Apple’s new Mac Studio arrives in users’ hands this week, and the first reviews have just become available. The conclusion? This is a powerhouse machine that is easily the most powerful Mac ever—but you need to know which chip is right for you.
Differences between M4 Max and M3 Ultra models
The new Mac Studio is basically identical in form to its M2 predecessor. But when comparing the M4 Max and M3 Ultra models, there are a couple noteworthy hardware differences to point out—performance aside.
Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica:
The Max and Ultra models are externally identical, but they have a couple of different details. The Ultra version of the Studio is still about two pounds heavier (8 pounds, up from 6.1) than the Max version because of its heatsink, which uses heavier but more-conductive copper instead of aluminum. The two ports on the front of the Ultra version of the Studio also support full 120Gbps Thunderbolt 5 speeds, while the ports on the Max version are 10Gbps USB-C.
When focused on performance, reviewers universally praise the power of the new Mac Studio. But due to the two chip options being a generation apart, there are certain computing tasks where one chip will outshine the other.
Despite the M3 Ultra being significantly more expensive, for example, it comes with pros and cons per Ars Technica:
The biggest downside is obviously that the M3 Ultra comes with M3-class single-core performance, which is still relevant for things like games and other workloads that can’t be split among multiple cores…the M3 Ultra GPU outperforms the M4 Max in the GFXBench graphics benchmark at 4K and 1440p, but the M4 Max is actually way faster at 1080p—that’s because the M3 Ultra’s CPU is bottlenecking the GPU, and the M4 Max’s CPU isn’t.
Single-core performance aside, the M3 Ultra does eventually start to run the expected circles around the M4 Max when it comes to multi-threaded CPU work and GPU benchmarks that are actually bottlenecked by the GPU.
Among the variety of undisputed advantages with the high-end M3 Ultra: AI workflows.
Max Weinbach writes at Creative Strategies:
The Apple Mac Studio featuring the M3 Ultra represents the most powerful AI workstation currently available, tailored specifically toward AI developers’ demanding workflows. With its unprecedented unified memory (up to 512GB) and robust GPU performance, the M3 Ultra Mac Studio excels at running large language models (LLMs) efficiently, surpassing even high-end PCs in practical AI workloads. Its integration with Apple’s MLX framework provides optimized, user-friendly performance, establishing the Mac Studio as a uniquely capable machine for both current and future AI development.
Jeremy Gray writes at PetaPixel:
The Mac Studio with M3 Ultra is an interesting machine in terms of performance. In many ways, it is undoubtedly the most powerful Mac to date and lives up to Apple’s lofty billing.
However, not every use case takes full advantage of the available power. While Lightroom, Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve clearly do, Photoshop doesn’t. This makes broad advice challenging because Apple’s most powerful Mac might not be the most powerful for you.
It’s hard to beat the new Mac Studio, but for many users, the Mac mini is a better option
A common theme throughout the reviews is that the Mac Studio is for a small set of users who know they will actually take advantage of its power.
For everyone else? There’s the M4 Mac mini, especially since you can get it in an M4 Pro configuration.
If you need a desktop Mac, there’s no more powerful, flexible computer than the new Mac Studio.
But if the mini doesn’t provide enough headroom for you, you can’t go wrong with the upgraded Mac Studio—provided you get the chip that serves your needs best.
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