Upgrade Mac Studio M1 Ultra for M3 Ultra or Wait

[CDPlayer]

I’ve held off upgrading my Mac Studio Ultra M1 as the M3 didn’t offer much difference and the M4 was skipped. Yet with prices increasing I’m wondering if I should grab a base M3 Ultra that’ll last me the next 4-5 years instead of risking a possible $1000+ increase. The M1 meets my needs yet in a year or two it’ll be time and I’m evaluating all my electronics needs now and making the necessary updates. That includes my iPhone 15 Pro, office iMac, dual 5K displays, thunderbolt RAID, NAS, mesh wifi to UniFi, etc so it’s going to add up. This entire situation has me biting my nails.

 

[DLary]

I have an M2 Ultra Studio and I'm waiting for the M5 Ultra. An extra $1000 is chump change when amortized over the extra life span you will get by waiting for the M5 Ultra.

 

[SDAVE]

I’ve held off upgrading my Mac Studio Ultra M1 as the M3 didn’t offer much difference and the M4 was skipped. Yet with prices increasing I’m wondering if I should grab a base M3 Ultra that’ll last me the next 4-5 years instead of risking a possible $1000+ increase. The M1 meets my needs yet in a year or two it’ll be time and I’m evaluating all my electronics needs now and making the necessary updates. That includes my iPhone 15 Pro, office iMac, dual 5K displays, thunderbolt RAID, NAS, mesh wifi to UniFi, etc so it’s going to add up. This entire situation has me biting my nails.

Wait, M5 has huge uplift in GPU performance.

M1 Ultra is pretty powerful so not sure why you're upgrading? What are you doing exactly day to day?

I have an M1 Max MBP and it has pretty damn good performance.

The only reason I am waiting for an M5 Ultra is because I have to upgrade my Mac Pro 2019.

 

[Paul1964]

Wait.

 

[Sharky II]

What do you do with your Mac Studio?

 

[CDPlayer]

Mostly 4-8k editing and creative and multimedia work with DAS and numerous NAS. My M1 Ultra fits my needs just fine. AI is not my focus. I’ve used workstations for decades - Xeon Mac Pro’s, 2013 Mac Pro, then 2022 Mac Studio Ultra. Trading up then was more cost efficient; it only cost ~$1400 for my Mac Studio Ultra M1 as I was able to fetch $2200 for my Mac Pro with upgraded RAM and SSD and had a student discount. It was a no brainer.

My only concerns are pricing and longevity. I do not need a loaded system (base model Ultra is more than enough). I do need HDR and faster display rates. Pricing is my biggest concern. Given the global shortages, speculation on a base M5 Ultra varies greatly but could easily see a $1000 price jump given Apple will most likely drop the standard 1TB SSD to 2TB and RAM prices are 2-3x more. An M3 Ultra isn’t much of a jump from the M1 but it would last me 4-5 more years before I would even need to upgrade esp as macOS 27 is already dropping some features from M1 Mac’s (although enhanced Siri is not a personal need). I wouldn’t be considering any of this if not for the AI datacenter mess that is impacting electronics. Cost is key. All my devices are due for upgrades this year which is already projected to run me $10,000. I worry Apple may bump the base Ultra considerably. I loathe this AI mess. It’s negatively impacting creatives and pro’s who don’t need it.

TL;DR I’d rather grab an M3 Ultra base model for the current price than risk an M5 Ultra base model at $1000+ more assuming prices hold on current trajectory. I have offers on my current M1 Ultra for $2200. I don’t want to risk spending more on a system that won’t offer me much difference for my specific needs and an M4 Max is a downgrade. I don’t want to spend $5000+ on a Mac that normally is $4000 just for a GPU and small bandwidth bump and I expect to keep this for 4 years min. If prices weren’t increasing, it would be a no brainer.

PS no shade but **** Scam Altman and all the AI billionaires making bank off this mess. Getting a massive order on RAM alone for data centers now GPU’s without even spending their own money is pissing me off. It’s wrecking the global markets and consumers and we are absolutely in for a world of hurt when this bursts. People are in for a rude awakening.

Normally, financial prudence would mean not upgrading at all yet these aren’t normal times. It may cost me thousands more waiting for the M5 Ultra.

 

[splifingate]

My M1 Ultra fits my needs just fine.

Well, there you go!

 

[CDPlayer]

Mostly 4-8k editing and creative and multimedia work with DAS and numerous NAS. My M1 Ultra fits my needs just fine. AI is not my focus. I’ve used workstations for decades - Xeon Mac Pro’s, 2013 Mac Pro, then 2022 Mac Studio Ultra. Trading up then was more cost efficient; it only cost ~$1400 for my Mac Studio Ultra M1 as I was able to fetch $2200 for my Mac Pro with upgraded RAM and SSD and had a student discount. It was a no brainer.

My only concerns are pricing and longevity. I do not need a loaded system (base model Ultra is more than enough). I do need HDR and faster display rates. Pricing is my biggest concern. Given the global shortages, speculation on a base M5 Ultra varies greatly but could easily see a $1000 price jump given Apple will most likely drop the standard 1TB SSD to 2TB and RAM prices are 2-3x more. An M3 Ultra isn’t much of a jump from the M1 but it would last me 4-5 more years before I would even need to upgrade esp as macOS 27 is already dropping some features from M1 Mac’s (although enhanced Siri is not a personal need). I wouldn’t be considering any of this if not for the AI datacenter mess that is impacting electronics. Cost is key. All my devices are due for upgrades this year which is already projected to run me $10,000.

