Buy the base Mac Mini, then spend your $1400 savings to buy 7 years of Geforce Now Ultimate. Or 14 years of Priority.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mini M4 Pro vs Studio M2 Max?
- Thread starter Black Diesel
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I must say – @ArtIsRight reviews are quite right and thoughtful, especially when you're in the business of (moving) images on Mac. Check 'im. [EDIT] Just like @B.A.T said so few posts above.
The question is meaningless because it's based on a false premise. Please see here to understand why.
You are wrong about this.
GB6 tracks the SPECint compiler subtest pretty well, which is a good stand-in for general usage and certainly compiling.
Read what the GeekBench 6 developers said. Then compare how much difference GB6 and other benchmarks show between CPUs.
GB6 tries to answer the average users' question: "do I need an M4 Pro for everyday tasks, or M4 is enough?". GB6 gives the right answer, but an obvious one: no. There's no problem with this, it's a respectable approach. The problem is that somehow GB6 became youtubers' gold standard, and everyone drew conclusions from it about professional tasks. While pros should look to different benchmarks, or even certain test cases of those benchmarks that match the intended workload the best.
I would not buy a Studio now, toward the end of its life cycle. You will get a much, much better value in 6 months or so. I am actually buying a cheap M4 mini to supplement my workflow until then, to go along with my M2 Pro Mini. Next summer I will splurge on the Studio.
Anyone who claims that 64 GB RAM "is ridiculously overkill" for someone buying a new box for images work 2025 to 2030 is simply wrong. RAM has always been and continues to be an essential part of the computing process, and OS/app RAM demands increase every year.
I base my comments on decades of images work and database design on Macs, with careful attention to operational issues. Of course the OS will allow Macs to operate sub-optimally with lesser RAM, but why would anyone intentionally plan on sub-optimal?
Apple will fully support for at least 7 years. Seven years is a good maximum planning horizon for most folks. IMO ~5 years is a good general life cycle plan.
Yeah, right... so you're planning to leave photography behind to join high end movie production. Ok. And why do you ask which system to buy?
Just buy a M2 Ultra Studio with 76 GPU cores and 192GB Ram or wait till next year and buy the M4 Ultra Studio with 80 GPU cores and 256GB Ram. Anything else will bog you down, if you're planning to deliver big screen content on schedule.
Right, boldfacing your comment proves your point perfectly! Thanks for clearing all that up.
I disagree but I would also say I don't understand this obsession with long term futureproofing when you're acknowledging how fast technology advances. I would imagine most people who are such heavy users would want the shiny new thing from Apple by then. There were people buying top spec Intel Macs in 2017-2019 thinking they were so future proofed and then Apple Silicon came along
Aww, I'm sorry. Got an M2 Studio Max do you? Thought I might upset some people with that summary.
Yeah, as a professional developer with 35years+ experience, I'm sticking by what I'm saying.
I didn't see any supporting evedence for your put down? Just thinly veiled aggression.
I took the time to publish measurements to support my theory and claims.
Other than trashing me and Geekbench what new information did you bring to this discussion?
In my own testing, compilation tests, I've found that Geekbench doesn't predict compile time improvements.
My old iMac desktop compiles a huge app in 2.5mins. Base on Geekbench scores I expect a 3 times better compilation on my M2 MBA but what I actually got was 4-5times better.
I think the Geekbench scores of the M4 (14 core) Pro will match the M2 Studio Max. Might even beat them.
There I said it again.
Making the M2 Studio Max obsolete.
In fact both M2 Studio Max and Ultra are obsolete and a bad purchase today after the MBP M4 Max annoucement.
Even if the Ultra still retains a very thin edge it is still old and only likely to get another 5 years of software support.
Not 7 like this weeks new models.
EDIT: It's such a sign of the times. We now live in an age where if people don't like facts they attack the person who brought them to light. We're on the brink of civilisation collapsing under the weight of so many unrestrained egos.
Last edited:
Totally agree future proofing in most cases is silly, most people upgrade after 5 to 7 years anyway, luckily with Apple you can at least get a fair amount of you money back when you sell it if you do over spec your machine.
For CPU yes but for GPU no. The extra GPU cores on the m2 Max will still be beneficial. However if your work flow is not taking advantage of the extra GPU cores then the m4 Max would be the better choice.
No, I have a base M1 Air. I was never into the business of becoming the cool kid based on my config.
After interviewing countless developers at a Fortune 500 company, some with three-four times my work experience, I no longer care about number of years, but good for your.
I wasn't trying to be aggressive, I've pointed out my surprise, and gave you a quick breakdown why GB6 is bad for multicore, which you can easily google if you care. It's a forum, not a scientific journal.
If summarizing what the devs said about GB6 is trashing, then OK.
I love how you've just proved my point exactly.
Next time put more energy into reading instead of fuming on imaginary attacks: "However your maxed out M4 Pro with 10 performance cores will certainly outperform the M2 Max with 8, two-generations older cores, no benchmark needed for that..." - meaning the M4 Pro will not only beat the M2 Max in GeekBench 6, but it will beat it in other benchmarks even more. The problem I pointed out was that you tried to extrapolate from M4.
Yes.
"Aww, I'm sorry. Got an M2 Studio Max do you?"
Couldn't agree more. Cheers.
Not sure how you came to that conclusion, I never said anything of the sort. I just want to be proficient in video editing like I am in photo editing. I just spent two weeks on a boat in the Indian Ocean shooting 8k handheld with my 70-200. 8k will allow me to punch in and stabilize the footage, and this is the type of thing I'll need to learn and have a machine that won't struggle.
Planning for the life cycle of a new box is not an "obsession with long term futureproofing." It is planning for the life cycle of a new box. Each user decides the planned life cycle; plan for a one year life cycle if you like. But that life cycle is only in the future, it is not what worked so well for Sally Sue last year. Personally I usually shoot for ~5 year life cycles but YMMV.
IMO far too many folks here think only about today and yesterday because it is the easy way out. But it is bad decision analysis.
Last edited:
None of those. IMO you need to get into an M4 chip for the hardware ray tracing and the like. Buying older chips for gaming is inappropriate IMO.
Don’t let the redesign fool you - not much has changed about the mini. It is still Apple’s entry-level desktop and once you start adding upgrades the value proposition goes down compared to Apple’s more expensive hardware. If base works for you then by all means jump, but anyone looking for more than the base is better off waiting, if only to get the entire picture before buying.
I have a first gen studio with 32gb and the M1 Max 512GB. Going with the Mini, upgraded CPU option, and 48gb 2TB I like the size, and while mem bandwidth might be a bit worse, I will never notice it. It will serve my purpose of photo editing and 4k video stuffs. Not a gamer. Thunderbolt 5 is overkill, but its nice to have some insurance down the road. With that said, I trade up every 3 years, so I may never take advantage of the TB speed.
I agree, however I’m thinking of trading in a M1 Max Studio for a M4 Mini base and pocketing the £500 difference.
I can edit 4K video on a 2016 12” MacBook without any lag. Rendering will take longer obvs.
Both specs are fine. Neither will interrupt your work flow.