I've said this many times. For professional users, their lack of any roadmap or schedule is really obnoxious. They might update the Studio with an M3 in Q1/Q2 of next year...or they might never update it at all. There is no way to know until the day they drop it. Pretty hard to make business purchasing decisions that way.
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Apple release strategy is just plain flawed
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This is absolutely the thing people need to consider. I too am running a MBP as a desktop these days, because there is literally no reason not to. There is no massive performance tradeoff by choosing a laptop. And when I get tired of my desk, or need to travel, my 1 main machine is coming with me...not some clone of it on a secondary machine that is never quite right.
Yeah man!, they are never going to make it to worlds most valuable company until they see things your way!
Eh, it’s really not that big of a deal for businesses. As an individual, wanting to wait for a newer generation of processor makes a lot of sense. As a business, it doesn’t really make much difference if an employee has an M2 or M3 computer as you’re usually buying a computer because you need one *now*. Case in point, I bought an M2 Air for an employee two weeks ago, before the Apple event. I knew there was a chance the Air could be updated to M3 too but it didn’t matter as I needed the machine for my staff member then. And from a business standpoint, the performance difference between an M2 and an M3 processor really doesn’t make much difference. I know waiting would give more value in a possible resale but again, that really doesn’t matter. The greater depreciation cost of an M2 computer bought a week before an M3 computer is honestly negligible for most businesses.
The Ultra chip is probably not even ready. The Mac Studio can't be updated at the same time.
There are also capacity considerations.
This is still a great problem to have, especially with the real alternatives being either waiting to release the lesser M3 Macs until the Studio is ready or making sure the M3 is a smaller leap forward, performance-wise in order to avoid overshadowing the M2 Ultra. Apple clearly made the right decision releasing the M3 as soon as feasible.
For me, a laptop is really a desktop that I use on more than one desk, in more than one building. It comes with me to work and back every day, and only occasionally gets used on battery because I need to do something while on the train or away from my desk. That portability is still worth it for my use case, and I have a separate gaming PC tower for when I do need to do something that requires Windows/a GPU/a desktop/multiple monitors.
I've had the desktop PC/Mac laptop combo for a while now and it really does cover all the bases very well for me. My MacBooks typically last up to a decade, and I've only needed to change a battery once (I left my 2016 MBP plugged in and charged to 100% far too often for several years before I found out about AlDente). I got a new keyboard/top case in the deal, so for $200 that wasn't bad at all. I now have a M1 Max 14" MBP but the 2016 is still working just as well as always. I just haven't figured out who among my family or friends might have use for it.
You likely won't feel much difference anyways, save your money and get the M2 Max Studio if you need it right now.
Good news - it's already Spring! In Australia at least....
I agree that buying an M3 Max MacBook Pro is not a great solution if you really want or need a desktop solution.
What the OP may have been saying is that we now the "cat is out of the bag" regarding M3 Max performance, no Studio buyers who can wait a bit will want to buy an M2 Max Studio, so sales of those are likely to decline dramatically. Only businesses or professionals that need it now will be buying. Or people who want M3 Max performance but aren't wedded to the idea of the Studio, will choose the MBP.
Those who are in the market for an Ultra Studio (without immediate need) are also going to be very hesitant to buy an M2 Ultra Studio because the M3 Ultra is likely to be a big upgrade based on the M3 Max uptick.
This does lead me to think that Apple will pull out the stops to get the M3 Ultra into production so that they can release the M3 Studios ASAP. Maybe we'll see them before the end of the year?
A possible alternative is an early launch announcement with the M3 Max Studio being immediately available, and M3 Ultra studio in early 2024.
The M3 Max is a massive upgrade over the M2 Max. If you have CPU-based workloads or use ray tracing, it's pretty close to the M2 Ultra in performance. Mac Studios are no longer good value for money, unless you really need a new computer right now or you can get a large discount.
Intel moving away from 14nm has nothing to do with Apple. Intel moved to 10nm in 2019. The reason Intel changed their max consumer core count from 4c/8t was because of pressure from AMD, specifically Zen.
Buy Studio Ultra now...turn off Macrumors for 2 years...enjoy work
And yet the OP did not state for which purposes he needs a desktop.
It might be that an M1 Max Studio can fill all his requirements, and they are $500 less on the refurb store than an equally spec'd M2 Max.
People over-buy all the time. Unless the OP really needs hardware ray-tracing or some other specialty of the M3, why spend the money on it?
Or it could be that a PC running OpenBSD would be the best choice for them.
In the absence of further details, the reasonable default assumption is that people know what they are doing. It's not always true, but it's at least polite.
If the M2 Studio meets your current needs and you're fine with the price, then get it. You're not going to realize any productivity gains M2 to M3 unless it's over 50% better. Which it won't be. You might give it a little time and see if any deals happen but if you wait for M3, then you'll wait for M4 and on and on. If you're a heavy professional user, you'll be changing it out in a couple years most likely anyway.
...but that's WHY its incredibly important for business. I don't have time to wait for Apple to get around to releasing a Studio with an M3 (when/if that ever happens). But I could use the performance of M3 right now. Without a roadmap, I can't afford to waste time waiting on Apple. If there were a roadmap, I could make a more informed decision.
Yeah release MacBook Pro, Mac Studio and Mac Pro first, then do Mac mini, MacBook Air, iMac later.
The thing is that a desktop computer like the M1 Ultra has better cooling and thus more power reserve than a laptop. The difference between my M1 Max MBA and the M1 Ultra Studio is baffling. While the incoming M3 Max might benchmark as well as or even better than the Ultra M1, the Studio Ultra M3 will be better. It’s worth waiting for. Both machines will be amazing (as the M1 were), but I would wait 6 months to see what the next generation of StudioMacs brings.
M3 has 50% more cores than M2, 12B more transistors than M2, and is up to 30% faster than M2. It is 50% faster than M1.
Even then, I'd still be looking at deals on Studio M2s over M3s, just for the cost per performance. You're going to be replacing it before it's obsoleted anyway.