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Summary

Apple's new Mac Studio, powered by the M1 Ultra chip, offers workstation-level performance in a compact form factor at a relatively affordable price for professional users.

Abstract

Apple has unveiled the Mac Studio with its latest M1 Ultra processor, which is essentially two M1 Max chips combined, offering double the performance with up to 64 GPU cores and 128 GB of unified memory. Despite its small size, the Mac Studio delivers exceptional performance for professional tasks such as 3D rendering and video editing. It features a robust thermal management system and an extensive array of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, HDMI, and an SD card slot. The Mac Studio outperforms the Mac Pro and the discontinued iMac Pro, with the M1 Ultra configuration starting at $4000, which is considered cost-effective for professionals who previously would have spent much more on high-end machines.

Opinions

  • The Mac Studio is seen as a "Mac Pro mini," offering superior performance at a lower price point compared to the Mac Pro.
  • The author considers the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra to be a game-changer for professional creators due to its performance and pricing.
  • The M1 Ultra Mac Studio, starting at $4000, is deemed affordable, especially when compared to the cost of a fully-equipped Mac Pro, which could be four times as expensive.
  • The Mac Studio with M1 Max, starting at $2000, is also noted for its competitive pricing and performance against other professional machines.
  • The author expresses admiration for the Mac Studio, calling it a "beast of a machine."
  • The article promotes the author's Medium posts, suggesting readers subscribe for more content and consider a Medium membership to support writers, including the author, who has benefited financially from the platform.

The All New Mac Studio Is a Mac Pro Mini

And it’s actually cheap!

Screenshot from apple.com

Apple has presented the world’s most powerful processor for desktop computers at its Peak Performance event a couple of days ago. With this new chip called M1 Ultra, they introduced the new Mac Studio desktop computer.

It’s insanely powerful, yet surprisingly compact, and, believe it or not, it’s cheap… compared to its competition.

M1 Max times 2

Apple combines two M1 Max chips using its new UltraFusion technology to create the M1 Ultra.

This new SoC has an amazing 128 GB of unified memory as well as 20 CPU or up to 64 GPU cores — i.e., exactly twice the number of performance cores and memory of the previous M1 Max.

Workstation power in compact format

The new Mac Studio comes in the form of a compact cube, but its size disguises its enormous performance, which targets professional users in the fields of 3D or video editing, among other things.

The Mac Studio can be configured with either a M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra. M1 Max was impressive, now it already looks old.

The port selection of the Mac Studio is significantly better than that of the current MacBook Pro with M1 Max.

It has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10 GBit Ethernet port, two USB-A and one HDMI on the back.

In the front, there are two additional USB-C ports and a SD card slot.

The Mac Studio has a special thermal management system that makes its exceptional performance possible.

The bottom line

The Mac Studio isn’t a Mac mini pro, although it looks like a larger version of the Mac mini. Instead, it’s a Mac Pro mini. The performance alone trumps that of the Mac Pro in multiple high-end configurations, as well as the performance of this discontinued 27" iMac Pro.

Screenshot from apple.com

For professional creators, like video editors, photographers, developers — this new Mac is a game changer, in terms of performance as well as in terms of price.

Apple usually isn’t known for affordable pricing.

This time, though, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio starts at $4000. This might sound like a lot to you, but for professionals who were used to machines like a decked-out Mac Pro before, $4000 is cheap. They were looking at 4x as much for a Mac Pro. The Mac Studio surpasses its performance for 1/4 of the price.

You can get the Mac Studio with an M1 Max for $2000, by the way, and even that one beats many other pro machines in pricing and performance by a long shot.

This Mac Studio is a beast of a machine.

Impressive, Apple!

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Apple
Technology
Mac
Content Creation
Future
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