I'm just curious, but what are you MacRumors fellas doing with Mac Studios that cost more than my car?
I'd love to hear what you guys have to say.
I'd love to hear what you guys have to say.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What are you guys doing with maxed out Mac Studios?
- Thread starter Benny0001
- Start date
-
- Tags
- m3 ultra m4 max mac studio prosumer
- Sort by reaction score
With my M1 Max Mac Studio, 2 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM (so fairly maxed out) I am:
- Editing photographs - Photoshop is my most important app
- Developing and deploying multiple web sites. I run a web server locally on my Mac and use that environment as the test bed for all my web site development.
- Managing my extensive music collection, a task that is shared with one of my Power Mac G5s, which is far more period correct for loading the iPods that the music collection is ultimately downloaded to.
- Maintaining extensive software archives for each release of Mac OS Classic, each release of Mac OS X, several releases of macOS, various flavors and releases of Linux, MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 3.51/4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. These archives are ultimately published on and available for download from, my retro-computing.com web site.
- Developing *new* DOS software, which I can test via the 86Box emulator on my Mac Studio, prior to testing it on the actual DOS machines I have in my lab.
- Routine stuff: monthly budgets, emails, document archival, etc. etc. etc.
Mac Studio M3 Ultra / 28 Core / 1TB SSD / 256GB RAM
Mainly used for:-
Mainly used for:-
- Editing 8K Sony 16bit X-OCN footage in DaVinci Resolve.
- Running & learning about LLM's
- Routine stuff: monthly budgets, emails, document archival, etc. etc. etc.
Last edited:
I don't know ANYBODY who has switched from PC to Mac and later said they miss their PC! I don't want to sound too partisan, but there is a world of difference, and both the Mac hardware and software are light years ahead of their PC/Windows contemporaries.
Not really and it depends.
The 3D performance and stability like 3D work and gaming is better on windows
I have both Mac Mini M4 Pro and gaming/3d pc with rtx 4090 and both are amazing.
I mainly use Mini for design, 2d animation, small 3d, photo/video editing, mail etc I love how silent it is.
On pc I work with heavy 3d and video compositing and the performance on 3d software is 6x better, gaming is pure fun. Only drawbacks are fans and heat but if you are not pushing it’s okay and acceptable. The water cooling do the job nicely.
Last edited:
I agree. These Macs are awesome for creative work…but they still don’t hold a candle to a well-equipped PC when it comes to gaming and a lot of the 3D stuff.Not really and it depends.
The 3D performance and stability like 3D work and gaming is better on windows
I have both Mac Mini M4 Pro and gaming/3d pc with rtx 4090 and both are amazing.
I mainly use Mini for design, 2d animation, small 3d, photo/video editing, mail etc I love how silent it is.
On pc I work with heavy 3d and video compositing and the performance on 3d software is 6x better, gaming is pure fun. Only drawbacks are fans and heat but if you are not pushing it’s okay and acceptable. The water cooling do the job nicely.
Well, perhaps I stand corrected... I am not a gamer and neither are any of the people in my immediate circle, so I cannot comment on the relative performance of a Mac vs. a gaming PC.
I *suspect* however that this may not be a fair comparison. A gaming PC is optimized across every dimension possible to accomplish the fastest possible performance. Comparing that to a Mac Studio may not be an ...ahem... apples to apples comparison. Instead, you might want to compare a gaming PC to an equally optimized Mac, a Mac Pro. I *suspect* that this would be a fairer comparison.
I *suspect* however that this may not be a fair comparison. A gaming PC is optimized across every dimension possible to accomplish the fastest possible performance. Comparing that to a Mac Studio may not be an ...ahem... apples to apples comparison. Instead, you might want to compare a gaming PC to an equally optimized Mac, a Mac Pro. I *suspect* that this would be a fairer comparison.
Nope, you can't, current Apple Silicon Mac Pro is just the same Apple Silicon but in the tower.
If Apple would make a expandable, powerful Graphic Card module for Mac Pro then it will be great comparison.
Nonetheless, Apple Silicon, Mac mini and Mac Studio are very, very impressive.
NVIDIA is currently in stagnation, the new cards are only ~10% faster then last generation, so if Apple will keep up big gains with every generation it will be very close comparison.
The biggest advantage of Mac architecture is the large Unified Memory.
