Apple's New Mac Studio Computer

[r.e.]

Apple announced a new desktop computer today called the Mac Studio. As far as I can tell, there weren't even rumours of its existence prior to today's presentation. I think that it's designed for people who would like to have a Mac Pro but either can't justify one or can't afford one. I would think that some people here will be interested in checking it out.

Currently using a 2018 Mac mini with an Asus external graphics card and an Eizo CS2740 monitor, I'm impressed enough that I'm working out what it would cost to replace the Mac mini and external graphics card with a Mac Studio. The latter looks a lot like a Mac mini, except a couple of inches taller.

There's a choice of two of Apple's Silicon M1 chips, the M1 Max that Apple introduced in October as an option for new MacBook Pros, and a new chip called the M1 Ultra. There are also several options for Memory (up to 128GB) and Graphics Processing. From a technical perspective, the M1 Ultra sounds remarkable, but my tentative view is that the M1 Max would do what I need and then some. From a financial perspective, that would be a beneficial conclusion. Fitted with an M1 Ultra chip, these are expensive computers. The M1 Max version is much less expensive (base price with 32GB RAM is US$2,000), and I think good value for people who want the processing power it offers.

[Tin Can]

Mac is doing well

Good stuff!

The new M1 Max brought MKUltra to mind

[r.e.]

Mac is doing well

Good stuff!

The new M1 Max brought MKUltra to mind

I think that this computer will be a home run for Apple with people who have significant processing and graphics needs. If what Apple said today about the M1 Ultra chip is true (the company has a reputation for accurate specs) it's quite an achievement that's going to be of considerable interest to these people. For people with medium requirements, the M1 Max chip is itself impressive, and the price won't break the bank.

There were rumours that Apple will offer a beefed up Mac mini. I don't think that that will happen now. What's clear is that there are configurations of the Mac Studio that require a bigger chassis than the Mac mini's, if only for heat dissipation reasons, and that Apple decided to go with a new machine. As I mentioned above, the new computer has a similar footprint to a Mac mini, except that it's taller.

During the presentation, Apple said that there's only one other computer that Apple plans to outfit with an M1 Silicon chip, a new Mac Pro. It also means that Apple's replacement of Intel chips with its own Silicon chips will soon be complete.

Over the last year or so, the rumour mill has been pretty good at predicting Apple announcements. Not this time.

[Tin Can]

All I know is my last great Mac, an Air 10" Late 2010 went to shit about a month after I installed a https://www.owcdigital.com/ hard drive. It locked up during an Apple upgrade, put me off Apple for 10 years

My really loaded HP Laptop with TV didn't lock, but one day it just got hot with fans screaming, 2012

This HP i7 upgraded to SSD long ago seems to run cooler every year

I am done upgrading computers AND buying top of of the line

[r.e.]

The presentation on the M1 Ultra chip and the Mac Studio computer starts at 27:20. The technical presentation on M1 Ultra is pretty cool.

[drew.saunders]

There were a handful of rumors about a "bigger mini" for a while, and a couple of days ago a pretty good rumor about something to be called "Studio" that was this "taller mini," but nothing on the Ultra chip. I read macrumors.com most days where one finds...wait for it...rumors about Apple.

I have a new MacBook Pro for work with the M1 Pro chip and it's really impressive. I think the Max with 32GB would be more than capable of anything I'd need from it. The Ultra looks to be aimed at the 3D graphics and movie editing crowd, who will happily pony up the $8,000 for the top of the line version.

The regular Mini might still get the M1 Pro chip in it.

The 27" iMac is no longer listed on Apple's site. It's looking like the Mini + Studio Display is the new regular 27" iMac, and the Studio plus Studio Display is the "iMac Pro" replacement.

[r.e.]

The Ultra looks to be aimed at the 3D graphics and movie editing crowd, who will happily pony up the $8,000 for the top of the line version.

Yes, and some musicians. The presentation included an Ableton Live developer because composers and sound engineers are also part of the market for the M1 Ultra chip. Professional composers can be running hundreds of tracks and can easily use 128GB of RAM. Interesting that Apple highlighted Ableton, because Apple's own Logic Pro is the most popular workstation for film composers.

This should also be of interest to photographers who are working with really big, complex digital files. I'm thinking of people like Ed Burtynsky and Jeff Wall.

Marques Brownlee says in a video tonight that he and people like him are part of the target market. He's curious about the upcoming Mac Pro, but says that a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra would meet the needs of his studio. He doesn't mention it, but an M1 Ultra has double the number of video decode engines, and double the number of ProRes encode/decode engines, because the chip weds two M1 Max chips. Filmmakers will want to know how much faster the encode/decode time is; it's potentially an important selling point. It appears that Brownlee doesn't have a Mac Studio computer yet, but I would think that he will sooner than most.

I figure that hardware experts must have looked carefully at the M1 Max. Interesting that nobody appears to have picked up on what Apple engineer Johny Srouji calls, during the presentation, the M1 Max "secret". The wedding was already built into the M1 Max chip (screen capture from the 28:33 mark of the presentation, post #4 above):

[Tin Can]

My top of the line VAIO also crapped

But Mac had nothing like a Vaio in usability

When I was in a class using MAC for video edit, 2000 AD I used my VAIO Tower as video editing actually worked without our constant Mac crashes

Sony VAIO PictureBook Millennium Edition ground breaking mine did fail after 2 years, but time moves

[Ari]

I'll be getting the Studio in the next couple months. I was all set to buy the beefed-up Mini, then started hearing about the Studio. Now I need to save up a few more pennies, but the extra wait should be worth it.
The base model is perfect for me, and should be for at least 5 years.
Nice move by Apple, they pulled a Kansas City shuffle.

[r.e.]

I've been trying to get a handle on graphics performance with this "System on a Chip" technology. I use a programme that's quite graphics intensive, and I need to compare Mac Studio graphics options with the performance of my current external graphics processor, an AMD RX Vega 56. These are two AnandTech articles that I've found helpful and that may be of interest to some people:

March 8/22: Apple Announces M1 Ultra: Combining Two M1 Maxes For Workstation Performance

October 25/21: Apple M1 Pro & M1 Max Performance Review