M1 Ultra 64GB or 128GB

[m1maverick]

It's mostly a hobby, part of which I actually use for my day job as well. You're correct about it depends how much I want to spend on this machine that essentially isn't my primary income source.

Thanks again for the insight, it's really helped with making this decision. Everyone's input has been useful to me and allowed me to consider my choice from various angles which is what I wanted.

Have you used Activity Monitor (found in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder) to see how much memory you're using? If it is showing high memory pressure that may be a reason to consider 128GB. If it's showing low or medium memory pressure it's likely 64GB will be sufficient for your current needs.

I'm guessing the YouTube video you watched regarding 64GB versus 128GB was Max Tech who concluded the extra 64GB in the 128GB configuration wasn't justified in the testing he performed.

 

[F-Train]

Have you used Activity Monitor (found in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder) to see how much memory you're using? If it is showing high memory pressure that may be a reason to consider 128GB. If it's showing low or medium memory pressure it's likely 64GB will be sufficient for your current needs.

I'm guessing the YouTube video you watched regarding 64GB versus 128GB was Max Tech who concluded the extra 64GB in the 128GB configuration wasn't justified in the testing he performed.

As post #12 says, he currently has 16GB of RAM. Consequently, Activity Monitor memory demand won't tell anything about the desirability of 128GB of RAM, or indeed 64GB.

In my view, the Max Tech YouTube channel is completely unreliable.

 

[m1maverick]

As post #12 says, he currently has 16GB of RAM. Consequently, Activity Monitor memory demand won't tell anything about the desirability of 128GB of RAM, or indeed 64GB.

In my view, the Max Tech YouTube channel is completely unreliable.

Seriously, what IS your problem?

 

[F-Train]

Seriously, what IS your problem?

Are you complaining about what I said about RAM or what I said about Max Tech?

I'm aware of the fact that you're a vocal Max Tech fan, and have a history of attacking anybody who is less enthusiastic, so I assume that it's the latter. As you know, lots of people take a rather different view of that channel than you do. No need to get your knickers in a knot whenever anybody says so

 

[m1maverick]

Are you complaining about what I said about RAM or what I said about Max Tech?

I'm aware of the fact that you're a vocal Max Tech fan, and have a history of attacking anybody who is less enthusiastic, so I assume that it's the latter. As you know, lots of people take a rather different view of that channel than you do. No need to get your knickers in a knot whenever anybody says so

I am "complaining" because you're being an obnoxious jerk. People are trying to offer the OP helpful advice and all you can do is criticize.

 

[F-Train]

I am "complaining" because you're being an obnoxious jerk. People are trying to offer the OP helpful advice and all you can do is criticize.

The person who started this thread has said that he has found my posts, and of course those of others, useful.

In any event, I didn't criticise you. I pointed out that the content of post #12 means that your advice in post #26 won't accomplish what you thought it might. If you're interested, his current computer's specs and history were discussed earlier in this thread.

 

[m1maverick]

The person who started this thread has said that he has found my posts, and of course those of others, useful.

None of which means that you're not being an obnoxious jerk. I'm not the only, or the first, one to ask what your problem is.

In any event, I didn't criticise you. I pointed out that the content of post #12 means that your advice in post #26 won't accomplish what you thought it might. If you're interested, his current computer's specs and history were discussed earlier in this thread.

Why not? Think about this carefully before responding.

 

[F-Train]

None of which means that you're not being an obnoxious jerk. I'm not the only, or the first, one to ask what your problem is.

Why not? Think about this carefully before responding.

I'm also aware from other threads of your need to have the last word. Happy to give it to you Now maybe we can return to the subject of the thread.

 

[m1maverick]

I'm also aware from other threads of your need to have the last word. Happy to give it to you Now maybe we can return to the subject of the thread.

Ah, so you re-read what I had written and realized your error.

 

[F-Train]

Ah, so you re-read what I had written and realized your error.

