At this point, my opinion is anyone still buying from Apple should always get the most recently released product, since it will be discontinued later than the previously released product. Probably. Or maybe not.
"The bad news for Intel and AMD is power efficiency. In our Handbrake CPU video encoding test, the Ryzen 7950X gets the job done faster, but it uses twice as much power to do the same work. Intel's i9-13900K at its default power settings uses four times as much power to eke out a 10 percent speed improvement. For both processors, you can lower their power use to make them more efficient—in this scenario, the Ryzen actually runs a little faster because it's running cooler, while Intel's chip falls a bit behind the M2 Ultra—but they're still using more than twice the power to achieve similar performance."
Correct, which is why the OP was asking for comparisons with the 2019 MacPro with GPU cards, to see if you need that level of GPU compute power. Maybe these are powerful enough that we don’t need to switch, maybe not, but a comparison would be helpful.
Number one sign of immaturity, claiming to be mature.
Not in action until I can hear the fans through my screen! Make it scream!
We're now tick tocking at Apple for CPUs? Earlier A-series were monumental improvements over each other. A15 was still substantial over A14 although not that much as previous generations. A16 was A15 with a speed bump.
Well, considering the Mac Pro with this chip and its enormous power supply the low power benefit of the mobile SoC doesn’t matter. Mac Pro customers want absolute performance.
Yes, I agree. The sale made the decision easier. Coming from a 9 year old mid-2014 MBP certainly helped as well! If I were on a more recent Intel or M1, I'd sell and put the proceeds toward the studio!For all the careful thought you've given this and all of the pros/cons, that sale price you got is really the determining factor.
When it's *not* on sale, the base M2 Pro Mini is $1299. And if you want an extra 16GB of RAM (to match that of the base M2 Max Studio, it's an extra $400.
The M2 is faster than the M1, and the M3 will be faster than the M2. Apple will always be gouging on memory and storage costs, but unless you need power *now*, the option to pay "half now" for an M2, and "half later" for an M3 or M4 option in a few years, is a great opportunity.
Thaaaaat being said, the first sale on the M2 Max Studio is going to undercut the optioned out M2 Pro Mini... which will make the decision a bit more difficult.
Jason Snell's comments on Six Colors would indicate so. He didn't specifically mention whine but discussed noise levels between M1/M2
