Buying advice please ( 2d artist windows user )

[Finn1214]

hi .. Im stuck ..
I do 2d Artist working mostly in illustrations graphic design and some 3d( blender) .. learning ,z brush maya etc..
back then in 2020 I tried mac OS on a friends intel i7 mac mini and a 4k monitor . .. and I bought an ipad pro 12.9 and it was great!! I did and still do some great art on it... but I feel the need of some desktop apps .. and work seamlessly ..
my budget is around : 2500 $

my main softwares are . photoshop. clip studio corel painter . zbrush, Blender. and Im learning maya and a few others that are compatible with mac.
since 2020 I was like in a fence .. I wanted to buy the i7 2020 27 5k imac .. first
but M1 silica kicked in and made me hold on , I was so hyped when I saw reviews . how well that M1 chip can handle big photoshop brushes .. etc..
then my main pc got busted . ''kaput'' literally . ( Im working with my bit old windows laptop .with a rtx2060. now . and im tired )
to sum up .
- should I wait for the M2 ?
- m1 mac mini with 16 gb ram are all those cases were something fails .. expansion docks , monitors that suddenly stop working , Bluetooth , wifi, etc etc.. is that a real thing ? or is something isolated due to . a bad batch of m1's?
hypothetically I could buy one and wait till apple silicon's are bit more mature and then buy the apple Studio M2
- buy a gently used from a person I know . an intel i7 2020 27 5k imac.( for 1300 $ bucks!!) stop ranting , enjoy life and wait till m2 or m3 studio max come out ?
why not a macbook pro /max ? I preffer m1 studio . working from home I dont feel the need of a laptop , and they run hot .and are expensive in comparison.

thank you all in advance

 

[MarkC426]

With your budget, a Mac Studio......
A new Studio will not be out this year.
I think a mini will struggle with Maya/Blender/Zbrush.

Is any of your software 'legacy', as it may not work on latest MacOS.
Old versions of PS don't work in Monterey.

Another consideration is any Mac you buy, unless it's a base model it will be a couple of months delivery.......

 

[Finn1214]

With your budget, a Mac Studio......
A new Studio will not be out this year.
I think a mini will struggle with Maya/Blender/Zbrush.

Is any of your software 'legacy', as it may not work on latest MacOS.
Old versions of PS don't work in Monterey.

Another consideration is any Mac you buy, unless it's a base model it will be a couple of months delivery.......

Thank you Mark .! legacy software .. uh its something I didn't thought too much I was sure that with ''parallels '' it's not a big deal ?
but the real problem are the ''deliver times '' gods that's a huge delay .!
Im kind of depressed . ..
so I only have the chance to go for a mac mini 16gb or a 2020 intel i7 27 5k imac.

 

[hobowankenobi]

I would not recommend any intel Macs at this point. They will likely not age well...if the last couple architecture changes are any guide. Not to mention the performance and simplicity of the new hardware. Gently used makes some sense...but new? Nope.

The lead times are a challenge...perhaps a well-equipped mini for a few years as a transition machine, and then move up? Good chance the mini will hold its value pretty well for 2-3 years.

As for struggling...I can say that students using Maya on M1 iMacs in labs with 16GB are seeing pretty good performance. I am not an artist, so I can't speak to the level of complexity/load their projects require, but no complaints. They have been using Maya 2020, recently updated to 2022, and even though it is not a Universal app, performance seems good, especially compared to the i5 boxes that the M1 iMacs replaced.

Rolled out over 150 M1 Macs in the last few months, and only 1 hardware issue I am aware of: one was bricked during OS install...could have been a bad SSD. Apple replaced the logic board (as everything is integrated), no hassles.

Before you splurge on pricey Parallels, consider trying UTM for Apple Silicon.

 

[Finn1214]

I would not recommend any intel Macs at this point. They will likely not age well...if the last couple architecture changes are any guide. Not to mention the performance and simplicity of the new hardware. Gently used makes some sense...but new? Nope.

The lead times are a challenge...perhaps a well-equipped mini for a few years as a transition machine, and then move up? Good chance the mini will hold its value pretty well for 2-3 years.

As for struggling...I can say that students using Maya on M1 iMacs in labs with 16GB are seeing pretty good performance. I am not an artist, so I can't speak to the level of complexity/load their projects require, but no complaints. They have been using Maya 2020, recently updated to 2022, and even though it is not a Universal app, performance seems good, especially compared to the i5 boxes that the M1 iMacs replaced.

Rolled out over 150 M1 Macs in the last few months, and only 1 hardware issue I am aware of: one was bricked during OS install...could have been a bad SSD. Apple replaced the logic board (as everything is integrated), no hassles.

