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Still surprising to me they didn't engineer an M4 Ultra chip. Seems like a really odd thing. Like you have to figure there will be an M4 BTO config soon, right?
Apple has said that the M4 does not have the interconnect necessary to make an M4 Ultra.

Justine reviewing a Mac Studio…really?
You don't think she is a power user, with the amount of video she edits and the frequency with which she posts? Makes perfect sense to me.

512Gb of RAM.

1/4 that of the old Mac Pro
First, it is 1/3 of the RAM, not 1/4. Second, it is 8 times the max graphics memory you could get on that Mac Pro.
 
I think these are nice machines, but i also wish apple produced true workstation class tower/pizzabox systems as well. Where battery efficiency is less useful, but binary/OS/GPU compatibility and expandability are a premium. i would love (i know they won't do it) an Intel/AMD based workstation class system with slots for cards, GPUs, memory, etc.

It's a shame that they lose this market to other manufacturers and OS's and I lose my preference to work on Mac OS if given the choice. Nothing against M series, they are great for portable systems, but I just wish there were options.
 
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I don't think any Studio system is right for everybody except those needing a higher-end machine. The majority should be purchasing a Mac Mini, if going with a desktop.

I've never seen a Studio, or know anyone that has any interest in one.

For me, an M2 Studio was an easy choice over an M2 Mac mini Pro when you configured the mini with 32GB and a 10Gb Ethernet adapter. The Studio was cheaper and the Max fairly outperformed the Pro.

The value proposition for me has changed with M4, as the base SoC is powerful enough for what I need, so it works out to be $500 cheaper than a base M4 Studio Max.


From the outside looking in it does feel like something went wrong with the M4 Ultra and the M3 Ultra was a kludge...

IMO, the reason is either TSMC had the spare fab capacity to make an M3 Ultra, but not an M4 Ultra or Apple's contracts with TSMC still require them to buy a certain volume of N3B fab capacity so the iPhone 16e, iPad Air M3 and Mac Studio M3 Ultra allow Apple to meet that purchase requirement.
 
I think these are nice machines, but i also wish apple produced true workstation class tower/pizzabox systems as well. Were battery efficiency is less useful, but binary/OS/GPU compatibility and expandability are a premium i would love (i know they won't do it) an Intel/AMD based workstation class system with slots for cards, GPUs, memory, etc.

It's a shame that they lose this market to other manufacturers and OS's and I lose the my preference to work on Mac OS if given the choice. Nothing against M series, they are great for portable systems, but I just wish there were options.
The Intel Mac Pros didn't really sell all that well. Apple's biggest Mac sales are laptops far and away, with the Mini, Studio, iMac and Mac Pro much less. It just isn't that big of a market for them.
 
Still surprising to me they didn't engineer an M4 Ultra chip. Seems like a really odd thing. Like you have to figure there will be an M4 BTO config soon, right?
I assume they do calculations and determined the return on the additional engineering and manufacturing costs and the small numbers of sales were not worth it.
 
I think these are nice machines, but i also wish apple produced true workstation class tower/pizzabox systems as well. Were battery efficiency is less useful, but binary/OS/GPU compatibility and expandability are a premium i would love (i know they won't do it) an Intel/AMD based workstation class system with slots for cards, GPUs, memory, etc.

It's a shame that they lose this market to other manufacturers and OS's and I lose the my preference to work on Mac OS if given the choice. Nothing against M series, they are great for portable systems, but I just wish there were options.
The design has the memory on the silicone, no external memory is supported by their current architecture. Disks you can add externally via high speed connections and they no longer support third party GPUs. A tower would be useless.
 
Still surprising to me they didn't engineer an M4 Ultra chip. Seems like a really odd thing. Like you have to figure there will be an M4 BTO config soon, right?
It is odd, especially as there were supposed to be huge yield issues with the N3B process node.
 
Eh? Which one is the most powerful Mac EVER? I couldn't find the answer from the article
 
For me, an M2 Studio was an easy choice over an M2 Mac mini Pro when you configured the mini with 32GB and a 10Gb Ethernet adapter. The Studio was cheaper and the Max fairly outperformed the Pro.

The value proposition for me has changed with M4, as the base SoC is powerful enough for what I need, so it works out to be $500 cheaper than a base M4 Studio Max.

Sure, but I think that 32gb RAM and 10Gbit ethernet is a higher-end need, no? Most, if they use ethernet at all, will be on 1Gbit, and 16gb will be enough for the standard user for years.
 
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Sounds like the M4 Max Mac Studio will be right for just about everybody, except for those needing high end graphics or faster graphic rendering speeds, faster video editing and video encoding speeds, users of large LLM models, or anyone else who needs a lot of fast unified memory RAM.
I'm still waiting for a large-screen iMac. I don't want a separate monitor and Mac, and I'm frustrated that Apple hasn't addressed this demand. It feels like their strategy is purely driven by maximizing profit, rather than listening to what customers actually want.
 
I'm still waiting for a large-screen iMac. I don't want a separate monitor and Mac, and I'm frustrated that Apple hasn't addressed this demand. It feels like their strategy is purely driven by maximizing profit, rather than listening to what customers actually want.
I held out as long as possible. Finally folded with M4 Mac Studio and Studio Display. The 27" iMac has been a perfect form factor for me as a graphic designer. I get that we just need to upgrade the computer and not toss the display, this route, but the initial purchase is hard to swallow coming from the iMac.
 
im so glad I can stick to the m2 ultra 76C another 2 years. the m3 ultra is a minor upgrade to that in real world performance
 
I’m so excited for my M3 Ultra. Nice to see a powerful desktop from Apple that also has a practical design and price, compared to the weak offerings we’re used to with the Mac Pro.
 
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Unified Memory. No one else has anything like this. Full size LLMs running natively. That's the move.
It’s not just about capacity. The memory bandwidth is atrocious compared to NVIDIA solutions for AI. Sure it might not get to 512GB but the performance makes up for it.
 
Glad I didn't wait for a new M4-based Studio, but went with a Mac Mini M4 Pro (14/20/64GB/2TB). The 64GB are important to me and with a M4-based Studio, Apple would force me towards an even higher CPU/GPU configuration to get the 64GB RAM. Combined with the 2TB internal storage, the Studio would be ~ 800 EUR more expensive than the Mac Mini M4 Pro, which is plenty of power for me (software dev, occasional photo/video editing), but want/need to have 64GB RAM for a machine which should last many years in the new tiny form factor. :)
 
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This review from Creative Strategies covers using the M3 Ultra Mac Studio for running LLMs, which seems to be its primary use case.
Interesting article, thanks for sharing. Love the headline: “…M3 Ultra: The only real AI Workstation today”

From the review:
I see one of the best combos any developer can do as: M3 Ultra Mac Studio with an Nvidia 8xH100 rented rack. Hopper and Blackwell are outstanding for servers, M3 Ultra is outstanding for your desk. Different machines for a different use, while it’s fun to compare these for sport, that’s not the reality.

There really is no competition for an AI workstation today. The reality is, the only option is a Mac Studio.
 
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