First week with M1 Max

[lukethemore]

Hi there !

One week ago I (finally) upgraded from old Mac Pro 4.1 to the “new” Mac Studio.

I thought about this upgrade for months … always waiting the right moment for the upgrade: I found a very special price for an used M1 Max (base model with 32 Gb of RAM and 512 Gb of storage).

I was “scared” about this jump: I always had Intel Macs with no kind of issues since my first Mac Pro with OSX Lion.

I waited so long because of the software but, after a week, I can say that everything is working perfectly nowadays.

I had just a problem with the connection to my Dell display using an HDMI > HDMI cable … the signal is very unstable with a lot of black screens: I bought a new USB-C > Display Port cable … everything is fine now.

I fought a little against the driver for my RME audio card (recovery mode, utilities, startup security … bla bla bla) now it’s ok.

What can I say ?

The machine is beautifully fast, silent, everything is smooth … Sonoma is great … the software I installed is 100% native for silicon.

Finger crossed for the future !

 

[sdf]

I had just a problem with the connection to my Dell display using an HDMI > HDMI cable … the signal is very unstable with a lot of black screens: I bought a new USB-C > Display Port cable … everything is fine now.

That's a sign that the HDMI cable doesn't support the necessary bandwidth. I've had this happen on my AppleTV, PS4, PS5 and Mac Studio. I generally throw out the "bad" cable now: life's too short, keep only good cables.

Enjoy it. I'm typing on my base model Mac Studio M1 now (Max, 32GB of RAM). It's a nice system.

Edit: I realize I wrote that without actually explaining: Your cable is an older standard. It's likely that now that you've connected one end to the Mac Studio it's able to negotiate at a better resolution or refresh rate. That means more data, which means the old cable can't handle it and the connection drops. It sounds like ********, because why wouldn't the cable be considered when negotiating? But it's not.

 

[datagov63]

I had the same issue with an old HDMI cable that I thought was "high speed." Replaced it and all the black screens went away.

 

[Chuckeee]

It’s been my experience that the HDMI cables that come packaged with Dell monitors are notoriously bad.