Mac Studio: M1 Max vs. M1 Ultra?

[jancivil]

EDIT: Ciao, tipo enojado.
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I was speccing a Max last night and the trade-in offer for my 5 year old 27 iMac was about $350. Is that good? Crap? I have no idea on this sort of resale value.

The trade-in on an iPad Air is 'up to $335', if in perfect condition.

[benjamind]

Looks like a fantastic system. When the new M2 chips come out I guess they'll upgrade these and the Mac minis.

They are very good right now for what they are. The Max version is probably better for most audio uses with the Ultra more geared towards video production and 3D gaming engines.

I'd guess the M2 will be 20-25% faster than the M1. But the M1 is already fantastic and really holds its own against the established CPU titans.

Next system will be this one for sure. I like PCs because of their flexibility but I think Apple are really cornering the music production area with their optimised systems.

[Tronam]

Here's a slightly different take on this. Given that the single core performance of the M1 series is similar (identical?) across the line, and, given that the M1 based Macs have been out for more than a year, I would choose the Max over the Ultra. It seems that the kinds of multi-core workloads that would stress a Max aren't going to be all that common, but that single core performance demands are likely to continue to increase over time.

Plus I guess that the Max will be cooler and quieter than the Ultra... important in my studio anyway.'

With my new 16" MBP, I went for the M1-Pro rather than Max cause I figured it would also be cooler and quieter. So far I have not heard a peep of fan noise from my M1-Pro MBP and it is never more than warm. Most of the time I cannot tell a difference from ambient temp when touching it. It's freakin awesome in that regard!

Has anyone seen any info on how quiet/loud the fans are? I’m guessing it’s still too soon.

Its not the biggest issue for me (and only the Max is my budget) but I’m just curious because that box is basically all fan.

So far I haven't noticed the fans ever rising above ~1300rpm idle, even when all CPU/GPU cores are at 100% utilization. Average operating temperature is around 38º. The warmest I've ever seen it (regardless of workload) has been 58º, but this was only when running benchmarks for 20+ minutes. The cooling system seems massively overspecced and I'm not sure why they felt the need to engineer this much unnecessary overhead.

[sQeetz]

The cooling system seems massively overspecced and I'm not sure why they felt the need to engineer this much unnecessary overhead.

To keep it quiet? Don't see anything wrong with that.

[jamcat]

The Max version is probably better for most audio uses with the Ultra more geared towards video production and 3D gaming engines.

I don’t think that’s correct. The Ultra is literally 2 Maxes stitched together for double the parallel processing power. Multitrack audio processing benefits from parallel processing. So if you work with a lot of tracks with heavy processing or lots of physically modeled instruments, then the Ultra would benefit you greatly.

Use cases would be a full band production with multitracked drums that uses IK tape machines on all tracks, or a physically modeled symphonic orchestra with SWAM instruments.

[Scotty]

Deleted.

[sQeetz]

Don't get anything less than 1TB of storage. You might think it is plenty, but it's not

[Tronam]

Don't get anything less than 1TB of storage. You might think it is plenty, but it's not

I went with 1TB, but kind of wish I'd gotten more. The issue right now is that once you deviate from the base configs most of the ship times quickly balloon to 2-3 months. The Apple Store in my area has only ever gotten one M1 Ultra and maybe 5-10 M1 Max base models since launch in March. The supply chain is pretty brutal for higher end tech products like this.

[sQeetz]

I went with 1TB, but kind of wish I'd gotten more. The issue right now is that once you deviate from the base configs most of the ship times quickly balloon to 2-3 months. The Apple Store in my area has only ever gotten one M1 Ultra and maybe 5-10 M1 Max base models since the March launch. The supply chain is pretty brutal for higher end tech products like this.

Damn...

[sQeetz]

I also have a whole Windows image in Parallels because of some work related stuff that does not work in MacOS. But still....

[nosediv3]

I noticed that the refurbished models are already in stock in my region on the Apple website but I'm still not sure I can justify spending so much money

[Tronam]

I noticed that the refurbished models are already in stock in my region on the Apple website but I'm still not sure I can justify spending so much money

Unless you genuinely want/need the 20-core M1 Ultra, I think an M1 Pro 14" MBP is a better overall package than the Mac Studio and should be sufficient for most audio needs outside of large orchestral templates. Aside from the portability it's actually quieter with excellent speakers and display.

[PAK]

Unless you genuinely want/need the 20-core M1 Ultra, I think an M1 Pro 14" MBP is a better overall package than the Mac Studio

Yes, I agree with you. If your goal is to maximize the amount of virtual instruments / FX you can run, for your money, you're looking for a higher number of performance cores and less graphics cores. Amusingly, Apple appears to hide the number of performance cores, when purchasing, instead pointing you at the overall core count and amount of neural engines!

The M1 Pro has an 8 performance core, 16 graphic core option. This compares to the Mac Studio, where the M1 Max base config is the same 8 performance cores, but starts at 24 graphics cores. Meaning, if Apple ever update the Mac Mini with the Pro chip, then the base Mac Studio would likely become difficult to justify for many users, depending on Apple's pricing (big caveat there).

It'd be nice to think they'll offer that option, especially for DAW usage, and not just limit it to their Pro laptops.

[ON BEATS]

I went from a 2013 mac pro to an m1 mini. I pretty much max out the mini in almost every single project, but I use a lot of cpu heavy kontakt libraries (slate and ash, heavyocity etc), run synths in high or ultra where the options givemn, and use a 128 buffer. I've ordered a 20 core ultra and I can't wait to get stuck in. Should last me a few years before I feel the need to upgrade again.

which Software/DAW do you use please?

[m-ac]

I went from a 2013 mac pro to an m1 mini. I pretty much max out the mini in almost every single project, but I use a lot of cpu heavy kontakt libraries (slate and ash, heavyocity etc), run synths in high or ultra where the options givemn, and use a 128 buffer. I've ordered a 20 core ultra and I can't wait to get stuck in. Should last me a few years before I feel the need to upgrade again.

which Software/DAW do you use please?

Logic in native mode.