The Mac Studio: A Compact Powerhouse with a Price to Match

Those who have been eagerly awaiting the release of Apple's latest creation, the Mac Studio, are finally here. This compact powerhouse is designed to bring a new level of performance and power to creative professionals on-the-go. With its sleek design and ultra-compact size, it's no wonder that this machine is being touted as the ultimate tool for those who need to work from anywhere.

When compared to Apple's previous offerings, the Mac Studio is clear leader in terms of port options. The base model comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-C port, and a headphone jack, making it an ideal choice for those who need to connect multiple devices at once. However, for those who opt for the M1 Ultra version, which effectively combines two M1 Max processors together, there is additional bandwidth for more Thunderbolt ports, resulting in four Thunderbolt 4 ports.

In contrast, the Mac Pro has a different port configuration altogether. With its top-of-the-line model featuring eight PCIe Express card slots, two HDMI ports, and dual gigabit Ethernet ports, it's clear that this machine is designed to handle even the most demanding workloads. However, this comes at the cost of size and weight – a Mac Pro can easily tip the scales at over 40 pounds.

Another key area where the Mac Studio shines is in its connectivity options. With Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6 built-in, it's clear that Apple has put thought into making sure that this machine can connect to a wide range of devices and networks. While the Mac Pro still offers Bluetooth 5 but only Wi-Fi AC on certain configurations, it's worth noting that there are plans for an upcoming Mac Pro model that promises to blow the M1 Ultra version even away.

When it comes to performance, the Mac Studio is certainly no slouch. In Geekbench 5 single core testing, the M1 Max version of the Mac Studio scored a respectable 1798, while the M1 Ultra version clocked in at 1786 – not far behind its more powerful sibling. However, when it comes to multi-core testing, the M1 Ultra version really shines, scoring an impressive 12822. In contrast, the base model Mac Pro scored a mere 1015 on single core testing, while the top-of-the-line model clocked in at 19,951.

In graphics testing, running under Metal, the M1 Max version of the Mac Studio scored an impressive 60,629, while the M1 Ultra version raised that number to 91,938. While these numbers do beat out the entry-level Mac Pro, which features an AMD Radeon Pro W5500X GPU, it's worth noting that the top-of-the-line Mac Pro can be configured with a pair of Radeon Pro W6900X GPUs, pushing that score all the way up to 7,170,100.

So what does this mean for users? Should those who own a Mac Pro trade in their machine for a new Mac Studio? Not necessarily. The Mac Pro still has its benefits – namely, its ability to be customized to meet specific needs and workloads. While the Mac Studio is an incredible tool, it's clear that Apple has designed it specifically with creative professionals on-the-go in mind.

For those who need to travel frequently for work or want a machine that can keep up with their demanding workflows, the Mac Studio is certainly worth considering. Its compact size and power make it an ideal choice for those who want to take their work with them wherever they go. And while there's no denying that the Mac Pro offers more customization options, the M1 Ultra version of the Mac Studio does come close in terms of performance – making it a formidable opponent in the world of professional computing.

