I prefer the black contrast back of the mini. Wonder why they opted against that on the Studio.
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Apple's M4 Mac Studio: What We Know So Far
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I prefer the black contrast back of the mini. Wonder why they opted against that on the Studio.
You know nothing!
Educate yourself before you lecture others!
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102742
Educate yourself before you lecture others!
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102742
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 amount of blank silicon in the M3 series is related to that!
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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).
Apple has made tens of millions of them but tells those purchasers they have ten hour battery life.
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
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
Now seeing that I've misread I apologise for the attack. Sorry
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.
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.
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.
I'm laughing at this but what are you doing on a modern Mac laptop that gives you 2hrs battery life?
It will be like ESPN 8: The Ocho! A giant eagle soaring to the moon at midnight.
With the M4 finally on ARMv9.4 with Matrix Multiply (SME2) built into the CPU:
- MacOs, Libraries and Frameworks can be rebalanced and tuned - pulling some of the GPU work back into the CPU.
- With IPC jump in the M4 (4.4 GHz) - There isn't much low hanging architectural 'fruit' left (at least until more transistor budget is allocated to execution units).
- When MacOS depreciates ARMv8 elements - the M4 onwards can live on without the need for Apple to depreciate it; A good reason for many to wait until M4?
WHEN would Apple 'decide' to release M4 Desktops:
- Would Apple maximise their sale of Mac Studios - if they released M4 Ultra Studio Today? (I think not)
- If Apple doesn't release an M4 desktop by the EOY - and leaks of the Nvidia 5090 wipes the floor with the current M2 Ultra Mac Pro and any projected M4 Extreme - it is going to be a tough sell mid 2025 for those that haven't already jumped ship to a PC.
I think Apple needs to have a plan in place before the end of the Year - Latest November with a clear choice Desktop offering:
- Mac Mini : M4 or M4 Pro : with 32 GB upwards
- iMac : M4 (30 Watt) or M4 Pro (38 Watt)
- Mac Studio : M2 Ultra, M4 Max, M4 Ultra (2024_Q4) or M4 Extreme (wait until 2025_Q2)
- Mac Pro : M2 Ultra or M4 Ultra (2024_Q4) or Extreme (wait until 2025_Q2)
This way Apple can keep selling all the M2 stockpile, give those desperate to upgrade to M4 the opportunity to buy something in 2024 - and for those with huge wallets - the certainty that Apple is creating something seriously HPC for them within the next 6 months.
- MacOs, Libraries and Frameworks can be rebalanced and tuned - pulling some of the GPU work back into the CPU.
- With IPC jump in the M4 (4.4 GHz) - There isn't much low hanging architectural 'fruit' left (at least until more transistor budget is allocated to execution units).
- When MacOS depreciates ARMv8 elements - the M4 onwards can live on without the need for Apple to depreciate it; A good reason for many to wait until M4?
WHEN would Apple 'decide' to release M4 Desktops:
- Would Apple maximise their sale of Mac Studios - if they released M4 Ultra Studio Today? (I think not)
- If Apple doesn't release an M4 desktop by the EOY - and leaks of the Nvidia 5090 wipes the floor with the current M2 Ultra Mac Pro and any projected M4 Extreme - it is going to be a tough sell mid 2025 for those that haven't already jumped ship to a PC.
I think Apple needs to have a plan in place before the end of the Year - Latest November with a clear choice Desktop offering:
- Mac Mini : M4 or M4 Pro : with 32 GB upwards
- iMac : M4 (30 Watt) or M4 Pro (38 Watt)
- Mac Studio : M2 Ultra, M4 Max, M4 Ultra (2024_Q4) or M4 Extreme (wait until 2025_Q2)
- Mac Pro : M2 Ultra or M4 Ultra (2024_Q4) or Extreme (wait until 2025_Q2)
This way Apple can keep selling all the M2 stockpile, give those desperate to upgrade to M4 the opportunity to buy something in 2024 - and for those with huge wallets - the certainty that Apple is creating something seriously HPC for them within the next 6 months.
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All I wanted to do is to upgrade my ancient iMac for something fast and efficient for the next 8 years. People on this forum said wait til June and Apple is launching a Mac Studio with the M3 chip. I’m waiting… waiting… waiting… nuthin. Now we’re talking a M4 chip. I can’t take it anymore.
Apple is planning to refresh the entire Mac lineup with updated M4 chips starting in late 2024 and continuing into 2025, and that will include a new M4 chip for Apple's mid-tier desktop machine, the Mac Studio.
M4 Chip Rumors
Apple has a lineup of M4 chips in development, including the standard M4, the M4 Pro and M4 Max, and a higher-end version that's codenamed "Hidra." This higher-end chip could be an "Ultra" version that's equivalent to the M2 Ultra, or it might even be something even more powerful.
With the M2 lineup, the M2 Ultra is a chip that is in fact two M2 Max chips linked together. There is no M3 Ultra at this time, but the architecture of the M3 Max chip has led to speculation that future Ultra chips might be standalone chips rather than constructed from two Max dies.
The M3 Max seems to lack the UltraFusion interconnect that allowed the M2 Max chips to function as an Ultra. Because that's missing, it's likely the Ultra chip would have dedicated development with customizations for heavy workloads. Apple could tweak the number of performance and efficiency cores to focus on power, and add more GPU cores.
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 in the coming months, 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, 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.
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
M8 for sure just so you can say "G'Day M8"
Jump when you need to, not when you want to. So if your needs mean you cannot wait 6-12 months for the M4 Studio Max, the M2 Studio Max should be a major improvement over your current iMac in performance under macOS.
I had to replace my 2020 27" Core-i7/5700 iMac with an M2 Max Mac Studio a year ago and I am so impressed with the performance improvement in every task that I know it will be years before I feel a need to upgrade to a new SoC generation.
VERY good advise: we under-estimate any machine that came after our present (old) one.
;JOOP!
The only problem with that is the Raytracing missing in M2 Studio.
I'm in similar boat as I have 2017 MBP which is in need of update but I need RT so can't just buy M2. (for now I use work machine for my needs but its not ideal)
So I will have to wait either till M4 Pro Mac Mini or Studio (ideal situation).
I really hope studio is out in Oct/Nov event too so I can get my dream machine and never look back for a while. If not then I'll get the M4 Pro Mac Mini and evaluate later once M4 Studio is out. Right now there really are any options if you need RT. (no, notebook is not an option as its crazy expensive for little value)
I'm in similar boat as I have 2017 MBP which is in need of update but I need RT so can't just buy M2. (for now I use work machine for my needs but its not ideal)
So I will have to wait either till M4 Pro Mac Mini or Studio (ideal situation).
I really hope studio is out in Oct/Nov event too so I can get my dream machine and never look back for a while. If not then I'll get the M4 Pro Mac Mini and evaluate later once M4 Studio is out. Right now there really are any options if you need RT. (no, notebook is not an option as its crazy expensive for little value)