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Giuanniello

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 21, 2012
787
216
Capri - Italy
My 2014 i7 Mini can't do it any longer, don't know how but to export a photo from LightRoom sometimes takes geological eras when before it was a much smoother process, by the way, 11 years is 11 years, I am saving to get an upgrade and rather than a maxed out M4 Mini I'd go straight to a 1TB M4 Studio (also to satisfy my ego), is this a good time to buy or is there any upgrade forecast for the Studio line?

The most intensive tasks are LightRoom and some basic PhotoShop post processing, stuff which now really struggles my Mini, saving 300-400 going to an M4 Mini is not big deal, I rather spend a little more now and have a few more years power reserve.

Thoughts?

Grazie
 
My 2014 i7 Mini can't do it any longer, don't know how but to export a photo from LightRoom sometimes takes geological eras when before it was a much smoother process, by the way, 11 years is 11 years, I am saving to get an upgrade and rather than a maxed out M4 Mini I'd go straight to a 1TB M4 Studio (also to satisfy my ego), is this a good time to buy or is there any upgrade forecast for the Studio line?

The most intensive tasks are LightRoom and some basic PhotoShop post processing, stuff which now really struggles my Mini, saving 300-400 going to an M4 Mini is not big deal, I rather spend a little more now and have a few more years power reserve.

Thoughts?

Grazie
According to the Buyer’s Guide for the Mac Studio, now is a good time to buy one.
 
I bought used once, actually my i7 16GB 1TB 2014 Mini off a store but I won't buy used from a private source, been working on Macs since long time and you can never tell what you gonna face not to mention that M1 will soon be obsolete, the advantage of buying new is that I can split payment along 10 or 12 months which makes it a little lighter on the wallet
 
I bought one. There will always be a faster, newer computer being released around the corner.

We're just hearing news about the M5, but should we wait until the M5 studio is released, what about the rumored M6 chip then? We can get ourselves into analysis paralysis. Before buying the studio, I did consult the guide and felt its a safe time to buy.

Overall, the M4 max is an awesome computer - I have no regrets

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Its a relatively new refresh, so wont be refreshed for a while now - great time to buy one!
 
This is the best time for a Mac Studio. The M4 Pro/Max is a game changer and this big box is a beast. Even if you get the M2 variant, you'll still be (very) good in terms of performance for at least 5-8 years. I got a Macbook with M1 Pro w/ 32GB RAM and it roars. It's fast as hell for all my high-res editing needs in Lightroom and Photoshop. And the Mac Studio is miles away.
 
This is the best time for a Mac Studio. The M4 Pro/Max is a game changer and this big box is a beast. Even if you get the M2 variant, you'll still be (very) good in terms of performance for at least 5-8 years. I got a Macbook with M1 Pro w/ 32GB RAM and it roars. It's fast as hell for all my high-res editing needs in Lightroom and Photoshop. And the Mac Studio is miles away.

M5 model number leaks dropped today.

If you need it to make money now, get it now. Else you can play the game of what if I wait one more year?
 
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For Lightroom I understood that most of the task is done by the ram ? If correct not sure that there will be significant improvement between a boosted mini and a base studio
 
For Lightroom I understood that most of the task is done by the ram ? If correct not sure that there will be significant improvement between a boosted mini and a base studio

I know, a boosted Mini would still end up in the almost 2k range, at that point the Studio is not a much bigger financial step considering equaling RAM and internal storage
 
I find it hard to believe that the M5 will be a massive leap from the M4 - unless they’re planning an M5 Ultra (as there was no M4 Ultra).

I bought a Mac Studio on release this year, and I’m not expecting to replace it for several years. It’s difficult to think who it wouldn’t be powerful enough for.

I think the M4 mini is a great machine, but if you’re looking to bump up the spec, the Studio starts looking much more favourable.
 
One month and a half slash two months to get an M4 Studio with 1TB internal storage!!!

I need to buy through an auth reseller to be able to split the payment among 10 months since Apple Store doesn't allow that any longer and they ask for a 30% deposit which I understand and agree but then to get a BTO with a 1TB internal storage they expect almost two months and won't give a delivery date so either I make up my mind and start and use my M4 MBPro for the purpose with the external screen attached and the adapters to use my external FW800 drives or go for a standard 512GB configuration but I know I'd run out of space soon.
 
One month and a half slash two months to get an M4 Studio with 1TB internal storage!!!

I need to buy through an auth reseller to be able to split the payment among 10 months since Apple Store doesn't allow that any longer and they ask for a 30% deposit which I understand and agree but then to get a BTO with a 1TB internal storage they expect almost two months and won't give a delivery date so either I make up my mind and start and use my M4 MBPro for the purpose with the external screen attached and the adapters to use my external FW800 drives or go for a standard 512GB configuration but I know I'd run out of space soon.

