Ooh look at you mr money pockets. Wanna be my daddy?
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Mac Studio vs. Mac Pro Buyer's Guide
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Well, that's going to be true of any Apple Silicon system which has the CPU, GPU, RAM, SSD controller and most of the other functionality in the SoC package - and where part of the performance advantage is down to having all of that tightly integrated. It's not like you're going to be upgrading an M1 Max to a M1 Ultra - we know two models of Studio are physically different - and as for whether any hypothetical M2 Max/Ultra would be pin-compatible... that's anybody's guess even Intel often change their socket specs between generations.
Now we've seen a teardown of the Studio, it's actually rather reassuring that the only glue in sight is holding the rubber foot on the bottom, the whole thing comes apart rather neatly with a screwdriver, and most things that are likely to break/wear out - the power supply, fans, all the ports, even the SSD - are modular and can at least be replaced by Apple, if not the user. If Apple make good on their promise to start selling Mac spares to the public, that will be great.
The teardown shows that most of the stuff that is likely to break or wear out - including the SSDs, and the little daughter boards holding the ports - is modular and can at least be replaced without binning the logic board or the case every time.
...but all the bits are proprietary and I guess the SSDs need to be "blessed" by Apple so nothing is really upgradeable. That said, Apple did relent on the SSD upgrades for the Mac Pro, so there's hope there.
Also, Apple have promised that they're going to create a spare parts store for the Mac.
Otherwise Apple calls for another EU Act. Hope the Digital Market Act finalizes this month.
Every computer/smartphone sold within the EU should be easy to repair and upgrade.
I would try doing a complete fresh OS install; I just did that on my Laptop and MacPro to Monterey and a lot of annoying things that were occurring on my MacPro are gone now. Of course if you have software that does not run on Monterey then you are kind of stuck.
So?
I know people get at thrill from doing their own upgrades, but think about the economics. you can spend $20,000 so that you can upgrade it over time, lets say 5 years, with another $20,000 of upgrades... for 40k.
Or you just buy a new studio each time they come out with one, for 5 k each (get the ram upgrade), even if its once a year, thats 25k. and that doesn't even include you can probably sell those 1 year old studios for 3k , making the final cost 17 k. (5k initial, 3k x4 after)
what's insane?
People will stop buying for upgradeability, and start buying for performance.
Think Differently. It wasn't just a marketing slogan.
Except the performance has not been tested enough in the wild enough to garner any actual useful information. We need long term usage and reviews from trusted sources before jumping up and down.
Don't get me wrong, what Apple has achieved is fantastic; but I think they over sold the performance. Just my 2¢.
$4k seems to be quite competitive.
I am not sure if this can be considered the closest alternative to the M1 Ultra Mac Studio, but it does seem to boast comparable specs (64gb ram, i9, rtx3080), and currently retails at $5k. At a fairly compact form factor (which I assume is still capable of cooling the device properly).
We have come a long way from "paying the Apple Tax just for the privilege of running macOS" to "Macs are actually pretty competitively-priced relative to windows PCs".
That tear down video is excruciating. I couldn't get past the first minute due to the immature whooping it up nature of the presenter. Are these designed for people with the emotional skills of a small child? Oh for a calm, non-hyperactive presenter.
Anyone who has to click the "Render" button wants all the power and speed they can get. Time is money.
Not much mystery:
The M1 Max version performs exactly the same as the M1 Max MacBook Pro.
The M1 Ultra version just has everything doubled up, so if your workflow scales with the number of CPU and/or GPU cores you can pretty much predict how it is likely to perform.
The GPU is amazing for a truly mobile GPU, OK for a desktop-class GPU but nothing special unless you're running software that is well optimised for Metal, uses the media engine, neural engine etc. Big surprise - Apple picked benchmarks that show this off, and if you're using the Studio for what it is good at they're probably representative.
The Studio will be at its most impressive when used as an "appliance" for running FCPx, Logic, and other MacOS-centric applications. For cross-platform applications, 3D modelling etc. they'll probably turn out to be "meh".
I can't imagine that anybody is actually deliberating whether to buy a Studio versus getting their first Intel Mac Pro (people will still need new MPs for replacements, new employees etc). Even current Mac Pro owners probably got them because they had a pre-existing workflow - running on Rube Goldberg Trashcan/PCIe-enclosure lash-ups or geriatric classic cheesgraters - which they weren't prepared to change.
The question is what the new Mac Pro that Apple have teased will look like. It's hard to see how they could produce something directly equivalent to the Intel MP with the M1 technology seen so far. The rumoured "quad" M1 Max chip would, presumably, max out at 256GB RAM - which isn't going to satisfy those who need the current 1.5TB - and switching to external RAM would erase some of the M1s speed advantage over Intel. Doubling the CPU and GPU cores again could see a serious case of diminishing returns. We don't know what the PCIe capabilities of the M1 are (it obviously has some PCIe lanes for Ethernet, SD etc.) or if it could hope to support the number & bandwidth of PCIe cards in the Intel Mac Pro. Everything that Apple has said so far implies that support for third-party GPUs is dead and, again, U-turning on this erases some of the efficiencies of having the GPU on die. Some users still need PCIe for specialist audio/video interfaces etc. but maybe that can be satisfied with a Thunderbolt PCIe enclosure (...Thunderbolt has sped uo since the Trashcan days).
Possibly Apple might have to cede the market for 1.5TB RAM, Quad top-end AMD GPU monsters to the PC world (...after all, no NVIDIA is already a problem there).
The minimum for a new Mac Pro might simply be a M1 Ultra system in 1U rack-mount form, with matching rackmount PCIe cages and storage units available. Or, maybe, M1 Max/Ultra modules in MPX-like form that could plug in to a proprietary MAC-Pro-like enclosure.
and so many words and terms wrong, all over the place...
This is the truth. All these tech companies are rushing for new features instead of fixing the features we already have that only sorta work. I really had hoped the lockdowns would have had the software companies focus more on bug squashing. Oh well. One can only hope.
Turn the sound off and watch the pictures of a Mac Studio being stripped down to modules using a spudger and a screwdriver. That's the take-home from the video.
They should have made the studio into a perfect cube and paid the full homage.
It’s sitting right at the same product spot that the g4 cube was during it’s launch.
I am impressed with the studio, and clearly it won’t have the same fate as the cube.
It’s sitting right at the same product spot that the g4 cube was during it’s launch.
I am impressed with the studio, and clearly it won’t have the same fate as the cube.
It seems to me like the Mac Studio is the consumer version of the Mac Pro. I'd rather buy an all-in-one 27" iMac Pro with the specs of the Mac Studio though. The Mac Studio looks hideous.
Dude? Apple isn't optimizing macOS for anybody anymore. Mac Pro came with Catalina with no choice to downgrade to anything else 'cuz no drivers. Catalina was a dumpster-fire of an OS which kinda, sorta, mostly worked right for this update, but then watch out when the next .point release comes out!
It's not really any better on AS MacBook. If you do anything but the most basic simple things which are tightly-coupled to Apple's own apps and services, then you will eventually encounter bugs, many of which are so old they've become features.
macOS "It's glitchy and unreliable!" (But usually not in a catastrophic way, just enough to annoy you a lot and make you reinstall a few times.)