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

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Apple is planning to refresh the entire Mac lineup with updated M4 chips, a process that started in late 2024 and will and continue into 2025. The Mac Studio, Apple's mid-tier desktop machine, is slated to get a new M4 chip.

M4-Mac-Studio-Feature.jpg

M4 Chip Rumors

Apple has so far introduced the standard M4 chip, the M4 Pro, and the M4 Max, but there will also be another high-end M4 chip for the Mac Pro and Mac Studio. The M4 Ultra is expected to double the performance of the M4 Max.

With the M2 lineup, the M2 Ultra is a chip that is in fact two M2 Max chips linked together, so it makes sense for Apple to use the same setup for the M4. The architecture of the M3 Max chip has led to speculation, however, that future Ultra chips might be standalone chips rather than constructed from two Max dies. We'll need to wait until the M4 Ultra comes out to be sure.

Current Mac Studio machines use M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, so we can expect the M4 models to be equipped with M4 Max and M4 Ultra (or its equivalent) chips. Aside from the Mac Pro, the Mac Studio is the only Apple machine that uses "Ultra" chips.

The Mac Studio is designed for Mac users who have system intensive workflows that require advanced compute and graphics capabilities. There isn't a lot of differentiation between the Mac Studio and Mac Pro as of right now, so Apple may be planning for a more powerful M4 Ultra variant for the Mac Pro.

Apple is going all-in on artificial intelligence across its product lineup, so the M4 is expected to have a focus on boosting AI and machine learning performance. Rumors suggest there will be an updated Neural Engine with a greater number of cores to handle AI tasks.

Memory Updates

The next Mac Studio and Mac Pro could support as much as 500GB of Unified Memory, up from the current 192GB maximum.

What About the M3?

With Apple planning to refresh the Mac Studio with M4 chips in 2025, there's no plan for an M3 chip for the Mac Studio.

Design Changes

The Mac Studio hasn't had a design update since it was first launched in March 2022, but it hasn't really existed long enough to need a refresh. Apple tends to wait several years before making major changes to Mac hardware, and we are not expecting the Mac Studio to get a refreshed look in the near future.

It will likely be closer to 2026 or 2027 before Apple considers updating the design, though it could be even longer. The Mac mini has not seen notable design changes since 2010.

Release Date

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Mac Studio with M4 chip is expected to be released around mid-2025, which would suggest a possible introduction at the 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Article Link: Apple's M4 Mac Studio: What We Know So Far
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/m4-mac-studio/
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Mac rumours really does love the Marc Gurman scoop school of ‘list every outcome of vague possibilities’ lately.

“It might rain later this week.. all signs point to it.. it rained toward the end of the week in the past. But also of course it might rain tomorrow. It will probably also rain at least once in 2027. Unless it doesn’t.”
 
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If they build an M4 Ultra without a chiplet like M2 Ultra’s design, I don’t think many people can afford it.
 
The next ‌Mac Studio‌ and ‌Mac Pro‌ could support as much as 500GB of Unified Memory, up from the current 192GB maximum.
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I don't see the point. Perhaps for extreme use cases, but those people would probably be better off with a Mac Pro. My Studio has 64 gb of RAM and the 38-core GPU. I was working on a FCPX project today that had three short (under 2 minute) 4k clips, and the timeline was stuttering like an old G4. I'd never seen that happen before. My M1 Mac mini with 32 GB of RAM never did that. So there are other considerations besides throwing more RAM at it.
 
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It would be nice if MacBook Pro gets M4 Ultra as a higher end laptop since it's totally normal to have 160W or higher power consumption. It just that the battery wont gonna last 1~2 hours but most of them will plug in the power cable anyway.
 
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jayducharme said:
I don't see the point. Perhaps for extreme use cases, but those people would probably be better off with a Mac Pro. My Studio has 64 gb of RAM and the 38-core GPU. I was working on a FCPX project today that had three short (under 2 minute) 4k clips, and the timeline was stuttering like an old G4. I'd never seen that happen before. My M1 Mac mini with 32 GB of RAM never did that. So there are other considerations besides throwing more RAM at it.
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Be aware, Mac Pro 2019 can configure up to 1.5TB RAM + 256GB VRAM.
 
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jayducharme said:
I don't see the point. Perhaps for extreme use cases, but those people would probably be better off with a Mac Pro. My Studio has 64 gb of RAM and the 38-core GPU. I was working on a FCPX project today that had three short (under 2 minute) 4k clips, and the timeline was stuttering like an old G4. I'd never seen that happen before. My M1 Mac mini with 32 GB of RAM never did that. So there are other considerations besides throwing more RAM at it.
Click to expand...
A lot depends on the codec and type of video you’re playing back. Some formats make any NLE choke. You could try proxies.
 
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jayducharme said:
I don't see the point. Perhaps for extreme use cases, but those people would probably be better off with a Mac Pro. My Studio has 64 gb of RAM and the 38-core GPU. I was working on a FCPX project today that had three short (under 2 minute) 4k clips, and the timeline was stuttering like an old G4. I'd never seen that happen before. My M1 Mac mini with 32 GB of RAM never did that. So there are other considerations besides throwing more RAM at it.
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LLMs (AI) eat gobs of memory, if Apple is serious about pushing into the AI space as they have been talking about that much RAM combined with their shared memory model would make a compelling case for the studio or MP as a workstation for working on LLMS, or at least fine tuning them locally
 
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I hope Apple sheds some light during WWDC; but in typical fashion they probably will not.
 
Aries79 said:
I still bet that the MacStudio M4 will come in 2024 even before the MacBooks...
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If the chips (M4 Max, Ultra, Extreme) are ready, I can definitely see them being first to take advantage of the new AI capabilities we've been hearing about for next version of MacOS. That would mean an October launch (September is for the iPhone).

If they really wanted to shock everyone, then it gets introduced at WWDC.
 
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I think there is a high chance that the Studio and Pro will get M3 upgrades next. Any at their event, probably with a press release. Then they have a year or more according to rumours before they get M4.

Otherwise if they skip M3 and go straight to M4 I think that move will be made by middle of this year.
 
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