Replacing Mac Pro with Mac Studio: Should I wait for the M5?

[Solarflares]

Yes, basic/regular internet has turned out to be fine re: quality, latency, etc.
I usually get more RAM & storage then I actually use, so I'll at least go with 1TB SSD + 64GB RAM

Ah. Well with that config, the Max 16-core Studio is the best M4 desktop available currently.
Blistering memory performance. It also features the faster Ethernet connection.
Speed-wise, the 1TB drive is the best all-round choice.
The 14-core has less memory bandwidth, but is more common, and prices are good right now.

 

[marstan]

Ah. Well with that config, the Max 16-core Studio is the best M4 desktop available currently.
Blistering memory performance. It also features the faster Ethernet connection.
Speed-wise, the 1TB drive is the best all-round choice.
The 14-core has less memory bandwidth, but is more common, and prices are good right now.

And, perhaps best of all, the Studio still comes loaded with Sequoia (at least mine did when purchased last month).

 

[quadra605]

And, perhaps best of all, the Studio still comes loaded with Sequoia (at least mine did when purchased last month).

Geez, I don't even keep up anymore: is that the current OS??

 

[SDAVE]

Actually excited for the M5 Mac Studios to come out, that means people will offload the M3 Ultra much cheaper

 

[maflynn]

Actually excited for the M5 Mac Studios to come out

Yeah, I think the improvements are such, that I know that I'll be wicked tempted to replace my M4 Max, but buying a desktop two years in a row is crazy and will not happen. I have too many other responsibilities (read my wife would kill me )

 

[Solarflares]

Yeah, I think the improvements are such, that I know that I'll be wicked tempted to replace my M4 Max, but buying a desktop two years in a row is crazy and will not happen. I have too many other responsibilities (read my wife would kill me )

But you said you have eternal life, so really no big deal if she tops you.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

I would wait for the Mac Studio M5 because the Neural Accelerator will be helpful. GPU performance is also much better.

 

[quadra605]

I would wait for the Mac Studio M5 because the Neural Accelerator will be helpful. GPU performance is also much better.

Any place/threads I can read up on that? The Neural Accelerator is new to me--not sure what it does.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

I would wait for the M5 if you can. In addition to the faster/improved cores, the memory and SSD bandwidth is faster, which should benefit all apps, not just special purpose graphics and AI.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Any place/threads I can read up on that? The Neural Accelerator is new to me--not sure what it does.

Youtube and simple search for "M5 Neural Accelerator"

Apple unleashes M5, the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon

Apple today announced M5, delivering advances to every aspect of the chip and the next big leap in AI.

www.apple.com

 

[Ifti]

10 or 15% faster sounds all well and good - but I bet most people wouldn't even notice the slightest difference in their day to day usage.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

10 or 15% faster sounds all well and good - but I bet most people wouldn't even notice the slightest difference in their day to day usage.

Read line 3 and 4!

 

[Ifti]

Read line 3 and 4!

Extract from the MacRumors buyers guide, which I agree with. I feel the majority of Mac users fall into the latter camp at this point in time, although who knows how that could change in the future.

For users whose workloads include on-device AI inference, complex 3D rendering, or other GPU-bound or memory-intensive tasks, the jump from M4 to M5 is material. The combination of per-core Neural Accelerators, higher memory bandwidth, and new GPU architecture produces multi-fold speed-ups in certain AI operations. In environments where time-to-result directly affects workflow, such as local LLMs, diffusion models, video enhancement, or ray-traced production or gaming, the M5 represents a meaningful step-change rather than a minor iteration.

By contrast, for typical day-to-day usage, browsing, office work, media playback, basic editing, and general responsiveness, the difference is unlikely to be perceptible. The M4 was already a high-performance chip that routinely exceeded the demands of normal Mac and iPad workloads, leaving little visible headroom to exploit with the M5. In non-specialist scenarios, devices equipped with the M4 remain effectively indistinguishable in experience from those running with an M5.

 

[mdcmdcmdc]

10 or 15% faster sounds all well and good - but I bet most people wouldn't even notice the slightest difference in their day to day usage.

Don't overlook the increase in memory bandwidth from 120 to 153 GB/s. That's more than 25% faster, and memory speed benefits everything, not just graphics-intensive apps or AI.

EDIT: Here's a purely speculative article posted yesterday by Macworld.

The high-end M5 MacBook Pro chips are almost here: Here's why the wait was worth it

The first products with Apple's new high-end chips are finally almost here, and they should bring a big performance leap.

www.macworld.com

They take the M5 vs M4 and M4 Pro/Max vs M4 benchmark numbers and extrapolate them to estimate M5 Pro/Max numbers. A good approach, given that there's no other information about the M5 Pro/Max available yet. I'll be curious to see how these compare with the real numbers when the chips come out.