So the times might be very interesting in the coming 2-5 years.
Hopefully I'll be able to sell both machines and buy powerful Mac Studio one day without the trade offs.
I think they are at the limits now.
Rtx 5090 is monter and only slightly better than 4090.
So Apple Silicon and unified memory is very, very promising
I’m overwhelmed how good the M4 Pro is
Me too. I even said in another thread that I may have to come up with new uses just to make use of all the power of my M4 Max. Crazy that the 16-core M4 Max is faster for most things than the M2 Ultra.Yes me too Studio M4 Max
I haven't had a computer this "overpowered" since I bought the first gen. dual processor Xeon Mac Pro way back in the day.
Yeah, same here.
Two weeks ago I sold Mac Pro 7.1 16core and hands down, Mac mini M4 Pro is 4x faster and as silent (if you're no pushing it)!
That's why I opted for Mini instead of Studio, Studio would be overkill and I have better pc for 3d and gaming
But I love how quiet Studio is no matter what.
Last edited:
At the prices for the highest end Macs, it only makes sense to get one if it measurably benefits your work (ie. not gaming or “future proofing” etc).
I would get a maxed out Studio for 3D work, and I still might later, but for now I’ve moved more into working specifically in VR, but the VR software I use isn’t available for Mac so no reason to get a Studio for now.
I would get a maxed out Studio for 3D work, and I still might later, but for now I’ve moved more into working specifically in VR, but the VR software I use isn’t available for Mac so no reason to get a Studio for now.
Agree. Buying such overkill studio just for future proofing makes no sense with those prices. If Apple will keep up with such a progress of every generation of Apple Silicon then in 2 years todays M4/M3 overkill Studio will look silly comparing to new M5-6 base Mac Mini for 1/3 of a price.
I’ve always opted for top MacIntel build but understanding my workflow changed my mind and this time I bought a machine with little headroom and it will be enough for years. After those years if something will change, I’ll sell both of my machines and then I’ll buy Mac Studio M7-8 Max or Ultra or even new Mini for 1/3 of Studio price.
Last edited:
With the price difference and the upgrade costs then makes no sense to future proof as such.
Better to buy what you need, and then upgrade when need too.
For instance if buy the RAM to future proof then what spending on some of the machines then makes more sense to not buy the RAM and then upgrade and get the newer SoC as well when come to need the extra RAM.
And what could you do with those slots?
They are crippled by the Apple Silicon and macOS. You can only use them for fast nvme…
Last edited:
Got a M4/64GB. Very nice upgrade from my 2018 i7 mini 8GB (botched a 64 GB upgrade by ruining the last screw). But not as big as when I went from a dual core pc to a 2008 2 CPU macpro.
I like multitasking, like doing a 2 hour video conversion in the background while working with DxO Photolab. Listening to a audiobook while playing Baldurs gate 3. To not care about simultaneous tasks is a big deal for me.
When do we reach “fast enough”? IMO, when we never have to wait for a task. We are not even close.
I like multitasking, like doing a 2 hour video conversion in the background while working with DxO Photolab. Listening to a audiobook while playing Baldurs gate 3. To not care about simultaneous tasks is a big deal for me.
When do we reach “fast enough”? IMO, when we never have to wait for a task. We are not even close.
The people that say "oh Mac sucks can't do GPU things blah blah blah" need to hear this. Also wow what do you do for work that you are doing 8K editing and LLMS?
What happened to your Mini ? Did you try to upgrade by yourself and damage it so that only 8 GB worked ? I also have a Mini that I upgraded myself and was very nervous while taking it apart and putting it back together (fortunately all went fine except for the wifi antenna that I could not attach properly on the first try, but worked well on the second), but I do not see how you could end up with 8 GB (I could see one memory slot being damaged resulting in only 32 GB being recognised, but not 8 GB).
I bought a kit from Owc and started out. Slowly working my way down the innards of the mini. But the last screw were sitting very hard. I manage to damage the head. I took contact with owc. They said it was hard to solve. Either I could use a thin rubber film over the screw head and hope the friction increased enough. The second but more dangerous alternative was to drop superglue on the head and try to attach the screwdriver. I tried the first but did not dare the second. I got it back together without incidents.
I guess upgrading a Mac mini with bad eyesight and arthritic fingers was not for the faint of heart.