Before you splurge on pricey Parallels, consider trying UTM for Apple Silicon.

hey thank for your interest .. intel 2020 5k i7 imac is a used one 1300 bucks . a new one never crossed my mind . . if I take this route it would be to just hold one for 2 years and wait till apple optimize their chips with 2d and 3d software.. but still investing 1300 usd its not a tip argh! :F

honestly I m bit stressed because of many issues reports although (correct me if IM wrong) most of them are due to : OS. is not quiet there yet .. guess Apple brains are working on it ..
third party plug-ins .. expansion docks ..etc.. not all are suited to work with apple chip /OS yet ?
monitors: the same or the monitor brand has something that makes interference with mac Os. or Mac Os don't like it .
menawhile .. IM tempting to do something like this diy 5k monitor miani

 

[Finn1214]

I would not recommend any intel Macs at this point. They will likely not age well...if the last couple architecture changes are any guide. Not to mention the performance and simplicity of the new hardware. Gently used makes some sense...but new? Nope.

The lead times are a challenge...perhaps a well-equipped mini for a few years as a transition machine, and then move up? Good chance the mini will hold its value pretty well for 2-3 years.

As for struggling...I can say that students using Maya on M1 iMacs in labs with 16GB are seeing pretty good performance. I am not an artist, so I can't speak to the level of complexity/load their projects require, but no complaints. They have been using Maya 2020, recently updated to 2022, and even though it is not a Universal app, performance seems good, especially compared to the i5 boxes that the M1 iMacs replaced.

Rolled out over 150 M1 Macs in the last few months, and only 1 hardware issue I am aware of: one was bricked during OS install...could have been a bad SSD. Apple replaced the logic board (as everything is integrated), no hassles.

Before you splurge on pricey Parallels, consider trying UTM for Apple Silicon.

From teh info I gathered .. m1 mac mini, m1 macbook pro, max, and studio are amazing and have a very promising potential but where they are failing in my regard.. its on their GPU in some specific tasks ..
when they are compared to nvidia . for example .. in Blender when you have a scene loaded with all textures . lights ,etc,etc, .. in live viewport they seem to struggle a lot .. very like choppy performance ..
meanwhile if you are just having a wireframe .or solid view or else the performance is outstanding ..
seems like the gpu is wafting a lot doing nothing wasting time .. or something .
anyways this is a very specific topic ..
I just want to point out that I don't care much about render times .. Im more focused to have a fluid nice experience while Im working .

 

[MarkC426]

The GPU on the Mac Studio is far superior to any iMac GPU.

 

[Finn1214]

The GPU on the Mac Studio is far superior to any iMac GPU.

agree but its not well implemented yet .. so in many cases its acting like an amd/metal one ..
here 's comparison of smae blender scene ''mr elephant''
desktop i7 12th gen and rtx 3080 vs studio max vs studio ultra : ps 12th gen intel +rtx 3080 vs apple studio max vs studio ultra. blender viewport
here same scene but with an m1 pro : m1 pro blender viewport mr elephant
here 's an intel mackbook pro 2019 + egpu vega 56 8gb same scene : 2019 macbook pro + egpu vega 56 blender viewport mr elephant
and here's a macbook pro M1 MAX in some tests .. viewport differences render scenes etc.. gpu cycles.:
m1 max gpu cycles
my point is that m1 gpu is still not very optimized in other applications that are not related to video editing ..
its very powerfull ( if working with an apple silicon optimized and well tuned program/app ) but its pity to see it underperforming some rtx cards .. I hope this will change in future.

 

[hobowankenobi]

hey thank for your interest .. intel 2020 5k i7 imac is a used one 1300 bucks . a new one never crossed my mind . . if I take this route it would be to just hold one for 2 years and wait till apple optimize their chips with 2d and 3d software.. but still investing 1300 usd its not a tip argh! :F

honestly I m bit stressed because of many issues reports although (correct me if IM wrong) most of them are due to : OS. is not quiet there yet .. guess Apple brains are working on it ..
third party plug-ins .. expansion docks ..etc.. not all are suited to work with apple chip /OS yet ?
monitors: the same or the monitor brand has something that makes interference with mac Os. or Mac Os don't like it .
menawhile .. IM tempting to do something like this diy 5k monitor miani

I have not seen issues with monitors connected to M1 Macs, either Dell monitors to M1 minis, or Epson projectors connected to M1 MBPs. Not scientific by any means...just anticdotal: no problems with ether HDMI or USBC/TB4 connections to external displays.