I have 256GB in one server and 128GB in the other (linux boxes, not Macs). That's enough for the dev work we currently have, but I can expand both to 2TB if I needed to. Professional users do sometimes need large amounts of memory.
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What's Next for the Mac Studio
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My advice would be to wait for reviews discussing photography/video-related workflows on the M5 max and decide for yourself if the gains were worth your money. For the non-demanding work your current M1 max is more than enough and an M5 max would not bring much of an upgrade there.
I'm probably in the minority but I genuinely though that was GORGEOUS and always loved it. A shame it... sucked. Lacked real expandability, throttled like crazy.
Once every couple of months I browse eBay. They're cheap now. And I kinda want one. Truth is I have no real use for it. Could stick it in the homelab but then it would just be taking over services in a way that's less efficient than what they're running on now. But I mean; still! It's cool!
tenthousandthings
Contributor
I don't know, but I'll bet Apple will target you this time. It's always interesting the see what comparisons are featured in the press releases. For the M4 Max Mac Studio, the comparisons were to the iMac with Core i9. The M3 Ultra model was compared to both M1 Ultra and Xeon W. I think the M5 Max will be compared to the M1 Max first and maybe also the iMac Pro.
Mousse
macrumors 601
Make it slightly taller so that all the sides are even. Then place it in a clear acrylic outer case to give the illusion that it's floating.
I still have one of those - it’s in pristine condition too and absolutely maximum spec. Beautiful but like any black coloured device it shows dust like crazy and is surprisingly noisy when the fans crank up. The 7,1 tower for me is even better, such a great piece of design the way the air vents are sculpted.
Mine got a lot of use when my original (also maximum spec) 5,1 failed. Then I swapped over to the 7,1 and that was so good I got a second one. I still run them. They are so good that I could skip the following generations of “pro” Macs. The cooling especially was massively overkill but resulted in an always quiet machine, even in warm conditions.
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I’ve been wondering if I can get away with Macintosh gaming with crossover…
The Studio is physically an appealing design in terms of looks, cooling, and weight, and I’m leaning heavily towards really wanting to try switching to Macintosh again.
Only thing is some of the benefit for me would be from “hey siri”, which a mini or studio doesn’t have without a Studio Display, and there’s no way I’m getting one when it doesn’t have hdr at a minimum for games and video, and I reeeeally want a second video input too 😕
Ideally with hdmi directly and ideally more than one. I assume the speakers are good and better/louder than my current monitor.
There were two revisions of the cube? I probably should have gotten one instead of the pro I got.
Well, without removing what it currently has. Adding a couple M.2 ports internally so that you can expand storage without changing out Apple's proprietary main storage. I'd be totally cool with 1TB main drive if I can add a 4TB to it in the future, or even right away. Also, Make it easier to disassemble to clean dust out as well. I'd love upgradable RAM, but that's much harder to do with the way they have built Apple Silicon so I guess I'll let that be, but it would be cool if you could add sticks of RAM that just got used once the unified memory was full. Then you could increase it, but the remaining RAM would just be slower, but still faster than an SSD.
I think we would have been better off if they just went back to the old cheese grater design and updated the internals. Would have been cheaper, and still looked good.
switz
Contributor
Still think my G4 Cube's case sitting on a dresser in my office is one of the best visual designs ever from Apple. 😎
Again, Nvidia made their own workstations with proprietary systems. They already have a CPU + GPU socket which also has LPDRR5 memories along with regular memories a while ago.
With Mac Pro, they simply need to add RAM slots.
For the M4 Pro If you put the Energy into "High Performance" mode, it ramps the fans up, so it doesn't throttle - of course the fans run fast enough to be heard. Or use a 3rd party app to set a minimum speed high enough for your particular task, and keep them quieter.