 

[quadra605]

Extract from the MacRumors buyers guide, which I agree with. I feel the majority of Mac users fall into the latter camp at this point in time, although who knows how that could change in the future.

I'm not a heavy AI user, I only use it for upscaling/sharpening images right now--but who knows what's in store for the future. I'm probably not using the right terminology, but LOCALIZED LLM's or training apps on my own images/video for my projects may be something that will become useful.

 

[MacGizmo]

Yeah, I think the improvements are such, that I know that I'll be wicked tempted to replace my M4 Max, but buying a desktop two years in a row is crazy and will not happen. I have too many other responsibilities (read my wife would kill me )

I'm in the exact same boat (on all counts 😉). I'm comforted by the fact that after about a month of the M5 being available and not buying one, I'll still be happy with how great the M4 Max is for my needs.

 

[Ifti]

I'm in the exact same boat (on all counts 😉). I'm comforted by the fact that after about a month of the M5 being available and not buying one, I'll still be happy with how great the M4 Max is for my needs.

Yeh its getting over that initial FOMO at launch - once you do, then you settle down and everything is wonderful again! lol

 

[maflynn]

Yeh its getting over that initial FOMO at launch - once you do, then you settle down and everything is wonderful again! lol

No question, and for me, the M4 Max is more then fast enough, or to put it another way, its more computer then I need right now, so much more will a M5 Max be over kill - but I'm a weak man

 

[Ifti]

No question, and for me, the M4 Max is more then fast enough, or to put it another way, its more computer then I need right now, so much more will a M5 Max be over kill - but I'm a weak man

You me both! lol
I won't upgrade though - my M1 Max MBP was doing everything I needed comfortably. Only moved to M4 Max as I wanted to give up a laptop for a desktop. I reckon I'll be with my M4 Max for several years yet!

 

[SDAVE]

10 or 15% faster sounds all well and good - but I bet most people wouldn't even notice the slightest difference in their day to day usage.

GPU is where the M5 will shine the most. People are seeing +30% in raw performance from previous gens

 

[Varmann]

I would not say any computer is "fast enough". As long as anything takes more than a fraction of a second it is not.

Pity software bloats as fast as computer speed increases. My M4max do not "feel" much faster than my 286 in 1987. Of course, I then used Norton commander as a lightning fast file manager (15k) and my files were seldom larger than 200K. Now I have 60 GB size files and thousands of files in some catalogs, and even the simple text editor is 2.2 MB.

I remember a live demo of a BeBox in early 96. One of very few times I have been thoroughly impressed by a computer/OS. It did things back then it would take ten years before any other came close to. It was not the fancy video multimedia that got my awe, it was the word processor. In a long document with some inserted images he took one image and moved some pages forward in the document. Not just the outline, he dragged the full color image effortless through the text while it nicely flowed around it. After using wordperfect and word for almost a decade that was an revelation. You can actually make complex operations without lag! After that I never looked at everpresent computer lag as an necessary evil, but more as a sign of non-user focused programming.

 

[Basic75]

GPU is where the M5 will shine the most. People are seeing +30% in raw performance from previous gens

That's not really a lot. Below the threshold of what most people will notice. Not like upgrading from an o.g. Voodoo to a Voodoo 2. Or from a RIVA 128 to a RIVA TNT.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Geez, I don't even keep up anymore: is that the current OS??

No, the current OS is Tahoe, featuring a bunch of bugs. Lots of people on Sequoia are staying there, others have upgraded and are doing ok.

Its the usual OS upgrade discussion in the forums, either bed-wetting, ambivalence or "everything is fine for me".

__________

Frankly, if I were you I would:

1) Get a refurb M4 Studio Max with the memory/config you want. These prices haven't changed IIRC, and when the new M5 Studios come out, they might show a bump given AI industry RAM/DRAM price hikes. It should come with Sequoia.

2) Start upgrading your accessories now. Get a TB5 compatible dock, cables, etc.

See where you are.

Frankly, I think you would be fine with the M4 Studio Max given your needs.

Then if you want to upgrade to an M5 Studio, you can trade in.

In the meanwhile you aren't waiting, you are getting the rest of your setup modernized and you get to use the latest toys.

If you are OK with your current storage needs, then wait out the AI price spikes as long as you can. If you have some external SSDs, you can upgrade their housings and see some nice performance spikes with TB 4/5

 

[SDAVE]

That's not really a lot. Below the threshold of what most people will notice. Not like upgrading from an o.g. Voodoo to a Voodoo 2. Or from a RIVA 128 to a RIVA TNT.

It's good for a SoC MAC lol