In conclusion, the Mac Studio is an incredible machine that checks all the boxes for creative professionals on-the-go. With its compact size, impressive performance, and range of connectivity options, it's clear that Apple has designed this machine to meet the needs of those who want to work from anywhere. While the Mac Pro still has its benefits, the M1 Ultra version of the Mac Studio is certainly worth considering for anyone looking for a high-performance machine that can keep up with their demanding workflows.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enbuckle up folks i'm comparing the mac studio to the mac pro yeah including all of the configurations what's up everybody and welcome to apple insider it is andrew here and you can find me on twitter at andrew underscore osu if you haven't done so already go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that notification icon so you don't miss a single video so apple just released the mag studio and in this video i'm going to be comparing both versions of the mac studio the one configured with the m1 max as well as the one configured with the m1 ultra to the mac pro and i'm going to compare it against the base model of the mac pro as well as the high end model so we got a mac studio starting off at two thousand dollars jumping to four thousand dollars to the mac pro starting off at six thousand dollars and spec'd out tips the scale at over 45 thousand dollars yeah this can be a fun video i'm going to break this into sections that you can navigate using the chapter markers down below and go through ports and connectivity and specs and then we're going to jump into some performance comparative comparisons and then we'll give you a rough summary at the end so i'm excited let's go ahead dive into this whole thing starting with the various configurations that you can choose for both the mac studio as well as the mac pro the mac studio can be configured with one of two processors you can choose the m1 max processor which is a 10 core cpu or the m1 ultra processor which is effectively two m1 max processors fused together which gives you a 20 core cpu the base model of the mac pro comes with an 8 core 3.5 gigahertz intel xeon w but the highest end model can come with a 28 core 2.5 gigahertz intel xeon w with turbo boost up to 4.4 gigahertz max studio can be configured with up to 128 gigs of memory depending on which model you choose the m1 max version comes with 32 by default but you can configure up to 64. the m1 ultra version has double the bandwidth for memory so it starts off at 64 but can be configured with up to 128 the mac pro on the other hand it starts off with a paltry 32 gigs but it can be configured with up to one and a half terabytes of ddr4 eec memory and also i want to note that with the mac pro you have the option to skirt apple's high upgrade pricing you don't have to buy your memory from apple you can buy with a 32 gig configuration and upgrade it yourself afterwards which has a lot more options you can start off small and add as you go or just get it cheaper than what apple is offering with the mac studio that memory is not replaceable what you buy with is what you got the same goes for storage the mac studio starts off with 512 gigs of storage but it can go up to an 8 terabyte ssd the mac pro on the other hand it too comes with various storage options starting off at 512 going up to 8 terabytes but the mac pro has a ton of different options for upgrading that storage after the fact there are multiple bays inside there are full on pcie gen 3 slots there are other bays where you can attach hard drives into so there's ways that you can attach hard drives and ssds internally in the mac pro the mac studio you cannot upgrade the storage at any point in time contrary to what some other videos on youtube said you cannot upgrade the storage on the mac studio for graphics the mac studio starts off with that m1 max processor which has a 24 or 32 core gpu the m1 ultra version of the mac studio comes with either a 48 or 64 core configuration for the mac pro there are a few different configurations starting off with the amd radeon pro w5500x but all the way up to the amd radeon pro w6900x on the mac pro you also have the option to add apple's afterburner card apple's 2 000 afterburner card slots into the pcie slot of the mac pros case and it helps with prores prores raw video so if you are a high-end video expert this can definitely speed up those in code times if you're working in pro res or prores raw the max2 on the other hand has video encoders and decoders built into the m1 max and m1 ultra silicon so this has kind of their own version of the afterburner card but it'll also work with any other video that you're working on too not just prores and prores raw so there are dedicated prores encoders and decoders but they also work there's standard video encoder and decoders as well so you should see improved video performance across the board when you're editing on a mac studio additionally the m1 ultra version has double the encoders as the m1 max version how is this going to play out in your actual video workflows man there are too many variables to decide between the amount of memory you have the graphics cards you have the silicon encoder video cards you have the afterburner card there's a lot that comes into play so just be careful of what you're working in and which one makes the most sense for you to try to get the best idea of which configuration will help your workflow specifically let's go ahead and talk about the ports on the mac studio and the mac pro on the back of the mac studio there are four thunderbolt 4 ports a 10 gigabit ethernet port the mickey mouse power connector two usb a ports and an hdmi port don't forget there's also a headphone jack there and the power button on the front of the mac studio you have two type c ports as well as a dedicated sd xc card reader now depending on which silicon is on inside will determine what these ports are if you have the m1 max version of the mac studio those would be usbc ports however the m1 ultra since it's effectively two m1 max processors together has additional bandwidth for more thunderbolt so these will be thunderbolt 4 ports if you have the m1 ultra the m1 ultraversion has up to six thunderbolt 4 ports on here and the n1 max is capped at 4 thunderbolt 4 and 2 usbc the mac pro has two thunderbolt 3 ports located on the top and around back you have additional thunderbolt 3 ports 2 usb a 3 ports and dual gigabit ethernet ports there also total 8 pcie express card slots there are also two hdmi ports on my mac pro based configuration but you can upgrade that