Pulled the trigger today on the 16" MBP with Max chip, 96 GB of Ram, and 2 TB SSD. I was able to get 10 years of service with my 2012 iMac, so hoping maxing out specs on its replacement will get me another 10 years. Fingers crossed anyway.
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Benchmark Results Reveal Graphics Performance of M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips
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It is very sad when you realize that there are hundreds of great games on Steam that can be maxed out and run flawlessly on these chips and yet, there is no official support. Really, it is not that difficult. Take the 100 top games on Steam and provide official support for M-chips and Metal, and the Mac will become appealing for those that not only use their computers for productivity.
My guess is that the Mini will be on average faster on real world tasks (since they’ll all benefit from faster single CPU and GPU cores, but won’t always be able to use all available cores) but probably not by a game-changing margin. (Also note that the two extra CPU cores on the M2P are efficiency cores, which will have more effect on battery life than speed).
The Studio has extra front-facing ports and can support an extra display (OTOH the HDMI port on the Mini is 2.1). Also, I think the Studio is more repairable (the SSD can be replaced, even if Apple don’t allow upgrades, all the breakable ports are on daughterboards etc.)
Rather than juggling two almost identically priced devices, if you know you can use 32 GPU cores I’d consider the Studio with the $200 GPU bump, or if the M1 Max was overkill anyway, the Mini without the cpu bump…
Mostly, I’d wait for the real-world tests and r3views on issues like fan noise.
Are there really games in the top 100 that Apple users want to play that don't already have (or had) macOS support?
“Since the Mac Studio's storage controllers are housed within its SoC, swapping out or adding SSDs isn't as easy as it might seem. Tests have showed that even original Apple SSDs cannot be used to swap or expand a Mac Studio's storage unless they are the exact configurations the M1 Max or Ultra is expecting.”
How To Upgrade The Mac Studio's Storage Without Paying Apple
A dock adds expandable storage to the Mac Studio.
screenrant.com
Apple does not make the actual panels themselves. They are either Samsung, Sony or LG. The only thing Apple does is make the hardware that drives the panel.
As I said, the SSDs can be replaced even if Apple don't allow upgrades. I.e. if the SSDs fail you can replace them with the same configuration. Via an authorised service agent or via the DIY scheme (which will only sell you the permitted SSDs for your system's serial number). That's not perfect but its 100% better than the Mac Mini which would need a new mainboard if the SSDs failed.
RE Village on MBP M2 Max 38c
1440p Max settings MetalFX Quality mode 120-170 fps
2234p (3.5K) Max settings MetalFX Quality mode 100-110 fps
2234p (3.5K) Max settings no MetalFX 70-90 fps
Yes, but there have been articles about how Apple is working with LG to create new 2 layer OLED panels that meet their needs.
I wasn't commenting on the Mac mini at all..? 🤨 I was commenting on the higher end MBPs versus the studio.
The "staggered release" of Apple Silicon-based Macs causes frustration. First, the M* comes out, then the M* Pro and Max, then the M* Ultra. For example, the M2 Max in the mini and MacBook Pro temporarily obsolete the M1 Studio until it too is upgraded to the M2 Max. And we have to assume the "M2 Ultra" will be available at the same time in the Studio line. The new ASi "Mac Pro" may indeed bring back the discrete GPU concept that we've had in the Intel Macs for quite some time now. The eGPU concept is still valid, even though Apple has decided (so far) to not bring it to the ASi Macs.
That's why they probably aren't going to sell many until they upgrade the Studio to the M2 Ultra.
I actually decided to give the prospects of a new decent sized (i.e. not 24inch) iMac one more year. If nothing is released by end of this year then will re-assess.
14" inch MBP M2 Max 12c/38c-gpu 64 GB MEM 1TB = £3950
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 20c/48cgpu 64 GB MEM 1TB = £3999
For me, with the benchs we have had shared, I see very little reason why I would not just dock a MBP and whisper "your a desktop" in its ear. Heck, if I was then feeling really wild, I'd take it for trips outside.
I was actually in the market for a studio, didn't particularly want a laptop, but I pre ordered a 14" inch MBP M2 Max 12c/38c-gpu 32 GB MEM 2TB. If I can get that close in performance, for a better price, I genuinely can't see why I wouldn't buy the laptop.. For me, knowing in my heart I got a true desktop, as opposed to a docked laptop doesn't really make much of a difference.
This happens with Intel and AMD as well. They can’t bring out all of their chips in a generation at once. They bring out the desktop, laptop, and server chips on a staggered schedule. No one has the design resource or the manufacturing capacity to do them all at once.
When you add in the chaotic supply and manufacturing environment delays, it all gets a little hard to predict. All we get are rumors from sources with variable records and then try to read the tea leaves based on history. It more of a hobby than something you can place bets on.
Easy to see with massive design undertakings and complex manufacturing processes like processor chips.
Not so obvious in the case of (say) not bumping a Mac Mini or 24" iMac to (regular) M2 when the chip was launched last June, or not bumping the M1 Max Studio to M2 Max last week. Yes, it means designing new mainboards, but that's not nearly as complex as new chips (half the point of a SoC design is most of the clever stuff is in on the chip).
A M2 Max studio now would have solved the current "collision" between the top-end M2 Pro Mini and the bottom-end M1 Max Studio, whereas the M1 Ultra Studio is still comfortably "top dog" until the M2 Ultra comes out (if your workflow can use it, 100% more cores is going to beat 10-20% faster per core - and if not the Ultra wouldn't have been for you anyway).
Nice, though I did spend £600 on an eGPU case and a Radeon RX 6600XT and it sits nicely (even over TB2) between the M1 Max and M2 Max.
True that my old system CPU performance is not the greatest, but having built a dual processor hackintosh years ago with 8 Xeon cores to improve video processing only to discover that Apple use the GPU for this (D-OH), I'll wait until the M3 Pro and Max come out before I jump ship.
And I still have my 16GB Mac Mini M1 for better CPU performance than my Intel iMac.
But still a great piece of engineering without a discrete graphics card.