14 core Studio, 48 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD $2,429.99, 4 in stock in the Cambridge Store, 1 open box at $2,186.96. Best Buy does not carry this configuration so can't do a price match request.

 
14 core Studio, 48 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD $2,429.99, 4 in stock in the Cambridge Store, 1 open box at $2,186.96. Best Buy does not carry this configuration so can't do a price match request.

Too bad I am in Italy, I have a friend who's maybe coming to visit end of August and I might buy in the US and have it brought over, I'd also save a bit as a 1TB BTO here goes for almost 2.800 euros
 
It is strange that mac pro still uses M2, mac studio M3 ultra and M4 etc... It would make sense for Apple to upgrade all models at the same time as new processors are released and my prediction is that it will eventually do so at some point.
 
It is strange that mac pro still uses M2
I wouldn't even consider the Mac Pro a niche product at this point.

Its a product who's time has passed, gone are the days where we Mac people use expansion slots, Physicially that's really the only major difference between the Mac Pro and Studio. The other difference is the price. Mac Pro's startibng price is $7,000 where as the base model Studio is $2,000 (M4 Max)
 
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I wouldn't even consider the Mac Pro a niche product at this point.

Its a product who's time has passed, gone are the days where we Mac people use expansion slots, Physicially that's really the only major difference between the Mac Pro and Studio. The other difference is the price. Mac Pro's startibng price is $7,000 where as the base model Studio is $2,000 (M4 Max)

The reason for a Mac Pro is if the mythical Extreme processor ever makes it to the light of day.
 
The reason for a Mac Pro is if the mythical Extreme processor ever makes it to the light of day.
I came across this video recently, and it helped form my recent opinion on the Mac Pro


He makes a lot of sense and points imo
 
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I came across this video recently, and it helped form my recent opinion on the Mac Pro


He makes a lot of sense and points imo

There's been a lot of migration to the cloud in the corporate space. 1.4 TB systems with tens to hundreds of processors and access to servers for libraries. So what could consume the power of an Extreme chip? I do hear complaints on Reddit that the M3 Ultra isn't enough. It is some creatives but it's mostly AI and LLM users. But I do see that there are fewer customers for this device.

Corporate gets much better control with the cloud over employees running on local desktops.

One reason that you might want to run LLMs on a Mac Pro is so that nobody else sees it.

If Apple does wind up doing a good job on LLM processing, I could see an export ban on them to China.

One of the major advantages of Apple Silicon is that you aren't restricted to the RAM limits on nVidia's cards.
 
I guess it would make more sense to develop a high speed interconnect between the Apple Silicon chips in different boxes, than to keep developing the big MacPro. They have to have done some of the groundwork when fusing chips to the Ultra chip.

4 "fused" MacStudio M4 Max would be pretty daunting.

But that is just a pipe dream on my behalf.
 
There's been a lot of migration to the cloud in the corporate space.
Yep, my organization is Cloud first on all implementations. They are also use Microsoft's intune service to lock down deployed laptop, they did such a good job of locking them down, we basically have a dumb terminal. Sadly, we in IS need more then a dumb terminal.

As for the Mac Pro, I think the time has passed for single computers like the Mac Pro, even in the creative seactor, and film industry - just my uneducated opinion

4 "fused" MacStudio M4 Max would be pretty daunting.
Why do that, when you can configure a Studio with more cores, ram and storage then the existing Mac Pro.
 
>4 "fused" MacStudio M4 Max would be pretty daunting.

Why do that, when you can configure a Studio with more cores, ram and storage then the existing Mac Pro.
To satisfy those who thinks a Mac studio would need more punch, and that an ultra chip is not enough.

But it would not happen unless someone at Apple had dropped the hard priority on viable products. But I believe it would had made more sense than keep releasing different MacPro attempts every three years or so.
 
It is strange that mac pro still uses M2,
Given the recent rise in interest in LLMs and other AI tasks, I can’t help but wonder if Apple are reserving the Mac Pro for something that’s a massive powerhouse for these tasks.

With nVidia producing 96GB GPUs, and LLMs increasing to multiple trillions of parameters, it won’t be long before the 512GB of the top-end Studio seems small. When a single GPU can be priced at $10k, even the $15k of the top-end Studio will look reasonable in some circles.

So I can’t help but wonder if Apple are planning a massively top-tier Mac Pro that can be spec’d far higher than the current maximum Studio - with much faster memory bandwidth, increased power draw, and advanced cooling - to position themselves with a product that certain quarters will drool over.

Maybe I’m overthinking this.
 
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