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2023 Mac Studio Reviews: Faster M2 Ultra Chip and 8K Display Support

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Apple's updated Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips will launch in stores and begin arriving to customers this Tuesday. Ahead of time, the first reviews of the desktop computer have been shared by select media outlets and YouTube channels.

Mac-Studio-Desk.jpg

The new Mac Studio features the same overall design as the 2022 model, but now features Apple's latest M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, faster Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, and support for high-impedance headphones. Pricing remains unchanged, with the M2 Max model starting at $1,999 and the M2 Ultra model starting at $3,999.

Apple has also updated the Mac Studio with an HDMI 2.1 port, enabling 8K external display support. Other ports remain unchanged.

Benchmarks

As expected, the M2 Ultra chip is a doubled-up M2 Max chip. It features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, a 32-core Neural Engine, and support for up to 192GB of unified memory. Apple says the M2 Ultra has a 20% faster CPU than the M1 Ultra, as confirmed by Geekbench 6 benchmark results that have already surfaced.

Jason Snell shared a wider set of benchmark results in his Mac Studio review at Six Colors:
M2-Ultra-Mac-Studio-benchmarks.jpeg


Written Reviews

PCMag's Joe Osborne explained the Mac Studio's expanded display support:
All of this helps widen the breadth of display support for the Mac Studio using M2 Ultra, increasing the maximum number of displays that can be connected at one time from five to eight—all at 4K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate over DisplayPort via Thunderbolt 4. If you bring the display count down to six, then the panels can go up to 6K resolution at 60Hz. If you halve the connected displays from there, to three, they can all output up to 8K resolution at 60Hz.

If you need a faster refresh rate, you’ll need to use the included HDMI port, which can support up to 240Hz at 4K resolution. This connection also supports variable refresh rate, HDR, and multichannel audio.
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Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham said the Mac Studio remains silent:
I liked the Mac Studio a lot last year, and I still like it a lot. It performs well, it's dead silent, it will fit just about anywhere, and it's the rare Apple computer to put ports on the front, where they can actually be accessed. If you're eyeing an upgrade from an Intel Mac, the M2 Max version is a great step (at least performance-wise) for anyone used to a 27-inch iMac's performance level. The M2 Ultra can run circles around the Intel Mac Pro and should perfectly match the Apple Silicon Mac Pro, as it uses the same chip.
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Engadget's Devindra Hardawar said the Mac Studio is the "ideal machine" for power users:
That leaves the $1,999 Mac Studio as the ideal machine for Apple power users. It'll be enough for video editing work, and it also comes standard with 32GB of RAM (it could use more than 512GB of storage, though). Step up to the $3,999 model with an M2 Ultra chip, and you've got a system that can destroy just about any task you put in front of it. The few professional users who need PCIe expansion can now opt for the M2 Ultra-equipped Mac Pro, which starts at an eye-watering $6,999.
Click to expand...
More reviews were shared by CNET, TechCrunch, Macworld, and others.

Video Reviews




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Article Link: 2023 Mac Studio Reviews: Faster M2 Ultra Chip and 8K Display Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/review/mac-studio-m2-ultra-chip/
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Marvelous Patric

Marvelous Patric

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here's my dilemma: it's time for me to buy a new machine. i want a mac studio. my choices i'm mulling is do i get the M2 Max and get 96 GB of RAM, or should I get the M2 Ultra with 64GB RAM? The kind of work I do is drawing in Clip Studio, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, and Premier. Basically, I do a lot of graphics and some video. Right now I'm using an M1 Macbook Air with 16GB of RAM I bought when it came out (~2.5 years ago) and I'm ready for a desktop again. Thoughts?
 
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macduke

macduke

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Just surrounding myself with three 36" 8K displays is life goals.

Alright, so that's it for the M2. The M3 is on deck next...which will probably be what I upgrade to from my 2019 Intel Macs early next year. Currently thinking 14" MBP M3 Max, 64GB RAM, 4TB SSD. My hope for the new MBP using 3nm chips are that they make some bigger leaps forward in GPU performance with what seems to finally be a new focus on gaming, Face ID, smaller notch, Midnight colorway option, and a move to OLED that allows for even slimmer bezels that allow for more desktop space. It would also be great if they could put a 5G modem into the dang thing already. It would be nice to put some of that power budget of 3nm efficiency towards having modem capabilities that can also last all day. Those who don't need it can just turn it off and have even better battery life.
 