I saw more throttling on the base M4 models with certain tasks - the fan profile prioritizes low fan speeds over keeping up with cooling - used some 3rd party software to set a higher minimum fan speed to compensate so it wouldn't throttle. (like Macs Fan Control, but there are at least 3+ different apps that can, some as a pay-for only)
crococarbs
macrumors member
For "hey siri" you just need to have a microphone, a cheap webcam will have one, you don't need a studio display for that! And a second display is easy via usb-c/thunderbolt since you can get a usb-c to HDMI dongle for cheap. The studio M4 Max can have up to 5 displays!
About gaming with CrossOver, the key is what games do you like to play? Some online competitive games like Valorant have very aggressive anticheat systems that don't work on anything other than an Intel/AMD CPU Windows PC. Other than that, compatibility is not 100% perfect but these days it's pretty darn good!
MacHeritage
macrumors 6502a
I'm all for more than the Ultra but until then, I would settle for the Mac Pro with Ultra chip. Better then the M2 by far.
For PCI-E expansion for high bandwidth ssd storage etc. the Mac Pro is the only option at full PCI speeds. And with M5 it should at least be PCI-E v5, hopefully, with more lanes added on.
No disrespect, but just how do YOU know all Apple has to do is ‘add RAM slots’, considering they use Unified memory. It seems a bit strange to look at one ’proprietary’ system and ‘assume’ that means another totally different ‘proprietary’ system is the same.
BillyJoeJimBob
macrumors regular
Something really great about the older 2010-2012-era Mac Pros was that the case was really thick and provided great shielding for use in a recording studio,
I'm pretty sure everyone else here knows exactly what I meant (M4 Pro), but thanks for the correction, since it wasn't so obvious to you. 🙂
tenthousandthings
Contributor
In addition, Nvidia DGX systems don’t have upgradeable memory, nor do the GB200 and B200 shown in the image they posted. Nothing in that image (from here) uses “RAM slots,” nor does the DGX Spark or DGX Station.
I looked in to just using an external microphone, but everything I found said you can only trigger hey siri with a built in microphone (or apple Studio Display, or line iPods, which I’m never wearing at home)?
I would love for that to be wrong! My work around was planning on getting a MacBook, sticking it behind my monitor, and probably the microphones would pick me up fine, but if an external mic worked that would open up the Mac mini and studio, and with m5’s that gets appealing! Even the ultra which ought to have serious grunt for games (the m3 ultra was less tempting for me, but the starting price isn’t too outlandish compared to high end windows pc or MacBook Pro, but probably quieter, cools better, and smaller than a MacBook, and of course higher end!)
I don’t care about online stuff much at all, so I may be a good candidate! (I’m not competitive, I like stories and single player stuff)
I wish Macintosh steam included proton like the Linux steam, but I guess codeweavers does similar, and hopefully isn’t a security vulnerability. I’m increasingly worried about security over the years! That’s one of the reasons I’m considering switching again for my main pc, because Apple doesn’t have your keys for tons of your data!
Nvidia already used unified memory for Grace ARM CPU. Besides, Nvidia developed unified memory WAY before Apple did. Also, Mac's SSD is a great example of having a proprietary system with upgradability so why do you keep ignoring the fact?
dmr727
macrumors G4
There's a free one month trial for Crossover, so you can see how well your Steam library runs. I use it to game on my MBA, and it does a pretty good job.
How the heck well does the air cope with the cpu/GPU being pushed to 100% for hours (games) or days (handbrake)? Does it fry the thing?
I sometimes think of the air too as I love the idea of no fan.
And thanks for the info! I’ll definitely try it and I think there’s a lifetime update thingee maybe that I might get.
All the RAM on those boards is either soldered -- LPDDR5X for the CPU, or on-substrate -- HBM3 for the GPU (MCM module). I've never seen a Grace/Hopper setup with RAM slots (for the CPU, as clearly HBM3 is out of the question), and I doubt such exist. NV offer 3 configurable-at-purchase RAM setups for Grace boards, just like Apple do with AS SKUs.