Mac Studio: impressive powerhouse meets all expectations

The Mac Studio is a beast of a computer. Thanks to the M1 Ultra chip, which is equivalent to two Max chips combined, the desktop is not only incredibly powerful, but also very efficient.

In the past week I was able to experience something that I have not experienced very often. I went all out to tell you exactly what you already knew. The Mac Studio is incredibly powerful.

The new Mac Studio

In terms of appearance, the Mac Studio can best be compared to a Mac mini. Simply put, it’s a gray square box that sits on your desk and connects to an external display via HDMI or Thunderbolt. The Studio is almost three times higher than the mini:

• mac mini † 3.6 cm high | 19.7 cm wide | 19.7 cm deep
• Mac Studio † 9.5 cm high | 19.7 cm wide | 19.7 cm deep

The Mac mini has a weight of 1.2 kilograms, where the M1 Max model of the Studio weighs 2.7 kilograms and the Ultra model 3.6 kilograms. At the bottom of the Studio is a large fan that makes continuous noise even if you just turn on the computer.

All connections

The Apple computer is equipped with sufficient connections. On the front of the M1 Max Mac Studio are two USB-C ports that reach a maximum speed of 10Gbps. The Ultra model comes with two Thunderbolt 4 connections with a maximum speed of 40Gbps. In addition, an SDXC UHS-II card slot can be found on both models.

At the back, it’s a real party for the professional. The following connections can be found there:
– Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps)
– DisplayPort
– USB 4 (up to 40Gbps)
– USB 3.1 second generation (up to 10 Gbps)
– Two USB-A (up to 5Gbps)
– HDMI
– 10GB Ethernet
– Mini-jack

The Mac Studio also offers support for Wifi-6, Bluetooth 5.0 and runs on macOS 12 Monterey.

M1 Ultra with UltraFusion

The showpiece of the Mac Studio is of course the M1 Ultra chip. A SoC (System on a Chip) from the Apple Silicon line that has the most to offer consumers. Apple already gave the example of two combined M1 Max chips during Peek Performance. So there’s no other product in Apple’s entire lineup that delivers on that level yet.

The M1 Ultra uses a technology called UltraFusion, which allows Apple to virtually double the specs of the M1 Max. The chip in the Mac Studio therefore has a 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU and a working memory that goes up to 128GB.

Apple itself says that this way the Mac Studio can deliver better performance than a 16-core PC desktop, while using 100W less power.

Mac Studio: That’s how powerful the new computer is

For the past week, I’ve been using the Mac Studio for my day-to-day work. Editing images, writing texts and updating our websites are part of these activities. Only those are not the things that allow you to use the computer’s full potential.

That is why I give below three examples of programs and activities that excellently display the power of the desktop.

#1 Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a video editing program that allows you to convert individual images into a full-fledged movie. The higher the quality of images, the more difficult it is for your computer to keep the peace and make everything work smoothly.

The Mac Studio gave me access to several 8K images that I was able to edit without any difficulty. In fact: in one overview shot I use nine images at the same time. The fact that this didn’t cause any hitches or problems during editing in real time was already a joy. The fact that the 1 minute 8K video was exported within 10 seconds was even more impressive.

#2 HorosMobile

HorosMobile is a program that is used, for example, in hospitals for CT Scans. These scans consist of countless particles and therefore demand a lot from a computer.

At the Mac Studio I started working with a CT Scan of a cat. It consisted of no less than 54 million parts and could be viewed in both 2D and 3D. The addition or removal of the skin, nerves and skeleton was done in real time without any problems.

#3 Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are two programs that focus on photography and graphic design. For example, it is possible to import an entire photo series into Lightroom, adjust and then edit it in Photoshop.

A photo shoot of 1628 photos was no problem for this Mac Studio. Without the desktop fan really kicking in, I edited the images separately from each other and transferred them to Photoshop in no time. The export of those images also went quite quickly. Within 1 minute, 63 photos had already been exported.

Mac Studio the right investment

The Mac Studio does exactly what we expected it to do. The fact that this computer combines two M1 Max chips says it all. This is an absolute powerhouse for anyone who even pushes their computer to the limit.

In terms of connections, design and user experience, I can hardly say that Apple has done a really good job. UltraFusion is not just a term to make a new computer attractive, but shows that Apple is really changing the computer landscape very hard.

You definitely have to pay something for it, but the target group will save an incredible amount of time and can take their work to a higher level. This is an investment that will definitely be worth it.

The Mac Studio with M1 Max is from €2329. If you opt for the M1 Ultra variant, you will lose at least €4629.