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macduke

macduke

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Marvelous Patric said:
here's my dilemma: it's time for me to buy a new machine. i want a mac studio. my choices i'm mulling is do i get the M2 Max and get 96 GB of RAM, or should I get the M2 Ultra with 64GB RAM? The kind of work I do is drawing in Clip Studio, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, and Premier. Basically, I do a lot of graphics and some video. Right now I'm using an M1 Macbook Air with 16GB of RAM I bought when it came out (~2.5 years ago) and I'm ready for a desktop again. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I would do M2 Ultra with 64GB RAM. I do many of the same things you do, some less than I used to, but for graphics heavy stuff with occasional video 64GB has never been an issue on my 2019 Intel iMac. It's pretty rare that iStat shows me using more than 2/3 of my RAM in my menubar widget. I remember one heavy day I had basically half of Creative Cloud open and multiple browsers testing a website for launch and a virtual machine running Windows and my development environment and several office and communications apps open and I think I might've touched close to 80-85% or so. But the OS is pretty efficient at handing off slower background apps to SSD and you don't feel it at all for those. I think having faster throughput for rendering would be more beneficial with the Ultra, and the SSDs in these things are so fast nowadays that even if it does have to write to scratch it doesn't slow things down much unless you're doing 8K-12K RAW editing frequently and scrubbing around like a mad man with tons of effects.
 
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rpmurray

rpmurray

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macduke said:
... The M3 is on deck next...which will probably be what I upgrade to from my 2019 Intel Macs early next year ...
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I'll need to wait until I see where Apple goes with the M3, but my confidence is shaken by the hash job they did with the Mac Studio Pro (AKA Mac Pro). But maybe Apple will take their thumb out of their *** and surprise me, although I'm really cynical about that. The only thing that might sway me into thinking they've actually screwed their head on straight is if they use this opportunity to double down to turn Sonoma into a bug hunt where they fix most of the problems they've been plaguing macOS with since they started merging it with iOS.
 
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Octavius8

Octavius8

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What displays do you pair these machines to?. I have an ancient 27in. iMac (16gb RAM and connected via USB a 1 TB SSD as the main drive), but the main reason I have not updated it, is because the 5K display. I only need 1 display, what is a good choice? I Won’t pay thousands for a “professional” display, just need a 5K @60Hz, does it exist in the payable realm?
 
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SoldOnApple

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Twice the multi core and metal score compared to M1 Max. I remember thinking in the M1 Max presentation that this was peak computing, that it'd be years before Apple releases something that doubles the performance. The way they talked about M1 Max in the presentation as like god himself gifted this chip to humanity to advance us a decade further along than we should otherwise be at in our technology.
 
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cpnotebook80

cpnotebook80

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Most important is the low power that these chips run on and less fan noise when running intensive tasks.m3 power consumption is going to be interesting and how performance is affected by next round of hardware.
 
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Marvelous Patric

Marvelous Patric

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one of the big reasons i want to move on from my Macbook Air M1, even though I don't notice many performance issues, is the display thing. I use display link to have 3 external displays going with it closed on my desk. but display link crashes now and then, which is a pain. plus, i used to be a desktop & laptop person and I miss that. i miss having the redundancy of a second machine if something went sideways. and that was before i worked at home for my job (thanks covid!).
 
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J

jwdsail

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fbr$ said:
Weird that a Mac mini M2 Pro 12cpu/19gpu 32GB/512GB is more expensive than the base Mac Studio M2 Max 12cpu/30gpu with same RAM and SSD as the mini, which just proves Apple charges too much on upgrades.
Click to expand...

I have a customer looking to upgrade from an Intel iMac, who is wrestling w/ choosing between the two... (slightly diff configs but seeing similar regards to the price)

If the Mini Pro they like is in stock refurb ($300 less), probably going with the refurb mini, otherwise, probably future-proofing with the Studio Max?

It will all depend on what's in stock in the refurb store the day they decide to make the purchase.

And, even then, could do something really different, they could still decide to go with the M2 Max 14" MBP?

But, yeah, Apple is getting really good at the upsell on some of these systems.
 
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