, referring to the number of Thunderbolt 4 ports each has. That's because there's also other subtle changes at play that are worth taking into account. The overall price range for desktop Macs starts at $899 for the cheapest configuration of Mac mini, rising to $18,299 for the current most expensive configuration of Mac Studio. This does not include the Mac Studio's potential 512GB memory configuration, which Apple has yet to publish pricing for. As usual, we will discuss this in two price ranges: Sub-$2,500 for budget purchases, and $2,500 or more for premium options. Storage and memory upgrades There are two big drivers of price changes for Apple's lineup. One is memory, and the other is storage. With the ongoing memory chip crisis affecting the cost of components across the board, that has meant some changes in price apply. Everything's more expensive, but our advice to you doesn't really change at all. The first of the two, memory, is a factor that can directly affect the per...