You are absolutely correct. It is based on my needs.
I was also interested in seeing what other M1 owners might be thinking regarding upgrading should an announcement be made.
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Mac Studio Speculation [Merged]
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You are absolutely correct. It is based on my needs.
I was also interested in seeing what other M1 owners might be thinking regarding upgrading should an announcement be made.
Well, if your decision is based on your needs, then what is the question? If you need to upgrade, you upgrade. I have the same spec Studio as you - I have no need or interest in upgrading. My Studio is overkill for what I use it for.
FWIW, the only reason I would upgrade my M1 Ultra is if I was unhappy with the SSD size I bought, which I'm not (I've got about 40 TB storage with 4 hard drives hooked to a USB port).
I got zero whine or whistle, and I've only raised my fan speed by more than 200 rpm exactly once in over a year. That's when I pegged 16 performance cores - 95% or higher - for 30 continuous minutes grinding away doing calculations. The fan speed went up to almost 1800 rpm (what's the max speed, about 3500 rpm I think) and I still barely heard the fans (love the physical size and cooling in the Studio). My previous Mac Pro would have been driving me out of the room. It's by far the best Mac I've ever owned - and I've had dozens of Mac models starting with Steve's original Mac in 1984. I'll probably be looking for an M4 Ultra before I upgrade again.
Well, official. M2 Max and M2 Ultra Studios coming next week!!!!!!
It looks like the only thing that is fundamentally new is 8k video. If you don't need that, then the new studio is just a bit faster.
My camera maxes out at 4K raw, but one of my partners might bring something bigger. So that’s good to know!
I bought a Mac Studio M1 Max (with 1TB) for 2000€ here in Spain just a few days ago... Since it is already opened and used, the website wouldn't let me return it. I'm planning on raising a formal complain to the authorities because the law here says that you are free to return any product in 14 days no matter if it has been opened (and obviously Apple products are not an exception as this shop is trying to defend). Do you think the upgrade it's worth all the hassle? I can get the new Mac Studio M2 Max for 2400€, so it's 400€ extra that I have to pay for this upgrade. Will it be worth it? :/
I can only answer as an American. Apple has at least a 14-day return policy on hardware. I have returned open-boxed hardware before with no hassle.
If for some reason, the policies are different in Spain, I wouldn't stress over the M1 vs. M2 model. I am in the same situation as you. Bought an M1 studio about 6 months ago. I can sell it online and get more than 50% back, but I still would have to pay $800 to upgrade after that. After careful thought, it's not worth it. I would be getting a slightly faster computer.
Trust me, the M1 is more powerful than most people need, that is unless you are doing high-end software work.
If you bought a product or a service online or outside of a shop (by telephone, mail order, from a door-to-door salesperson) in an EU country, you have the right to cancel and return your order within 14 days, for any reason and without a justification.
You can read more here.
Depends on what you plan to do with it. But overall, it sounds like you feel dissatisfied with your purchase and will likely not enjoy having it as much since you already know a better product exists. If you are doing studio work with the headphone jack or using multiple 4k monitors then the newer M2 is the better option. But if your browsing forums and navigating social media or just basic stuff, then you could be happy with either one. But the lifespan of apple supporting your M1 is already minus 1 year, so I'd send emails or anything that has timestamps to prove you tried before the 14 days. A telephone call isn't much to go on. They could say they didn't say this or say that.
Pulled the trigger on an ultra, where is the order party?
Guh, sounds like I’m not ready for the VIP section
I was considering the upgrade to the new Mac Pro from my M1 Studio Ultra until I saw the price. $3000 over the price of a new Ultra M2 is not worth it for 6 PCIe slots for my workflow. I'll stick with enclosure overload and be happy with the saved cash. For my workflow 3 TB3 x16 PCIe enclosures, 1 TB2 x4 PCIe enclosure, 2 Sonnet Thunderbay 4's. works great.
I can capture 4 4k/60 video streams, access 8 NVMe SSDs and 8 SATA3 HDDs, and one additional 1080p/4k30 video stream without hiccups.
Probably 6-8 months after the new iMac and MacBook Pro come out with M3 first. So March-April 2024 is my guess. Unless there's a larger screen or widescreen iMac in that time, then possibly September 2024 for the Studio and MacPro.
I'm looking at a maxed-out Mac Studio with the Ultra chip. That's over $8K USD. If, in about a year or so, they release M3 with 48 CPU cores (as some speculate), more memory, and a more powerful GPU, I'd rather wait.
I'm thinking the thing to do at this point is to buy the base M2 Max, upgrade to 1TB with 96Gb RAM, SSD external storage, then wait for an M3 upgrade. Trade the M2 in at that time.
By doing that I will have enough experience with the M2 to know if I need to upgrade in other areas as well.
Thanks for asking. Gurman will have an exact date and time for you in his next newsletter.
When the M3 drops, the M4 will be on the horizon. You'll probably be happier with the M2 then waiting for the M4 afterwards. I was going to wait on a new iMac myself since it's still rumored to be in the works. But going with the studio for me means I can get a top notch monitor and upgrade the studio without having a bunch of iMac boxes around the house, currently I have 3.