 

[Maccho]

His situation is a prime example of why Apple should be producing (affordable) systems with memory (and internal storage) which can be user upgraded.

Totally agree. My iMac could have ram upgraded, so when I first ordered it I didn't bother getting more ram, then upgraded later when I needed to and had the finances to support it.

 

[Maccho]

Have you used Activity Monitor (found in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder) to see how much memory you're using? If it is showing high memory pressure that may be a reason to consider 128GB. If it's showing low or medium memory pressure it's likely 64GB will be sufficient for your current needs.

I'm guessing the YouTube video you watched regarding 64GB versus 128GB was Max Tech who concluded the extra 64GB in the 128GB configuration wasn't justified in the testing he performed.

Max Tech was one of the reviews that I watched. I've watched several reviews to try and get a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the matter regarding ram and how much would be appropriate for me.

Just to quickly answer your question, memory is always maxed out in usage in Activity Monitor when I do my rendering and even just before the death of my iMac 16GB of ram really started to show it wasn't enough. Apart from my 3D modelling and animations, I'm a research academic by day and have to run quite large computations at times.

I'd like to thank everyone who has chipped in so far. It's all really useful in providing me an overall view.

 

[Mr Screech]

Max Tech was one of the reviews that I watched. I've watched several reviews to try and get a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the matter regarding ram and how much would be appropriate for me.

Just to quickly answer your question, memory is always maxed out in usage in Activity Monitor when I do my rendering and even just before the death of my iMac 16GB of ram really started to show it wasn't enough. Apart from my 3D modelling and animations, I'm a research academic by day and have to run quite large computations at times.

I'd like to thank everyone who has chipped in so far. It's all really useful in providing me an overall view.

You're welcome.
And enjoy your new system.

 

[handheldgames]

Hmmm. What can that extra memory be used for? ULTRA FAST STORAGE. Don't knock it until you try it!

 

[m1maverick]

Max Tech was one of the reviews that I watched. I've watched several reviews to try and get a holistic and comprehensive understanding of the matter regarding ram and how much would be appropriate for me.

Just to quickly answer your question, memory is always maxed out in usage in Activity Monitor when I do my rendering and even just before the death of my iMac 16GB of ram really started to show it wasn't enough. Apart from my 3D modelling and animations, I'm a research academic by day and have to run quite large computations at times.

I'd like to thank everyone who has chipped in so far. It's all really useful in providing me an overall view.

I assume "maxed out" to mean memory pressure is red during the task exhibiting memory shortage? If so what does the "Swap Used" metric show? It may help to better understand the approximate level of memory the system needs.

 

[tskwara]

Hmmm. What can that extra memory be used for? ULTRA FAST STORAGE. Don't knock it until you try it!
View attachment 2012291

I do this with my 128GB RAM for speeding up Xcode builds. The RAM drive replaces the Xcode DerivedData directory that holds the countless build artifacts.

 

[Maccho]

Hmmm. What can that extra memory be used for? ULTRA FAST STORAGE. Don't knock it until you try it!
View attachment 2012291

please excuse my ignorance, you have me intrigued now and wondering how this works? Is this something I need to manually enable or the Mac will do it on its own.

Again, sorry for the dumb questions, but if my extra ram can be used in a different way, it would be well my worth to get the 128GB.

Thank you

 

[TTYS0]

They are referring to a technique that has been around for a long time, and is usually called a "RAM Disk". Basically it involves carving out a chunk of system memory, and using it as a general purpose block device. Once a file system is applied, and mounted, it can be used like any other external storage. Since it's backed by RAM, it's really really fast. Faster than any actual storage device ever could be. The downside is the entire thing vanishes after any kind of power loss (reboot, etc).

If you are doing something that can greatly benefit from super fast I/O that doesn't have to be durable, and there is enough excess RAM available that the required data set can fit into a RAM Disk, then it can be quite handy. It is one of those technical capabilities that falls into the "if you know why you need it, then you will know how to use it" bucket. If you don't know why you would need a RAM Disk, then that's a strong indicator that you shouldn't use one.

