Apple’s desktop strategy for this year has taken an intriguing twist. Notably, the company has finally refreshed the Mac Pro, marking the end of its Intel-based computer lineup. Additionally, a new iteration of the Mac Mini boasts a more potent processor.
Consequently, there is now a broader range of choices available, encompassing high-end options and those catering to mainstream professionals. Sitting in the middle of this lineup is the updated second-generation Mac Studio, offering a choice between the M2 Max and M2 Ultra processors.
Initially, there was speculation that this device might supplant the Mac Pro or become the default choice for content creators. However, the 2023 Mac Studio has more to offer than meets the eye.
In this review, we will explore the latest features of the Mac Studio and assist you in determining whether it represents the ideal middle ground or if any of its counterparts better align with your specific needs.
Mac Studio (M2 Max, 2023) design
Describing the Mac Studio is straightforward – it resembles a taller Mac mini with a sleek and unassuming design that conceals its impressive power. While it maintains the same width and depth as the Mac mini, it stands over twice as tall, making it less suitable for discreet placement compared to the mini.
Accessory compatibility with stackable Mac mini accessories like hubs is seamless.It’s constructed from the same silver aluminum with an identical textured body. The Apple logo on the top is larger, and the base slightly more elevated, clearly indicating its intended place on your desk.
Notably, I’m particularly excited to see front-facing ports, a feature I’ve missed on previous desktop Mac generations.
Regarding the design, there’s not much more to elaborate on, except for the surprisingly prominent power LED on the front. All other ports are located on the back, accompanied by a sizable air vent. In India, the included AC power cord features a 16A power plug, which can be inconvenient, especially considering the Mac Studio’s lower power consumption.
If you’re pairing it with a Studio Display, you’ll require two of these less common outlets at your desk. On a positive note, the power supply is integrated, eliminating the need for an external power brick.
The M2 Max-based variant weighs 2.7kg, while the M2 Ultra-based model is unexpectedly heavier at 3.62kg, likely due to the necessity for a more robust cooling system. However, both versions remain portable enough for on-the-go work. In fact, the packaging includes a cloth handle for easy transport.
Additionally, various companies offer rack-mount adapters, allowing you to slot one or more of these units into a standard equipment cage.
Specifications and software for the Mac Studio (M2 Max, 2023)
I was provided with a Mac Studio powered by the M2 Max processor for the purpose of this review. This particular configuration includes a 30-core GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, with a price tag of Rs. 2,29,900 in India.
The M2 Max is positioned above the M2 and M2 Pro variants (which are the highest options for the Mac mini) but falls below the M2 Ultra and even the M1 Ultra in terms of performance. It’s worth noting that the entire M2 family is manufactured using a 5nm process.
According to Apple, the M2 Max boasts an impressive 67 billion transistors. It shares the same 12-core CPU block and a 16-core ‘Neural Engine’ AI accelerator as the M2 Pro. However, the M2 Max offers a significant boost in GPU capabilities with either 30 or 38 cores and supports up to 96GB of RAM.
Additionally, it delivers double the video encoding capabilities in hardware, including support for Apple’s ProRES format, compared to the M2 Pro. These differences may not be crucial for everyday photo and video editing tasks but become highly relevant when working on tasks such as editing or color correction for multiple 4K or higher-resolution video streams, processing 3D models and visual effects, and even training machine learning models.
When pitted against the prior-generation Mac Studio equipped with the M1 Max SoC, Apple asserts that this new model featuring the M2 Max can achieve motion graphics rendering in Adobe AfterEffects at a speed that’s up to 50 percent faster or complete Xcode projects 25 percent more swiftly.
If you decide to invest in a high-end Mac Studio, it will come equipped with the M2 Ultra System-on-Chip (SoC), which stands as Apple’s current flagship in-house processor. The M2 Ultra essentially doubles the capabilities of the M2 Max.
In essence, it combines two M2 Max dies with a specially designed high-speed interconnect, boasting an impressive 134 billion transistors, according to Apple’s specifications. This translates into having 24 CPU cores, along with either 60 or 76 GPU cores, as well as double the Neural Engine capacity, memory bandwidth, and media encoding resources.