mac pro with additional pcie cards up to 12 thunderbolt ports mac studio here is equipped with bluetooth 5 and wi-fi 6 whereas the mac pro still has bluetooth 5 but only has wi-fi ac when decked out the mac pro can power up to 12 external displays 6 5k displays or 6 6k displays which includes the pro display xdr the mac studio is slightly more limited it can run four 6k displays including the pro display xtr with an additional fifth display running at 4k resolution over hdmi now let's go ahead and talk about the performance differences between a two thousand dollar a four thousand dollar mac studio and a six thousand dollar and forty five thousand dollar mac pro in the geekbench 5 single core test the m1 max version of the mac studio scored a 1798 while the m1 ultra version got a 1786 effectively the same within the margin of air then on the mac pro side the base version with that 8 core processor only got a 1015 while the top tier version got an 1152 on that single core test in the multi-core testing it's even more apparent of the differences the m1 max version of the mag studio scored a 12822 while the m1 ultra version scored a 24 210 which is pretty darn incredible the mac pro on the other hand scored a 79.93 on that base model while the 28 core mac pro scored a 19 951. so yes the spec out version of the max studio has a much higher cpu performance on that multi-core and single core test than the 45 thousand dollar tricked out mac pro in the geekbench 5 graphics testing running under metal the m1 max version of the mac studio scored a 60 629 while the m1 ultra raised that graphic score with a 91 938 now those both do beat the entry level mac pro which comes with that amd radeon pro w5500x which scored a 41 874 but if you configure the mac pro with a maxed out radeon pro w6900x that'll get you all the way up to a 7 170 100 which is incredibly high and you can even configure the mac pro with a pair of those radeon pro w6900x gpus so what's this all equate to right should the owners of mac pros go and just trade those things in for a new mac studio no not necessarily the mac pro still has a bunch of benefits to it and there's about to be a new mac pro coming out that's going to blow the max studio even away so if anything mac pro owners who like the mac pro should hold out for the next generation mac pro versus trading it in necessarily for the mac studio the mac studio is great because it's so ultra compact as well as powerful this thing takes up no space at all and is so much easier to carry around than a mac pro so there are a lot of gigs where people are carrying around mac pros to video sets for production crews for concerts and they have to lug that thing around and it is heavy and there's wheels and it's a crazy machine whereas you can now do a lot of that with a mac studio and in those cases it does make sense plus the mac pro can still be configured with better graphics a bunch more memory and much more internal storage you can trick the mac pro out to exactly your specifications whereas the mac studio comes as it is so it's always going to depend on your workflow which one makes sense but there is still a place for the existing mac pro and we know there's a new one coming down the line that's going to be even more impressive so what do you guys think are you impressed with the mac studio's performance are you still a fan of the mac pro let me know down below in the comments or on twitter at andrew underscore osu if you'd like to grab either of these machines i've got deals listed in the description below otherwise stay tuned got a lot more videos coming your way youbuckle up folks i'm comparing the mac studio to the mac pro yeah including all of the configurations what's up everybody and welcome to apple insider it is andrew here and you can find me on twitter at andrew underscore osu if you haven't done so already go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that notification icon so you don't miss a single video so apple just released the mag studio and in this video i'm going to be comparing both versions of the mac studio the one configured with the m1 max as well as the one configured with the m1 ultra to the mac pro and i'm going to compare it against the base model of the mac pro as well as the high end model so we got a mac studio starting off at two thousand dollars jumping to four thousand dollars to the mac pro starting off at six thousand dollars and spec'd out tips the scale at over 45 thousand dollars yeah this can be a fun video i'm going to break this into sections that you can navigate using the chapter markers down below and go through ports and connectivity and specs and then we're going to jump into some performance comparative comparisons and then we'll give you a rough summary at the end so i'm excited let's go ahead dive into this whole thing starting with the various configurations that you can choose for both the mac studio as well as the mac pro the mac studio can be configured with one of two processors you can choose the m1 max processor which is a 10 core cpu or the m1 ultra processor which is effectively two m1 max processors fused together which gives you a 20 core cpu the base model of the mac pro comes with an 8 core 3.5 gigahertz intel xeon w but the highest end model can come with a 28 core 2.5 gigahertz intel xeon w with turbo boost up to 4.4 gigahertz max studio can be configured with up to 128 gigs of memory depending on which model you choose the m1 max version comes with 32 by default but you can configure up to 64. the m1 ultra version has double the bandwidth for memory so it starts off at 64 but can be configured with up to 128 the mac pro on the other hand it starts off with a paltry 32 gigs but it can be configured with up to one and a half terabytes of ddr4 eec memory and also i want to note that with the mac pro you have the option to skirt apple's high upgrade pricing you don't have to buy your memory from apple you can buy with a 32 gig configuration and upgrade it yourself afterwards which has a lot more options you can start off small and add as you go or just get it cheaper than what apple is offering with the mac studio that memory is not replaceable what you buy with is what you got the same goes for storage the mac studio starts off with 512 gigs of storage but it can go up to an 8 terabyte ssd the mac pro on the other hand it too comes with various storage options starting off at 512 going up to 8 terabytes but the mac pro has a ton of different options for upgrading that storage after the fact there are multiple bays inside there are full on pcie gen 3 slots there are other bays where you can attach hard drives