I recently had the opportunity look at Apple’s new Studio Display. It’s nice, even if the webcam has given you a stomach ache so far and doesn’t deliver what Apple promises. In this context I had the chance to try out a Mac Studio. In contrast to devices that have the “Pro” in their name at Apple, but which appeal to almost all customer groups, the “name of the Mac Studio really says it all for me”, so much already as an anticipatory conclusion.
Since switching to its own chips, Apple has gotten so many things right that it’s hard to put into words. Purely in terms of performance, it’s difficult to compare, because an Intel Mac now seems incredibly outdated, loud and, above all, slow. Not surprisingly, the Mac Studio has tons of options, all depending on your use case and budget. You can get the M1 Max as a chip with a 10-core CPU and up to 32-core GPU, but also the M1 Ultra with 20 cores in the CPU and up to 64 cores in the GPU. The M1 Ultra consists of two M1 Max chips. It then also creates twice the memory bandwidth of the M1 Max, which comes to 400 GB/s memory bandwidth.
A performance monster would not be an exaggeration. Apple has two basic versions in its range, starting at 2,299 euros with the M1 Max and 4,600 euros if you take the M1 Ultra. As you can see, there’s no comparison to a Mac mini. In terms of connection technology, Apple has also thought of the most important things, but potential buyers have to be careful there too, because there are differences.
The M1 Max has two USB-C ports (up to 10 Gbps) on the front, while the M1 Ultra has two Thunderbolt 4 ports that deliver up to 40 Gbps. Identical on both: the connections on the back and the SDXC card slot (UHS-II) on the front. There are four Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear with support for: Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40 Gbps), DisplayPort, USB 4 (up to 40 Gbps), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps), two USB-A ports (up to 5 Gbit/s), the HDMI port, 10 Gbit Ethernet and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
You can actually use them – would be silly with a Mac Studio if it weren’t. Apple calls it “3.5mm headphone jack with advanced high-impedance headphone support” in the description. You install the solution that is also found in the MacBook Pro (14 inch, 2021) and the MacBook Pro (16 inch, 2021). The 3.5mm headphone jack features DC load sensing and adaptive voltage output. The Mac can detect the impedance of the connected device and adjusts its output to accommodate low and high impedance headphones and line-level audio devices.
When users connect headphones with an impedance of less than 150 ohms, the headphone jack delivers up to 1.25 volts RMS. For headphones with an impedance of 150 to 1,000 ohms, the headphone jack supplies 3 volts RMS. This can make an external headphone amplifier superfluous. With impedance detection, adaptive voltage output, and an onboard digital-to-analog converter supporting sample rates up to 96kHz, users can also enjoy full-resolution hi-fi audio directly through the headphone jack. How to set the sample rate for the headphone jack is described here. Otherwise wirelessly included: 802.11ax WLAN 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.
As an Intel iMac user, I can say that its fan was clearly audible during certain tasks, starting with opening 30+ tabs in Chrome, video editing, Handbrake, gaming and more. The Mac Studio also has a fan and this can also be heard. I felt like it basically always ran at low revs. Despite very (!) pointed ears, this was never a problem. Even with computationally intensive tasks, none of these helicopter fans are.
It should be particularly exciting for users of this Mac that it will consume significantly less energy than an Intel Mac for high-performance tasks. A new Mac Studio draws a maximum of 370 watts from the can. A Mac Pro easily allows up to three times as much.
What I can personally say for myself: The Mac Studio has lived up to its promises in the weeks of use, even more than that. The problem with reports like mine is that the programs I can test here may not be the programs you want to use yourself. I’m also not trying to generate 1000 use cases that consider every niche option – it wouldn’t be meaningful either, given the different configurations of the Mac Studio.
Therefore, I would also recommend checking what users of different configurations have seen so far for experiences. Because the Mac Studio will probably not be able to exploit its potential with most people. It’s aimed at photo, video and music creatives – or people who can apply enough friction between thumb and forefinger to simply place the device on their desk.
In many forums I have followed reports and private conversations from creatives, developers and companies who need to act economically. In the end, it was like this for many people: You paid for the purchase of the device after a few months, because you saved numerous hours of work with “compiling / calculating / whatever”. Of course, this is a calculation that doesn’t work for many people, since they don’t exhaust a Mac Studio at all. What I noticed was that a number of “digital workers” were amazed at how much they could get done on this computer in what time. There were even critics about it. The new Mac Studio breaks workflows. Due to “too short” waiting times, users would have no opportunity to play on their cell phones or watch videos on YouTube.
In the end, one can congratulate Apple on switching to its own chips, because you can sell your users undreamt-of power. On the other hand, the Mac Studio is of course not free from flaws – although these are only mentioned subjectively, as always. It’s not cheap and the positive aspect, the compact, nice design, means that it’s not really expandable. A little like the iMac. What you buy you have to keep.
For me personally it was a great thing to work with the Mac Studio, in my opinion the most beautiful Mac – and the most powerful and compact piece of computer in symbiosis that I have worked with in my life so far. The Mac Studio is an impressive machine. Compact, surprisingly quiet and extremely energy efficient – for such a powerful computer, that’s a tremendous achievement.
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