The 5A06 Al-Mg alloy is a soft material, and the phenomenon of knife sticking is extremely serious during cutting, likewise, it is easy to generate build-up edges. Therefore, it is difficult to acquire good surface quality in turning. For this purpose, the ultrasonic theory and cutting theory are fully combined in this study, and the machining mechanism of conventional turning (CT) is changed by applying ultrasonic vibration (UV) to the cutting tool, so as to build up the machining results. The turning experiments of 5A06 Al-Mg alloy with or without UV are carried out under different process parameters, and through which the effects of ultrasonic amplitude (UA), feed rate (FR), cutting depth (CD) and cutting speed (CS) on the surface roughness of machined workpiece are investigated and analyzed. The consequences show that the process parameters have a different degree of effect on surface roughness. And there are special process parameters suitable for UV assisted turning (UAT), under which the processing results of UAT is obviously better than that of CT. In addition, it is found that by contrast experiment of surface topography under ideal process parameters built-up edges, surface scratches and other phenomena are not easy to arise in UAT to obtain the better surface topography than CT.