On macOS, the diskutil utility can create a RAM Disk via hdiutil where the target is specified by ram://BLOCKS. The actual commands and their various options are easily discoverable with some light searching.

Please don't buy extra RAM because a RAM Disk sounds cool. Unless you truly know why such a thing would be beneficial to you, buying extra RAM just because a lot of RAM sounds cool, and you can afford it, is a better reason.

 

[handheldgames]

please excuse my ignorance, you have me intrigued now and wondering how this works? Is this something I need to manually enable or the Mac will do it on its own.

Again, sorry for the dumb questions, but if my extra ram can be used in a different way, it would be well my worth to get the 128GB.

Thank you

I don't prefer they / them. tmpdisk is a free ramdisk utility that allows you to take RAM and use it as an addressable disk for use in your workflow. it's extremely useful when generating / using files that can benefit from ultra high-speed access such as writing / reading xcode derived data generated at build time. Modern ram disks can be setup to backup data at shutdown and repopulate at OS startup. While a power loss / crash can be catastrophic, so can the use of a raid 0 drive setup.

 

[Maccho]

They are referring to a technique that has been around for a long time, and is usually called a "RAM Disk". Basically it involves carving out a chunk of system memory, and using it as a general purpose block device. Once a file system is applied, and mounted, it can be used like any other external storage. Since it's backed by RAM, it's really really fast. Faster than any actual storage device ever could be. The downside is the entire thing vanishes after any kind of power loss (reboot, etc).

If you are doing something that can greatly benefit from super fast I/O that doesn't have to be durable, and there is enough excess RAM available that the required data set can fit into a RAM Disk, then it can be quite handy. It is one of those technical capabilities that falls into the "if you know why you need it, then you will know how to use it" bucket. If you don't know why you would need a RAM Disk, then that's a strong indicator that you shouldn't use one.

On macOS, the diskutil utility can create a RAM Disk via hdiutil where the target is specified by ram://BLOCKS. The actual commands and their various options are easily discoverable with some light searching.

Please don't buy extra RAM because a RAM Disk sounds cool. Unless you truly know why such a thing would be beneficial to you, buying extra RAM just because a lot of RAM sounds cool, and you can afford it, is a better reason.

oh, this is such good advice.

and I especially like your closing remarks: "Unless you truly know why such a thing would be beneficial to you, buying extra RAM just because a lot of RAM sounds cool, and you can afford it, is a better reason."

 

[chipandegg]

My Mac Studio is currently using 10.82GB of memory out of 64GB with Safari (30 tabs open), Apple Mail, iMessage, etc running. By adding Final Cut, Compressor, Motion and Logic I was able to get it to 11.61GB out of 64GB.

Hi, is your Mac Studio a Max with 64GB or an Ultra with 64GB? In Logic what do you do - heavy orch templates, lots of synths/plugins etc, just curious to know?

I’m looking to buy a Mac Studio probably Max 64GB, and am wondering how it performs especially with large orchestra templates, I create other music but the orch stuff would be the most CPU intense.

Then I think shallI opt for the Mac Studio Ultra 128GB, and then I think I’m just wasting money on all they GPU power, when I only use Logic (for now).

 

[chipandegg]

Hi, is your Mac Studio a Max with 64GB or an Ultra with 64GB? In Logic what do you do - heavy orch templates, lots of synths/plugins etc, just curious to know?

I’m looking to buy a Mac Studio probably Max 64GB, and am wondering how it performs especially with large orchestra templates, I create other music but the orch stuff would be the most CPU intense.

Then I think shallI opt for the Mac Studio Ultra 128GB, and then I think I’m just wasting money on all they GPU power, when I only use Logic (for now).

Ahh just seen your signature Max 64GB?

 

[chipandegg]

oh, this is such good advice.

and I especially like your closing remarks: "Unless you truly know why such a thing would be beneficial to you, buying extra RAM just because a lot of RAM sounds cool, and you can afford it, is a better reason."

