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M1 Ultra Mac Studio is 2 Pounds Heavier Than M1 Max Version Due to Thermal Differences
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What people are pointing out is that if you put the M1 Ultra in an iMac it would probably suffer the same thermal limitations as the previous Intel models (throttling and excessive fan noise). This is contradictory to the myth around here that AS has magical thermal characteristics. It seems that Apple is finally designing their products around the thermal requirements, something they failed to do with most of their Intel offerings.
But I think they’re basing that assessment on the fact that there’s a large heat sink in the box that also contains a 370W power supply. If one instead examines the 60W power consumption of the M1 Ultra, that’s less than half the power requirement of the 160W 18-Core 2.3 GHz Intel Xeon W that was in the iMac Pro, and less than half the 125W Core i9-10910 that was in the highest end iMac.
Knowing that, I could STILL state that The M1 Ultra at 60W would throttle just as bad in a system designed to cool an over 100W processor, sure.
This doesn't seem like a particularly important thing to know about a desktop computer, other than the indirect information is suggests about its internals.
Just wait until they release the official Apple branded rolling suitcase with a bottom compartment for it!
His statements lack accuracy but the overall sentiment isn't that far off-base....
As an owner of a 16" Macbook Pro M1 Max myself, this Studio Mac makes a lot less sense to me than it could make, if it was designed differently.
What I mean is, yes - the RAM and GPU are integrated, so sockets for upgrading them aren't really relevant anymore. But it would still be nice if one of these desktops had at least a couple of PCIe slots in it, and if it housed internal SSDs/drives like the older Mac Pro towers did. Give people a way to set up RAID arrays with 3 or 4 internal drives and to swap a failing one. (PCIe may not be hugely relevant anymore, but people do need it for some very expensive video capture cards they still want to use.... Plus, if they were a known option for these machines, I think you'd see some offerings as internal cards for products like pro audio recording, vs having to use external boxes connected with USB.)
Since it has none of those upgrade options and everything is integrated or soldered on? I may as well just use a notebook form-factor machine with a dock and external display(s), keyboard and mouse. (Yeah, my laptop can't use that "Ultra" version of the M1 -- but that's more than I need anyway, especially at the price point.)
You mean I can’t take it to Starbucks????? Wow! Apple JUST lost a customer! Way to exclude your base. . .
/s
Why SUUUURE you can!
iMacs in Inappropriate Places, Starbucks Edition
Behold, the mystery and the magic that is the desktop at the coffee shop.
You just described the Mac Pro…
Then you described why this is more computer than you need…
So what exactly is there here to complain about? You yourself just said it isn’t for you. So go get an M1 base model. Some people want the M1 Max or Ultra.
Not to mention this is a way cheaper way to get into the M1 max than a laptop. It’s like an extra 900 dollars to get the cheapest laptop with an M1 Max in it.
The cheapest 16 inch like you have with an M1 Max is 1100 dollars more than this… so are you saying if someone wants a desktop with an M1 Max, they should instead spend an extra 1100 dollars to get a 16 inch screen they never use? And on top they should add the cost of a dock to get the extra ports? Not even mentioning that a dock won’t have the throughput of these thunderbolt ports. Can you see how you make no sense?
You aren’t the target audience. Gasp. You also aren’t very smart if you think the above is a better option for a desktop user.
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Apple has explicitly confirmed that an Apple Silicon Mac Pro is coming, and that sounds to be more in line with you needs/preferences than the Mac Studio.
Luckily for all of us, Apple will soon be offering both products (whoohoo, Apple giving people choices/options!), so people with your preferences for expandability within a chassis can go for the Mac Pro and people who work off of a server/NAS via 10gbps (wired) networking (thus have no need for anything more than a single super fast SSD as the boot drive, nor the portability/small screen of the MacBook Pro) can buy the Mac Studio
I love the design of this machine mainly because I hate noise. Apple appear to have gone down the route of creating possibly the fastest processor you can buy, with an incredibly fast integrated graphics card, and then they have put on a massive heat sink and large fans to ensure that it can run at 100% load and still remain silent. I have always hated machines that get super loud when under load. I would rather have a larger case then trying to put these processors in a Mac Mini with super loud fans and throttling.
There will be people that are annoyed with this. They’re used to power “sounding” like something. One person set up an intensive rendering job, went to get a coffee and when they got back, they’d thought their system had crashed (no noise). It will take some getting used to.
