Mac Studio Drive Speed Question

[whirl]

I am replacing my iMac 27 inch 2019 model with a Mac Studio simply because according to Apple, it is now end of life.
I currently have the following configuration in my bag but I have a question should anyone be able to help.

Question:
I don't specifically need 1TB which is adding cost to the purchase, 512GB is what I have always had but I keep seeing on YouTube that if I get 512GB I am going to see a significant drop in data transfer speed comapred to the 1TB model.

Does anyone have any BlackMagic bench mark tests from a 512GB model they could share or if someone can confirm/deny what I am seeing it would be appreciated please

 

[PaulD-UK]

@whirl
All the Mac Studio M4 options are reported as having the same number of NAND chips per card, but each increase in SSD storage capacity uses bigger capacity NAND chips.
In benchmarks this means there is a slight increase in data transfer speed for each increase in SSD capacity.

In practice this increase is probably not noticeable in day to day use...
Even the base 512GB will be about twice as fast as anything you ever saw on a 2019 iMac.

However, MacOS on Apple silicon is far more strict in how the User's Home folder in mangaged, and where in Intel days you could offload this content onto external storage, with AS, Apple has made this more problematic.

Especially if you use Apple's own content creation software (FCP, Logic etc). These tend to work more efficiently with more Home folder capacity for work-in-progress.

This made me choose a M4 Pro mini with 1TB, instead of the 512GB that I had on my M1 mini.
Using FCP I was constantly filling the SSD, and having to offload files before I'd finished with them.
This was because FCP worked far better with internal storage rather than using TB3 external SSDs...

 

[BrianBaughn]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-studio-m4-max-and-ssd-drive-speed.2453068/?post=33804041#post-33804041

 

[benwiggy]

according to Apple, it is now end of life.

Well, it won't run OS Tahoe, which is due out in September/October; but it's not yet on the 'Vintage or Obsolete' list. You could happily run Sequoia for another year or two, and you would be compatible with most software, while still receiving important security updates.

But it is a good time to buy, with the Studios having been updated recently.

As for the 1Tb: it's good to have a couple of hundred Gb empty space, for the health of the SSD, and for OS file management. (The OS will use the disk for all kinds of things, apart from just your files (APFS snapshots, swap, VM,....)

Also, stuff expands to fill the available space. (Parkinson's Law).

in Intel days you could offload this content onto external storage, with AS, Apple has made this more problematic.

I have my Logic samples on an external drive, and I also store various projects there, too. Never had a problem with that on my M2 Pro Mini.

This was because FCP worked far better with internal storage rather than using TB3 external SSDs...

When you say better, do you mean the externals weren't fast enough for video work?

 

[PaulD-UK]

@benwiggy "When you say better, do you mean the externals weren't fast enough for video work?"

Even just editing 1080p (on an M1 mini 16/512) FCPs editing interface was often noticeably laggy, particularly with the video clip audio waveform redraws, when then were stored externally, even when on a different TB3 SSD to the source..

Using an external TB3 SSD to contain the source footage (read-only) is of course fine. Same with Logic source audio.
What slowed the software interface down is not storing the program's self-generated temp render files on the internal SSD.

With FCP, this can be over a hundred+ GBs after a days work editing. Do an export of a lengthy timeline (or two...) - to the internal Home folder, because that FCP's default, and is faster - and I found I'd used 500GB of my 512GB internal SSD. That mean't extra time clearing everything up to continue editing.

It's much better on my M4 Pro mini, but I've got 1TB, because that means I won't inadvertently fill up the SSD.

 

[whirl]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-studio-m4-max-and-ssd-drive-speed.2453068/?post=33804041#post-33804041

Thank for the link, there is a Black Magic screenshot on there which suggests that the base 512GB SSD is actually slower than the 1TB SSD

 

[MarkC426]

Thank for the link, there is a Black Magic screenshot on there which suggests that the base 512GB SSD is actually slower than the 1TB SSD

Yeah, but compare that with your iMac BM speed….. 🤪
Any Mac Studio spec will be blazing fast.

 

[whirl]

Yeah, but compare that with your iMac BM speed….. 🤪
Any Mac Studio spec will be blazing fast.

Very good point, and here is the BM from my iMac 2019

 

[ChrisA]

@benwiggy "When you say better, do you mean the externals weren't fast enough for video work?"

Even just editing 1080p (on an M1 mini 16/512) FCPs editing interface was often noticeably laggy, particularly with the video clip audio waveform redraws, when then were stored externally, even when on a different TB3 SSD to the source..

Using an external TB3 SSD to contain the source footage (read-only) is of course fine. Same with Logic source audio.
What slowed the software interface down is not storing the program's self-generated temp render files on the internal SSD.

With FCP, this can be over a hundred+ GBs after a days work editing. Do an export of a lengthy timeline (or two...) - to the internal Home folder, because that FCP's default, and is faster - and I found I'd used 500GB of my 512GB internal SSD. That mean't extra time clearing everything up to continue editing.

It's much better on my M4 Pro mini, but I've got 1TB, because that means I won't inadvertently fill up the SSD.

THis might have been true on the M1. Did the M1 have fast enough Thunderrbolt ports? On my M2-Pro the extrnal SSD is exactly the same speed as the internal, or at leat Black Magic's speed test thinks they are the same speed.

There are several reasons an external might be slower starting with the M_ cship design, then the cable used and then the choice of chips inside the enclosure and finally the SSD itself. All of this has to be "right," and if it is, the external will be as fast as the internal.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@ChrisA "Did the M1 have fast enough Thunderbolt ports?"

As fast as any other computer's TB3 ports - ~2800MB/s sequential R/W approx.
And whilst the internal SSD was only a little faster, the editing experience was better with the render files cached on the internal. From a later generation Mx SoC, it will be much better.