into so there's ways that you can attach hard drives and ssds internally in the mac pro the mac studio you cannot upgrade the storage at any point in time contrary to what some other videos on youtube said you cannot upgrade the storage on the mac studio for graphics the mac studio starts off with that m1 max processor which has a 24 or 32 core gpu the m1 ultra version of the mac studio comes with either a 48 or 64 core configuration for the mac pro there are a few different configurations starting off with the amd radeon pro w5500x but all the way up to the amd radeon pro w6900x on the mac pro you also have the option to add apple's afterburner card apple's 2 000 afterburner card slots into the pcie slot of the mac pros case and it helps with prores prores raw video so if you are a high-end video expert this can definitely speed up those in code times if you're working in pro res or prores raw the max2 on the other hand has video encoders and decoders built into the m1 max and m1 ultra silicon so this has kind of their own version of the afterburner card but it'll also work with any other video that you're working on too not just prores and prores raw so there are dedicated prores encoders and decoders but they also work there's standard video encoder and decoders as well so you should see improved video performance across the board when you're editing on a mac studio additionally the m1 ultra version has double the encoders as the m1 max version how is this going to play out in your actual video workflows man there are too many variables to decide between the amount of memory you have the graphics cards you have the silicon encoder video cards you have the afterburner card there's a lot that comes into play so just be careful of what you're working in and which one makes the most sense for you to try to get the best idea of which configuration will help your workflow specifically let's go ahead and talk about the ports on the mac studio and the mac pro on the back of the mac studio there are four thunderbolt 4 ports a 10 gigabit ethernet port the mickey mouse power connector two usb a ports and an hdmi port don't forget there's also a headphone jack there and the power button on the front of the mac studio you have two type c ports as well as a dedicated sd xc card reader now depending on which silicon is on inside will determine what these ports are if you have the m1 max version of the mac studio those would be usbc ports however the m1 ultra since it's effectively two m1 max processors together has additional bandwidth for more thunderbolt so these will be thunderbolt 4 ports if you have the m1 ultra the m1 ultraversion has up to six thunderbolt 4 ports on here and the n1 max is capped at 4 thunderbolt 4 and 2 usbc the mac pro has two thunderbolt 3 ports located on the top and around back you have additional thunderbolt 3 ports 2 usb a 3 ports and dual gigabit ethernet ports there also total 8 pcie express card slots there are also two hdmi ports on my mac pro based configuration but you can upgrade that mac pro with additional pcie cards up to 12 thunderbolt ports mac studio here is equipped with bluetooth 5 and wi-fi 6 whereas the mac pro still has bluetooth 5 but only has wi-fi ac when decked out the mac pro can power up to 12 external displays 6 5k displays or 6 6k displays which includes the pro display xdr the mac studio is slightly more limited it can run four 6k displays including the pro display xtr with an additional fifth display running at 4k resolution over hdmi now let's go ahead and talk about the performance differences between a two thousand dollar a four thousand dollar mac studio and a six thousand dollar and forty five thousand dollar mac pro in the geekbench 5 single core test the m1 max version of the mac studio scored a 1798 while the m1 ultra version got a 1786 effectively the same within the margin of air then on the mac pro side the base version with that 8 core processor only got a 1015 while the top tier version got an 1152 on that single core test in the multi-core testing it's even more apparent of the differences the m1 max version of the mag studio scored a 12822 while the m1 ultra version scored a 24 210 which is pretty darn incredible the mac pro on the other hand scored a 79.93 on that base model while the 28 core mac pro scored a 19 951. so yes the spec out version of the max studio has a much higher cpu performance on that multi-core and single core test than the 45 thousand dollar tricked out mac pro in the geekbench 5 graphics testing running under metal the m1 max version of the mac studio scored a 60 629 while the m1 ultra raised that graphic score with a 91 938 now those both do beat the entry level mac pro which comes with that amd radeon pro w5500x which scored a 41 874 but if you configure the mac pro with a maxed out radeon pro w6900x that'll get you all the way up to a 7 170 100 which is incredibly high and you can even configure the mac pro with a pair of those radeon pro w6900x gpus so what's this all equate to right should the owners of mac pros go and just trade those things in for a new mac studio no not necessarily the mac pro still has a bunch of benefits to it and there's about to be a new mac pro coming out that's going to blow the max studio even away so if anything mac pro owners who like the mac pro should hold out for the next generation mac pro versus trading it in necessarily for the mac studio the mac studio is great because it's so ultra compact as well as powerful this thing takes up no space at all and is so much easier to carry around than a mac pro so there are a lot of gigs where people are carrying around mac pros to video sets for production crews for concerts and they have to lug that thing around and it is heavy and there's wheels and it's a crazy machine whereas you can now do a lot of that with a mac studio and in those cases it does make sense plus the mac pro can still be configured with better graphics a bunch more memory and much more internal storage you can trick the mac pro out to exactly your specifications whereas the mac studio comes as it is so it's always going to depend on your workflow which one makes sense but there is still a place for the existing mac pro and we know there's a new one coming down the line that's going to be even more impressive so what do you guys think are you impressed with the mac studio's performance are you still a fan of the mac pro let me know down below in the comments or on twitter at andrew underscore osu if you'd like to grab either of these machines i've got deals listed in the description below otherwise stay tuned got a lot more videos coming your way you\n"