My sarcasm detector might be broken but "pass the savings on to the customer" is a hilarious turn of phrase to use when talking about Apple.
I have never wanted a Mac more in my life than this Mac Studio Ultra but I must persist. I have no reason to upgrade yet and I've been investing a ton while everything is cheap so I don't have an extra $7000+ to throw around right now all willy nilly. Probably more like $8500 because I'd need a Studio Display to start, but that other rumor about a Studio Display Pro has me waiting on that too. My dream setup would have three of those mounted on adjustable arms.
If I were to do it though, I'd get an M1 Ultra, 128GB RAM, 64-core GPU, 4TB SSD and just let it ride for the rest of the decade. Throw in a Studio Display Pro once those exist.
If I wait until the M2 Ultra or M3 Ultra the 128GB of RAM would probably be a second from highest option at least and cost less but I might go for an 8TB SSD if it's cheaper. At some point in the next year or so I really need to get some kind of Thunderbolt-based archival system in place. I hate archiving to my old slow large HDDs. And maybe by then Thunderbolt 5 80Gb/s will be available, although I will say I think that's a lot less important now that you can't use eGPUs with new Macs, but then again with these new chips you kinda don't need to.
If I were to do it though, I'd get an M1 Ultra, 128GB RAM, 64-core GPU, 4TB SSD and just let it ride for the rest of the decade. Throw in a Studio Display Pro once those exist.
If I wait until the M2 Ultra or M3 Ultra the 128GB of RAM would probably be a second from highest option at least and cost less but I might go for an 8TB SSD if it's cheaper. At some point in the next year or so I really need to get some kind of Thunderbolt-based archival system in place. I hate archiving to my old slow large HDDs. And maybe by then Thunderbolt 5 80Gb/s will be available, although I will say I think that's a lot less important now that you can't use eGPUs with new Macs, but then again with these new chips you kinda don't need to.
Oh how times have changed/tech has progressed haha.
I remember back in the day when I would be archiving by burning DVDs and being able to archive to HDD was such a luxury. Now I'm like "man, maybe I should get an SSD to use for TimeMachine backups"?
I see that you are quite impressed by the marketing presentation. And yes, I do know a few things… behold!
Explain why soldering the memory into the chip makes any difference than wiring RAM sockets into the chip? It has nothing to do with performance, it has to do with space inside the case. Apple currently needs all that for cooling.
The size of the Mac Studio is for the higher powered chips, the base model it’s mostly unneeded space. The cooling issues are obviously causing issues with the case designs, hence these compromises.
The new iMacs have their power supplies on the floor, that’s for cooling issues.
They can’t make a larger screen iMac because the increased graphics reqs would mean an even bigger power supply sitting on the floor, and an obviously even clunkier replacement for the formerly all-in-one iMac line.
The latest Apple silicon MacBook Pros have increased internal dimensions for their cases, that’s because they need for comparative more cooling.
There’s no Apple silicon Mac Pro yet, because the cooling issue is significant. More than just the Apple silicon (which is running compatibly hotter) needs to be cooled in that chassis, like the graphics and other expansion cards, the RAM and drive bays. Can they even fit an appropriate Apple CPU into the current case, or will they need to go bulkier and fuglier like the trend with the rest of the product line?
I have a 43” 4K monitor, would that scale perfect with MacOS? I’m tempted to get the Ultra, and maybe play a few games. My monitor was $1600, and I can’t imagine going to a tiny 27”.
Right now it’s part of a PC tower setup that alone weighs 80lbs for the tower and 3090. Maybe sell that and the hard drives, and go all-in on Apple.
Right now it’s part of a PC tower setup that alone weighs 80lbs for the tower and 3090. Maybe sell that and the hard drives, and go all-in on Apple.
Because any memory you can buy that goes into a slot is MUCH slower than this unified memory. SIGNIFICANTLY slower.
The ultra has memory bandwidth of 800GBps. That is MUCH FASTER than anything you can stick into 8 slots of memory. Notice the capital B.
The fact you don’t understand that means I don’t want to talk to you.
I doubt it has anything to do with cooling, and more with ensuring sufficient yields of whatever chip will power the Mac Pro. Maybe the technical challenge of stitching 4 M1 max chips as well, but I don’t see any other constraints now that Apple is evidently under no compunction to keep their Macs as small and thin as possible.
