Mac Studio Review: Unlimited power

The Mac Studio is Apple’s main workstation, and this year comes with two main chips, but the more you look at all the specs, the more it becomes clear that there are actually four main skews, each for a different level of professional.

There’s a base model that only comes with 36GB of RAM and the smallest GPU. Above that, there’s a slightly larger GPU that you push up to 128GB of RAM. After that, you need to step up to the M3 Ultra, which comes with either 96GB or 256GB of RAM. The next chip above that is also the M3 Ultra, but it has the largest GPU and can support the insane 512GB of RAM.

The base model Mac Studio is the most cost-effective way to access the M4 Max chip since it costs $2,699, which is much less than the comparable chip in a MacBook Pro. I’ve been testing the step up from that with the largest M4 Max GPU, 128GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. This unit costs $5,249 in Canada.

This model is geared towards creators looking to remove a lot of friction around making content from video editing to large-batch photo editing and motion graphics. You could also use this model effectively for large coding projects and 3D graphics.

The M4 Max Mac Studio is so much smaller than a lot of the competition.

I’ve been using an M1 Max with 64 GB of RAM until now, and the M4 Max unit I’m reviewing is a significant upgrade over the 2021 model. For anyone looking to step up their Mac’s power, this is a great option.

My first test was running Baldur’s Gate 3 on both machines. I’ve been using my existing Studio to run a campaign with my friend since the powerful Mac has lots of performance with its large GPU, and it’s super portable. Split screen in that game runs two instances  so it takes a lot of power to run it smoothly at high settings.

The default settings we used on the M1 Max was a screen resolution of 3,200 x 1,800, with V-sync off, medium settings and no render scaling. During the most intense area of the game in Baldur’s Gate, we bounced around 35-38fps depending on where we were in the city. Running the exact same settings on the M4 Max pushed a locked 60fps, and when we turned the graphics from medium to ultra, the frames went down to 45-55 per second.

The M4 Max is a clear jump over the M1 version. It’s not overly surprising, but I found the M1 Max was very similar in performance to my M4 Pro Mac mini with 48GB of RAM. While regular benchmarks showcase the M4 Max being only 1.9 times faster than the M1, the more RAM you pack in seems to be able to provide even more gains depending on the the workload.

Another test I ran was importing, batch editing, and exporting 200 RAW photos in Lightroom. The M4 Max did this in 1:43, while the M1 Max came in just 2:55. This time, the M4 Pro surpassed the M1 Max with a time of 2:22.

In Final Cut, I exported a 15-minute video mixed with iPhone, ProRes, and HEVC footage. It shot out the video in 6:15. The older Max chip did the same exports in 7:03, and the M4 Pro was much slower this time around, at 12:50. For comparison’s sake, the M4 MacBook Air did this export in just under 16 minutes.

Beyond all the power

There’s no doubt that this is a powerful computer, and enterprise customers are likely to purchase many of them. That said, I still think Apple could extend a little more goodwill by including one key accessory in the box.

Since the Mac Studio has Thunderbolt 5 ports, it would be awesome for Apple to include a Thunderbolt 5 cable. Apple sells a 1-metre version of this cable for $85 and even includes one with the Studio Display. Even a smaller cable for use with cameras and external SSDs would be a nice add-on here. The Mac Studio is pretty expensive, so giving users more than just a power cable to unbox would feel a lot better.

The Mac Studio has the most ports out of Apple’s consumer products.

The new unit is also stuck on Wi-Fi 6E instead of the more modern Wi-Fi 7 spec. The desktop nature of this machine likely means that most users will hardwire their internet, but since the machine sits at the top end of Apple’s lineup, I would have loved to see it include the best wireless internet. The high-end nature of this device would have been a great time to debut a fully compatible Wi-Fi 7 modem.

I’d also like to point out that throughout all the testing the Mac Studio was silent the whole time. I could feel the heat being pushed out the back of the machine, but it was dead silent. While I love the small form factor of the Mac mini, it can get loud when the fans start spinning during a gaming session or a long export.

All in all the Mac Studio is more approachable than you’d think with its $2,699 starting price, and if you need unlimited power there’s likely a spec for you.