Apple earlier this month introduced the new Mac Studio featuring M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra chips, delivering a huge boost in performance and enhanced connectivity in its compact design.
Featuring up to 192GB of unified memory, Mac Studio with M2 Ultra has far more memory than the most advanced workstation graphics cards, taking on demanding workloads other systems can’t even process.
Mac Studio with M2 Max is up to 50 percent faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio and 4x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac. It features a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU, and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Mac Studio with M2 Ultra takes Mac performance to new heights. M2 Ultra delivers twice the performance and capabilities of M2 Max, and is Apple’s largest and most capable system on a chip (SoC) ever. Mac Studio with M2 Ultra is up to 3x faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac. It features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, and up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth for workstation-class performance.
The Mac Studio is the perfect middle ground for power users. It’s far more powerful than the 24-inch iMac ($1,299) as well as the Mac Mini ($599), but it’s thousands of dollars less than the new Mac Pro ($6,999). It’s the Goldilocks Mac—just right.
You have the choice to outfit it with the M2 Max ($1,999) or M2 Ultra ($3,999)—two of the most powerful Apple chips available—but this further encroaches on the Mac Pro’s territory, since Apple’s pricey desktop computer is also powered by the M2 Ultra. For the vast majority of folks that need a powerful machine, you don’t need to go Pro. The Studio is nearly as capable and far more compact.
Since my daily workflow consists of typing words into documents, sending emails, and web browsing, I handed the Mac Studio over to my partner, a professional videographer, to stress-test this machine.
We imported multiple streams of both ProRes and RED raw footage (about 10 gigabytes in total with a RED raw clip at an 8:1 compression) into Final Cut Pro to edit. We applied several color corrections and changed the camera log conversion LUTs over 20 times in real time, while also keeping it set to “better quality.” The M2 Ultra handled the footage like it was nothing—there were no dropped frames or stutters and everything was rendered quickly. Even applying noise reduction at “high amount” and “high sharpness” on a raw clip—changes that would normally bring an Intel-powered machine to a crawl—took less than 20 seconds on a four-minute clip…
Power users should opt for the Ultra only if they’re working with high-level graphics, visual effects, or any other types of highly intensive content. Otherwise you can save some money and stick to the just-as-capable M2 Max.
MacDailyNews Note: Check out the 2023 M2 Ultra Mac Studio Geekbench 6 CPU benchmarks here.
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Article should have mentioned that users are reporting that Mac Studio with 512GB SSD suffers same disk read/write issue as apparently all other M2 Macs, which requires SSD upgrade to 1TB for disk access speed comparable to that of the M1 Mac Studio with 512GB SSD. With that limitation, it’s unfortunately really not a goldilocks offering.