Looking for some advice here.

Gearing up to replace my 2010 27inch iMac with a Mac Studio. My thoughts are M1 Ultra, but not sure to go 64GB or 128GB.

My primary use is 3D modelling and animations (mainly this), some video production (which includes live streaming for events and post-production exporting), then some photo editing. I use Cinema4D, Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro After Effects, Illustrator and Audition.

I have heard somewhere (I can't remember which YouTube video review) say that the M1 Ultra can't use all 128GB of unified memory so 64GB is the wiser choice. Though I am wondering if this is merely a software issue and future iterations of MacOS and other software will optimise and allow the use of the full 128GB memory.

Any advice would be great! Not super tight on money, can afford the 128GB but if I can save a bit that would be get.

Thanks in advanced!
Maccho

I’m in the same situation, upgrading from an old Mac to a Mac Studio. I can afford the 128GB Ultra, do I need it though? If I got a 64GB Max, I can save money and upgrade again.

 

[F-Train]

Hi, is your Mac Studio a Max with 64GB or an Ultra with 64GB? In Logic what do you do - heavy orch templates, lots of synths/plugins etc, just curious to know?

I’m looking to buy a Mac Studio probably Max 64GB, and am wondering how it performs especially with large orchestra templates, I create other music but the orch stuff would be the most CPU intense.

Then I think shallI opt for the Mac Studio Ultra 128GB, and then I think I’m just wasting money on all they GPU power, when I only use Logic (for now).

Hi,

The Studio/Max with a 10-core CPU and 64GB of memory easily handles my main sample library, which is the full "Pro" version (638GB) of Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra. I believe that a high percentage of composers/musicians are using laptops, such as MacBook Pros, often with an external monitor. These laptops aren't even available with more than 64GB of memory.

Spitfire's Dan Keen, in the video below about his M1 Max MacBook Pro, is an example. His MacBook has the same specs as the Mac Studio in my signature.

A Music Producer’s Review | 14” M1 Max MacBook Pro​

Uploaded February 10, 2022

This is the Gary Barlow video that Keen refers to during his review. Note that Barlow says that he does almost all of his composing on a laptop, which means that he does his work with 64GB of memory:

The Making of Ant and Dec's 'Limitless' Theme-Tune | Gary Barlow ft Dan Keen​

Uploaded March 12th

 

[F-Train]

Hi, is your Mac Studio a Max with 64GB or an Ultra with 64GB? In Logic what do you do - heavy orch templates, lots of synths/plugins etc, just curious to know?

I’m looking to buy a Mac Studio probably Max 64GB, and am wondering how it performs especially with large orchestra templates, I create other music but the orch stuff would be the most CPU intense.

Then I think shallI opt for the Mac Studio Ultra 128GB, and then I think I’m just wasting money on all they GPU power, when I only use Logic (for now).

Further to the post above, the screen capture below shows the Christian Henson/Jake Jackson Logic template, and Mix window, for Spitfire's BBC SO, "Pro" 638GB version. Each of the "Stacks" in the capture, such as "Strings Stack", is a folder containing tracks for each instrument in that section of an orchestra, and indeed tracks for specific ways of playing a given instrument. That's how you get to 638GB of data in the library

The Mac Studio/Max in my signature, which costs US$2600 before any storage upgrade, handles this without difficulty. Obviously, doubling the CPU and memory doesn't hurt, the question is whether it's worth an additional US$2000 before storage upgrade. It is just a fact that a very small percentage of the people using a library like this have that much processing power or 128GB of memory.

In the video, Christian Henson and Jake Jackson demonstrate workflow with BBC SO and the template, which should give people an idea of the CPU and memory demands of a library like this. There's a useful intro, but one can skip to the substance starting at 4:30. Re Henson's comment at 6:31 about accidentally loading all the instruments in a Stack/orchestral section... Logic now has a default setting in Preferences that loads instruments only when they are actually used.

How To Use - ORCHESTRAL TEMPLATES​