Apple Mac Studio M4 Max review: A creative powerhouse

The Mac Studio is Apple’s ultimate performance computer, but this year’s model came with a twist: It’s equipped with either an M4 Max or an M3 Ultra processor. The latter might seem like a step backward, since nearly all Macs (except the Mac Pro) are now equipped with M4 chips. However, the M3 Ultra is indeed Apple’s best-performing processor, which makes the new Mac Studio its fastest computer ever.

While the M3 Ultra model appears highly capable for creative pros and engineers, it starts at $4,000 and goes way up from there. I’m intrigued by that model based on benchmarks I saw elsewhere, of course. However, the M4 Max model I received for this review is the one that most people will want, as the base configuration is half the price. For power users doing tasks like video editing or designing games, it’s the Mac of choice, and it’s even a decent deal by Apple’s standards.

Hardware

The Mac Studio’s design hasn’t changed since the original M1 Ultra version from 2022. That isn’t a bad thing since the aesthetic has aged well and it takes up very little desk space. It’s about the size of two Mac Minis stacked together and has the same polished aluminum case. Everything has a premium feel, even the environmentally friendly packaging and flexible power cable.

Up front, there’s an SDXC card slot that supports UHS-II speeds (300 MB/s), along with a pair of 10Gbps USB-C ports (they’re Thunderbolt 5 on the M3 Ultra version). Around back, you’ll find four Thunderbolt 5 ports that now offer up to 15 GB/s throughput (capital B), triple the speeds of the 2023 Mac Studio with Thunderbolt 4. You also get a 10Gbps ethernet port and two USB 3.1 (Type A) slots, along with an HDMI port and 3.5mm headphone jack. All of that is enough to connect plenty of disk drives, monitors and peripherals.

Inside, the M3 Ultra version is arguably overkill with up to a 32-core CPU, eight more than the Mac Studio M2 Ultra. The GPU comes with 80 cores, another record for Apple Silicon, along with a 32-core Neural Engine for on-device AI and machine learning. Unified memory starts at 96GB and goes up to a massive 512GB (with up to 819 GB/s of bandwidth) and 16TB of SSD storage. With all those items maxed out, the Mac Studio costs a hair-raising $14,099.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The M4 Max model is more modest but still impressive. The top-end configuration comes with a 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, over 546 GB/s of unified memory bandwidth and up to 8TB of storage. These specs align pretty closely with the MacBook Pro M4 Max but at a lower price, by the way. At the $1,999 base price, you get a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU and 16-core neural engine. All M4 Max models start with a decent 36GB of unified memory, though my test unit came with the maximum 128GB in a $3,699 configuration.

The processor, memory and storage aren’t upgradeable after purchase, so you’ll want to choose wisely when ordering. That’s a challenge in itself, as Apple isn’t very flexible with the system configurations. For example, the base $1,999 14-core M4 Max Mac Studio can only be configured with 36GB of RAM. If you want more, you need the 16-core version which automatically bumps memory up to 48GB and adds $500 to the price.

I’d say the latter option is the sweet spot at $2,499, netting you the faster processor and enough unified memory for most content creation. Engineers and others looking for even more performance may want the M3 Ultra version, as it allows for up to 512GB of RAM and puts two additional Thunderbolt 5 slots up front.

In-use: A rocketship for content creators

Mignon Alphonso for Engadget

The Mac Studio with M4 Max destroyed most synthetic benchmarks, showing the highest single-core Geekbench 6 CPU score for any PC we’ve tested. It falls just below the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra on the multicore Geekbench 6 test. It even beats the latest Mac Studio M3 Ultra in single-core performance, though it’s topped by that model in multicore tests. GPU scores are similarly impressive and the ATTO disk peak throughput is the best we’ve seen to date with write speeds up to 8 GB/s.

However, the best way to evaluate a machine like this is to feed it some content creation jobs and see how quickly it chews through them. Video editing is the sternest test for most machines, so I tried Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve with a mix of 4K, 6K and 8K video (RAW and MP4) to challenge it.

All of those files easily played through in their native formats with no hiccups on a 4K timeline, thanks to the M4 Max’s ability to decode RAW and 10-bit H.264 or H.265 files on the fly. It was still able to handle real-time playback of a single layer of 8K video with color correction added and only struggled when I tried to play two or more 8K video tracks at the same time. Overall, it provides a smooth and glitch-free editing experience that enables power users to get work done quickly.

Encoding is equally rapid. It took me one minute and 51 seconds to output a 3.5 minute timeline in 4K with the same mix of 4K, 6K and 8K footage using the GPU. For comparison’s sake, my MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro processor took over twice as long at four minutes and 10 seconds.

The Mac Studio showed the same prowess with Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, providing fast and fluid editing for even RAW photos that were 100MB or larger. Note that when doing GPU- or CPU-intensive tasks like video encoding, the fan will kick in and the chassis can get warm, but that didn’t happen often. In any case, the Mac Studio’s larger size and bigger fan provides better thermal performance than the Mac mini.

To test the machine’s AI capabilities, I ran a 75 minute podcast through Apple’s Whisper transcription tool and it took a minute and 32 seconds to convert it to text. The latest MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor took two minutes and 11 seconds for the same task, and my MacBook Pro M3 Pro did it in three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

On top of content creation, I played Baldur’s Gate III, a game that puts moderate demands on a PC. The Mac Studio was up to the task, delivering smooth gameplay at high settings and 1440p resolution (though it was somewhat limited by the Studio Monitor’s anemic 60Hz refresh rate). I again noticed that the Mac Studio got fairly hot and the fans kicked in during gaming sessions. Still, GPU performance surpassed most PCs except those with high-end GPUs, based on a quick comparison to our recent tests and GeekBench’s database. To that end, the only thing limiting the Mac Studio as a gaming machine is the sparse choice of games for macOS.

Should you buy the Mac Studio?

Steve Dent for Engadget

Content creators may wonder if they need to splurge on the Mac Studio, or if a Mac mini will do the job. After all, you can get the Mac mini M4 Pro with 24GB of RAM for $1,399 instead of the Mac Studio M4 Max and give up just a single Thunderbolt 5 port and 12GB of unified memory, saving $600.

If you regularly edit 4K (or higher) videos or render 3D graphics (or play games), you’d be better off with the Mac Studio. For less demanding jobs, a Mac mini will likely suffice. The Mac Studio M3 Ultra is another animal altogether, with the extra cores and higher memory capacity aimed at engineers or AI developers. At $4,000, it's mostly overkill for everyone else. The Mac Pro also exists, but it’s so expensive that it’s really only for studios and big companies, meaning the Mac Studio is now the high-end Mac for most professionals.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-mac-studio-m4-max-review-a-creative-powerhouse-123000265.html?src=rss


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