Apple Announces New Mac Studio With M2 Max and M2 Ultra Chips

[rumz]

The above is why many of us (including myself) at the time were pretty convinced the Mac mini would not be getting an M2 Pro because the value proposition compared to a base Mac Studio favored the Studio since for the same price, the Max gives you 11 more GPU cores and double the bandwidth for that 32GB of RAM.

That being said, when Apple did actually release the Mac mini Pro, if the binned SoC and 16GB of RAM is sufficient for you, it is $700 cheaper and that is nothing to sneeze at.

I will probably just get the Studio since it would last me forever, but my needs do arguably align with the base Mac mini Pro and that savings would cover half the cost of a Studio Display.

My thoughts exactly... speccing up an M2 Pro mini doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of specs compared to the Studio, but the entry point is much lower. (and maybe form factor and cooling / noise issues are a factor for some?)

 

[dgdosen]

With the announcement of the Back-to-school promotion I went to the Edu Store and configured an M2 Pro Mac mini vs. an M2 Max Mac Studio ...

2023 Mac mini

• Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 32GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, two USB‑A ports, one 3.5 mm headphone jack

US $1,919 ($1,819 with $100 Back-to-school discount)

2023 Mac Studio

• Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 38‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 32GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Front: Two USB-C ports, one SDXC card slot
• Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10Gb Ethernet port, one 3.5 mm headphone jack

US $1,979

So even with the Back-to-school promo discount, the Studio gives you a faster M2 Max instead of an M2 Pro; a SoC with twice the GPU cores; plus the extra ports on the front not to mention the better internal cooling - for only US $160 more. I had been thinking about getting the new Mac mini but this is a no-brainer ...

M2 Pro Mini vs M1 Max Studio - was kind of a toss up and you could make a case for each - even with upgrades.
M2 Pro Mini vs M2 Max Studio - clear winner in the Studio.

 

[duck apple]

Pathetic, no M3. Why would anybody spend the money on the pro with the same chip as the studio? Very disappointing.

Agree!
Why embarrassing yourself with the paltry M2?
M2, even the Ultra, can't see the tail light of AMD 7950X3D which, based on 5nm process, unlike Intel 13th K class, is reasonably efficient, cool and quiet, with monster power (16 core, 32 thread, running at more than 5GHz all cores); it's so much better in most regards.

I have been a proud owner of Mac Studio Max when in its inception it easily beat them all. Now all that glory was gone.

 

[duck apple]

I agree you need more storage. But Apple SSD pricing is RIDICULOUS. I got a Samsung 4TB external SSD I will leave always connected and that reviewed well for this use. It cost me just north of $200. That would set you back $1,400 for an internal SSD.

Those USB SSD are all junk. The so called 10G USB only get you around 700MB/s, bad match to the super fast internal SSD.
Get a USB-4 NVMe enclosure or TB3/4 dock with embedded NVMe slot, fit in a gen-3 or gen-4 NVMe stick, connect it to one of the TB4/USB4 port to get around 4GB/s.

Don't waste money on TB3/TB4 NVMe enclosure! They will be much slower than USB-4 due to Thunderbolt particularity.

 

[Biro]

With the announcement of the Back-to-school promotion I went to the Edu Store and configured an M2 Pro Mac mini vs. an M2 Max Mac Studio ...

2023 Mac mini

• Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 32GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI port, two USB‑A ports, one 3.5 mm headphone jack

US $1,919 ($1,819 with $100 Back-to-school discount)

2023 Mac Studio

• Apple M2 Max with 12‑core CPU, 38‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 32GB unified memory
• 512GB SSD storage
• Front: Two USB-C ports, one SDXC card slot
• Back: Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10Gb Ethernet port, one 3.5 mm headphone jack

US $1,979

So even with the Back-to-school promo discount, the Studio gives you a faster M2 Max instead of an M2 Pro; a SoC with twice the GPU cores; plus the extra ports on the front not to mention the better internal cooling - for only US $160 more. I had been thinking about getting the new Mac mini but this is a no-brainer ...

Yup. The only way I'd buy an Mac Mini M2 Pro now would be the base model at $1,299. That's more than enough for many people - pretty much the same spec as my more-expensive 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip. Even a standard M2 Mac Mini with 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD runs $999. And that's still enough more most people. But option out a Mini when a Studio is about the same price? It makes no sense.