Apple's M4 Mac Studio: What We Know So Far

[chucker23n1]

It fits in perfectly with their aesthetic. I’m wondering what you’d think it should look like? A trash can, beige? The design is inspired imo and looks gorgeous.

I prefer the black contrast back of the mini. Wonder why they opted against that on the Studio.

 

[257Loner]

It is possible that Apple isn't impressed with the M2 Ultra for the Mac Pro any more than their customers are. They could design a standalone M3 or M4 Extreme, without UltraFusion, specifically for the Mac Pro.

 

[Gloor]

You know nothing!
Educate yourself before you lecture others!

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102742

Outlier, the most any Mac Pro before could support was 128GB...

 

[Confused-User]

Reports are that you cannot move an SoC designed on N3B to N3E so Apple would have to fully redesign M3 for N3E and I do not see Apple spending that money.

That's approximately what I was saying- it's a very expensive proposition for a small number of chips.

"Move" is not precise enough to get the full sense of it. You would have to redo the layout. How much more than that you'd have to do isn't clear, and among other things would depend on whether Apple was thinking about doing that when they first laid out the M3. It's likely that they did think about this (whether it's their plan to do it or not). It's possible the relatively large about of blank silicon in the M3 series is related to that!

 

[CWallace]

M6, M7, M8, M9, and M10 exist already, and have been around for a long time.
Of course, they are not Apple's hardware, but Leica's.

From 2017 to 2020, Apple iPhones did have motion coprocessors with an "M" prefix. It started with the M7 for the A7 and each new generation of A series had a corresponding M series. The last pair were the A11 and M11.

While A series SoCs still have a motion coprocessor, Apple no longer calls it out separately (I presume because they wished to use "M" for Apple Silicon for the Mac).

 

[DVD9]

Apple will never make a laptop with a 2hr battery life 😅

Apple has made tens of millions of them but tells those purchasers they have ten hour battery life.

 

[Boil]

Outlier, the most any Mac Pro before could support was 128GB...

You know nothing!
Educate yourself before you lecture others!

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102742

The key word there is before, we were speaking of the 1.5TB maximum RAM capacity of the 2019 Intel Mac Pro; the fact remains that all Mac Pros prior to the 2019 Intel Mac Pro could only support (depending on the model) up to 128GB of RAM...

Now who's getting schooled...? ;^p

 

[Gloor]

You are right, I'm sorry. Somehow I've read 'liar' instead of 'outlier' so I had the need to 'correct' it.
Now seeing that I've misread I apologise for the attack. Sorry

The key word there is before, we were speaking of the 1.5TB maximum RAM capacity of the 2019 Intel Mac Pro; the fact remains that all Mac Pros prior to the 2019 Intel Mac Pro could only support (depending on the model) up to 128GB of RAM...

Now who's getting schooled...? ;^p

 

[joshuaiz]

I want to upgrade my 2015 iMac. I want a machine capable of all high end tasks like final cut pro, photoshop, blender etc. I was hoping mac studio would get updated soon then i could get it with studio display. I don't want to wait till 2025 for a mac studio with m4. Should I get something else? or wait?

I'm in the same boat. My Late 2014 iMac is starting to crunch out on recent DAW audio plugins and I am in the market for a new Mac Studio.

Was waiting for the M3 Mac Studio which still *could* happen. What I am doing is waiting until WWDC and see where we shake out. If it will be until 2025 for a new M4 Mac Studio and no M3, I'll get an M2.

 

[chucker23n1]

I want to upgrade my 2015 iMac. I want a machine capable of all high end tasks like final cut pro, photoshop, blender etc. I was hoping mac studio would get updated soon then i could get it with studio display. I don't want to wait till 2025 for a mac studio with m4. Should I get something else? or wait?

You should wait out WWDC in June to see if they have an announcement. If nothing happens there, just get the M2; it’s already a big jump from your iMac.

 

[DELLsFan]

So ... maybe Apple will bypass M3 and release the next generation Mac Mini with the M4?

 

[TimB21]

Lets just skip ahead to M10 and then everything will be faster.

 

[bradman83]

What About the M3?

With Apple planning to refresh the Mac Studio with M4 chips in 2025, it's not entirely clear as of yet if there will be an M3 refresh this year.

The iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air lines have been updated with M3 chips, but the Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro are still using M2 chips. With the M4 refresh already planned, Apple could skip the M3 update for its desktop machines, but it's also possible we'll get an M3 refresh around the middle of the year and a second M4 refresh next year, which would put a year between each update.

Apple is testing a version of the Mac Studio with an M3 processor, so an update this year and then a second update next year is plausible.

Apple released the M2 Ultra at WWDC in June last year and then released the M3, Pro, and Max later that fall in October. It's absolutely possible they'll follow a predictable upgrade cadence:

Q1/Winter/Spring: Update consumer laptops
Q2/Spring/Summer: High end chip for Studio and Pro
Q3/Q4/Fall/Early Winter: Next generation released in MacBook Pro and a low volume consumer desktop (mini, iMac)
Repeat.

 

[ric22]

Looks like they'll skip straight ahead to the M4 family. They might be "brave" and take away the remaining USB-A ports, but otherwise leave the hardware untouched.

 

[CBlakeston]

Apple has made tens of millions of them but tells those purchasers they have ten hour battery life.

I'm laughing at this but what are you doing on a modern Mac laptop that gives you 2hrs battery life?