Mac Studio Max or Ultra?

[memo90061]

What do you all recommend?
Currently have an iMac Pro 10 cores with 1tb ssd and 64 ram.
It's been pretty good.

I use my computer to do the following: photography, video enhance AI, and homework.
I'm wondering if the Mac Studio is fast for upscaling videos.
What do you recommend?

 

[dogface1956]

What do you all recommend?
Currently have an iMac Pro 10 cores with 1tb ssd and 64 ram.
It's been pretty good.

I use my computer to do the following: photography, video enhance AI, and homework.
I'm wondering if the Mac Studio is fast for upscaling videos.
What do you recommend?

Can you tell us what software you use and what you do with it? Knowing the software will help determine which machine is best. However, I think either one will be a pretty good upgrade over you iMac Pro.

 

[memo90061]

Can you tell us what software you use and what you do with it? Knowing the software will help determine which machine is best. However, I think either one will be a pretty good upgrade over you iMac Pro.

Yes, sorry.

I use Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Video Enhance AI, sometimes GigaPixel AI. Those are the apps that I use the most. Not much of a gamer, but thought about maybe keeping my iMac Pro and buy a PC for upscaling videos and occasional games?

 

[eddie_ducking]

what software do you use for the upscaling of videos ? *** more of interest than a determination of your requirements ***

 

[memo90061]

what software do you use for the upscaling of videos ? *** more of interest than a determination of your requirements ***

I use Topaz Video Enhance AI. I used to use Gigapixel and then put it all together in Adobe Premiere Pro. I'm not an expert and kept trying different things. Some videos have been good and others not so much.

 

[handheldgames]

I use Topaz Video Enhance AI. I used to use Gigapixel and then put it all together in Adobe Premiere Pro. I'm not an expert and kept trying different things. Some videos have been good and others not so much.

If you keep an eye on local availability, Studio Ultra's with 64GB / 1TB can be found at retail. Customizing a Max to 64GB on the Apple Store has a lead time of ~3 months.

While I paid an extra $1000 for the studio over a customized 64GB Max, for me it was worth it not having to wait the additional time.

 

[StudioMacs]

Yes, sorry.

I use Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Video Enhance AI, sometimes GigaPixel AI. Those are the apps that I use the most. Not much of a gamer, but thought about maybe keeping my iMac Pro and buy a PC for upscaling videos and occasional games?

I’m using Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, Illustrator, and Bridge for video editing and motion graphics for 30 and 60 second deliverables for YouTube preroll and broadcast. M1 Max, 32 GPU, 64GB RAM. I do the creative and render videos based on different specs for each network (which can be tedious and require rendering a few times to get them approved to air).

Unlike the M1 Max MBP, there’s no thermal throttling on the Studio, so I’m the only bottleneck.

Based on your usage, I don‘t know if you need to upgrade, but Ultra would be overkill if you do upgrade.

 

[F-Train]

If you keep an eye on local availability, Studio Ultra's with 64GB / 1TB can be found at retail. Customizing a Max to 64GB on the Apple Store has a lead time of ~3 months.

While I paid an extra $1000 for the studio over a customized 64GB Max, for me it was worth it not having to wait the additional time.

Where are you finding non-base Ultras at a retail store? I haven't seen one anywhere. I've seen a few non-base Maxes at B&H, but it's very hit and miss. Note that B&H doesn't accept returns on computers unless it's damaged or "defective".

The wait time from Apple is not three months. It's 7-8 weeks, and likely in real terms to be less. It's also $1200 less than a base Ultra, $1400 less if you don't need 32 core graphics. See this screen capture from Apple's order page from a few minutes ago for a Max with 32 core graphics, 64GB memory, 1TB SSD. Estimated delivery is June 27-July 4.

 

[F-Train]

Yes, sorry.

I use Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Video Enhance AI, sometimes GigaPixel AI. Those are the apps that I use the most. Not much of a gamer, but thought about maybe keeping my iMac Pro and buy a PC for upscaling videos and occasional games?

I had a base Max from March 8 - April 1. I've ordered an upgrade (see signature), but for reasons unrelated to what you describe as your requirements. With one caveat, I think that a base Max would perform well for your needs*. They are $2000 and the current delivery window is May 16-23. Until very recently, most Apple stores had them available for pickup, but in the last few days very few have had one. You could also check Costco and Best Buy.

Maybe have a look at some of the YouTube videos on the Max and the software that you use. That way you can make your own assessment. A guy whose YouTube channel is called ArtIsRight has covered a number of Adobe products and Video Enhance AI. Note that it doesn't matter whether the video is about a Mac Studio M1 Max or a 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max. Same chip, same performance, same configuration options.

* The caveat is that you may feel strongly about having 1TB of internal storage and the base only has 512GB. The 1TB version is another $200.

 

[StudioMacs]

. Note that it doesn't matter whether the video is about a Mac Studio M1 Max or a 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max. Same chip, same performance, same configuration options.

nope

the laptop is subject to thermal throttling on long renders (as an example)

 

[F-Train]

nope

the laptop is subject to thermal throttling

Reviews say that throttling can be an issue with the 14" but isn't for the 16". I left the 14" out of my comment out of an abundance of caution for that very reason. In fact, reviewers regularly say that the fan rarely comes on for either laptop, if at all. I've yet to see a single reviewer say that his laptop performance was being impacted by throttling.

In any event, the purpose here is to get a general idea of performance. In some cases, reviews of the laptops are helpful, partly because they've been around longer, and I see zero reason to ignore them due to theoretical throttling. If a given review is way out of whack with others, that's something to take into account anyway.

 

[StudioMacs]

Reviews say that throttling can be an issue with the 14" but isn't for the 16". I left the 14" out of my comment out of an abundance of caution for that very reason. In fact, reviewers regularly say that the fan rarely comes on for either laptop, if at all. I've yet to see a single reviewer say that his laptop performance was being impacted by throttling.

In any event, the purpose here is to get a general idea of performance. In some cases, reviews of the laptops are helpful, partly because they've been around longer, and I see zero reason to ignore them due to theoretical throttling.

Ok. But the 16” throttles on long renders. Most reviewers compared the Studio Ultra to the MBP Max because they are lazy.

 

[F-Train]

Ok. But the 16” throttles on long renders. Most reviewers compared the Studio Ultra to the MBP Max because they are lazy.

Good to see that you've now edited your post #10 to qualify your statement. There were useful reviews done with the M1 Max before the Mac Studios were even announced. The initial Mac Studio reviews didn't even cover the Max because Apple gave Ultras to almost all of the reviewers.

I think that one of the best reviews of an M1 Max computer was in fact done with a 14" MacBook Pro. However, it's focused on music, which is outside @memo90061's use case.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

What I've gathered from reviews:

- Going from 10-cores to 20-cores, the CPU scales to about 40-45% improvement, which I think we can all agree is very impressive. Optimisation doesn't appear to be a bottleneck and Apple's own apps are faring very well with the Ultra's 20-core CPU. In comparison to your iMac Pro, even the Max's 10-core CPU outpaces it by around 15%.

- The GPU isn't scaling linearly from the 32-cores in the Max to the 48/64-cores in the Ultra. A lot of this is down to optimisation as a (very) small number of applications that have been optimised do scale fairly well, though still not to the degree of the CPU. Even at this level however, you would need to consider whether the investment is worthwhile. For most, the Ultra isn't only overkill but simply not good value.

Personally I think the sweet spot coming from an iMac Pro would be Max with 32-core GPU. Benchmarks show this to beat out the Radeon Pro 5700 and Vega 56, which are two very good GPUs. Plus it will future-proof your Mac for many years to come.