TL;DR I’d rather grab an M3 Ultra base model for the current price than risk an M5 Ultra base model at $1000+ more assuming prices hold on current trajectory. I have offers on my current M1 Ultra for $2200. I don’t want to risk spending more on a system that won’t offer me much difference for my specific needs and an M4 Max is a downgrade.

Well, there you go!

I mean, true lol I just don’t want to get stuck with an M1 system for 4 more years as the replacement MX becomes insanely expensive that I can’t justify it anymore. $1-2k more for the same uprade cycle is a lot to the average person esp as the economy is in the toilet.

 

[splifingate]

I mean, true lol I just don’t want to get stuck with an M1 system for 4 more years as the replacement MX becomes insanely expensive that I can’t justify it anymore. $1-2k more for the same uprade cycle is a lot to the average person esp as the economy is in the toilet.

Being "stuck" with an M1 ain't such a bad hand do be dealt 😉

Hopefully, your Contracts or COLA will increase to defer the cost...

 

[anthony13]

Wait. I’m in the same boat. But 64gbs of RAM is not cutting it for me so I’m waiting till m5 ultra with 256 is available.

 

[teh_hunterer]

Two years is probably enough time for things to start trending towards sanity again.

You probably also want to benefit from how the new fusion architecture from the M5 onwards makes it cheaper and easier to make bigger chips.

 

[CDPlayer]

Being "stuck" with an M1 ain't such a bad hand do be dealt 😉

Hopefully, your Contracts or COLA will increase to defer the cost...

I come from an affluent family and financially independent, yet I’m also frugal and practical. I usually buy new tech as I can afford to and enjoy it yet as I get older I’ve had less of a need. My concern is the astronomical prices for the same products due to the AI impact on electronic components. I refuse to pay 25, 30, or even 40 percent more for essentially the same device right now. Yes, the M5 or M6 will be faster but for my needs the M3 is enough. I just need a machine that won’t become obsolete by Apple in 3-4 years which will most likely happen with the M1. The M3 would buy me a few more years of updates and support.

I’m already buying new 5K dual displays to replace my 8-9 years old ones, I need new NAS and thunderbolt arrays to replace my thunderbolt 2 models, WiFi 7 AP’s, HDD’s, etc and all of that is already 20-30% more expensive minimum thanks to AI. I don’t update every year or even two years, I update when I need to and this year just happened to be that year. The timing is my point.

Moreover, everyone is feeling the pain. My father was an investment banker between London and NYC and I grew up in old Wall Street money. “Global Great Depression” and “bread lines” are common parlance now. Capitalism only works when consumers have enough disposable income to keep it from collapsing and the average consumer is struggling esp this past year. Here in Germany and in my other homelands the UK and US. The markets are untenable and due for a massive correction. I wish I was being hyperbolic but we’re all in for a world of hurt and I’m alarmed many aren’t paying attention.

That’s the point in my post - trying to make informed decisions with others’ help. Hopefully we’re all here to help others as best we can when we can.

 

[BeatCrazy]

I have an M2 Ultra Studio and I'm waiting for the M5 Ultra. An extra $1000 is chump change when amortized over the extra life span you will get by waiting for the M5 Ultra.

I'm not sure if an M5 Ultra (if it even comes!) will start at less than $5K USD, and prices are are guaranteed to be high, from there.

 

[benholt]

For 4-8K editing the chip jump itself is real — the second media engine that landed on the Ultra parts past M1 changes ProRes timeline scrubbing in a way you feel immediately, not just on render times. I went from an M1 Max MBP to an M2 Ultra Studio and the cliff in responsiveness on multi-stream 8K ProRes was bigger than any single Apple silicon transition I've hit since. M3 Ultra at base spec is hard to find at MSRP right now, so if one shows up and the price is reasonable I'd grab it rather than gamble on M5 Ultra timing. That wait could easily be eight more months, and with memory prices where they are, a base M5 Ultra is not going to be cheaper than what M3 Ultras are clearing for today.

 

[sevoneone]

For 4-8K editing the chip jump itself is real — the second media engine that landed on the Ultra parts past M1 changes ProRes timeline scrubbing in a way you feel immediately, not just on render times. I went from an M1 Max MBP to an M2 Ultra Studio and the cliff in responsiveness on multi-stream 8K ProRes was bigger than any single Apple silicon transition I've hit since. M3 Ultra at base spec is hard to find at MSRP right now, so if one shows up and the price is reasonable I'd grab it rather than gamble on M5 Ultra timing. That wait could easily be eight more months, and with memory prices where they are, a base M5 Ultra is not going to be cheaper than what M3 Ultras are clearing for today.

The Max chips, including M1 Max, have always had 2 media engines. The Ultra chips have always had 4.

Those media engines do so much lifting that I’d argue you don’t feel much difference between M1, M2, M3 or M4 when comparing Max to Max or Ultra to Ultra for day to day editing. If you do a lot of effects or grading, that’s where you’ll feel the difference. If you use any any ML/AI based filters like denoising, upscaling or magic mask, M5 is huge leap for workflows that rely on those tools.