In the case of a 2023 Mac Studio featuring the M2 Max SoC, it has the ability to support up to four 6K displays or one 4K display at 60Hz, or a combination of two 4K displays and one 8K display at 60Hz.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, the M2 Ultra-powered versions can handle even more, accommodating up to eight 4K displays, six 6K displays, or three 8K displays, all operating at 60Hz. You also have the flexibility to allocate this processing power to achieve higher refresh rates on a fewer number of displays, allowing for various configurations.
On the rear panel, you’ll find four Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps) Type-C ports, two USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports, 10Gb Ethernet, HDMI, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. Additionally, there is a three-pin AC mains inlet and a power button.
It’s worth noting that the inclusion of legacy USB Type-A ports is appreciated. Moreover, the front of the device offers even more connectivity options. In M2 Max-powered units, the two Type-C ports function at USB 3.1 Gen2 (10Gbps) speed, while the M2 Ultra can support additional Thunderbolt 4 ports, providing access to all that extra bandwidth. The card slot is designed to support SDXC cards, although it does not accommodate the newer SDExpress format.
Similar to the Mac mini, it comes with an integrated speaker that serves well for notifications but falls short for music playback. If you’re connected to a Studio Display or any other external speakers, this built-in speaker will be overridden. In terms of wireless connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The macOS is pre-installed, and setting up the Mac requires an iCloud account. It includes all the pre-installed applications like Safari, Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, FaceTime, iMovie, GarageBand, Mail, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Maps.
Additionally, there’s access to the Apple App Store and seamless integration with the iCloud ecosystem features, such as Find My. If you also use an iPhone, iPad, and/or AirPods with the same Apple account, you can effortlessly sync content across all of them.
Specifications and software details for the Mac Studio (M2 Max, 2023)
Upon the initial startup of the Mac Studio, you will be taken through a rather extensive setup procedure. During this process, you’ll be prompted to either sign in with your existing Apple ID or create a new one. Additionally, you’ll have the option to automatically import data from iCloud or another Apple device.
Several default security features are activated as well: your SSD is automatically encrypted, the integrity of the installed macOS version is verified to ensure it hasn’t been tampered with, and the ability to boot from alternative media sources is disabled.
Notably, your SSD is encrypted by default, reinforcing the Mac Studio’s suitability for professional production environments. The device effortlessly recognized and integrated my Apple accessories, and I was able to set up fingerprint recognition without any issues. Upon the initial boot-up, I was presented with the option to upgrade to macOS Ventura 13.5 and the Apple Studio Display firmware version 16.4.
As for everyday performance, there’s not much to critique; it functions perfectly well. If you desire more information on using macOS and Apple’s monitor and accessories, I recommend checking out our Mac mini review.
In summary, while everything is undeniably costly, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a comparable experience, particularly when it comes to features like Touch ID, which may not be available with third-party products. One minor observation is that, despite the convenience of having USB Type-C ports on the front, you may need to stabilize the Mac Studio with one hand while connecting or disconnecting devices with the other, as it isn’t particularly heavy.
The true divergence becomes evident primarily during benchmark testing. Commencing with Geekbench 6, I achieved results of 2,664 in the single-core CPU assessment, 14,508 in the multi-core examination, and 74,465 in the GPU OpenCL evaluation.
To provide a point of reference, the Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) exhibited unsurprising scores of 2,654 and 14,208 in the CPU-oriented assessments, but notably fell short in the GPU segment with a score of 49,686. Cinebench R23’s render test yielded single-core and all-cores scores of 1,660 and 14,539, respectively, mirroring the performance of the Mac mini.
Regarding SSD performance, as gauged by AmorphousDiskMark, the M2 Max-based Mac Studio delivered sequential read and write speeds of 6,497.12MBps and 7,044MBps, aligning with the Mac mini’s capabilities.
Thus, depending on your specific workload, Apple’s more affordable desktop may suffice. In such instances, upgrading to the M2 Ultra SoC for enhanced performance might necessitate a considerably larger expenditure.
The M2 Max-powered Mac Studio truly distinguishes itself when it comes to content creation and comprehensive assessments. In the browser-based WebXprt benchmark, it achieved 255 points, while the Basemark Web test returned a score of 2,285.41, and Jetstream 2 posted a result of 320.501.
The LuxMark render test produced a score of 39,217 for the standard LuxBall scene, and the IndigoBench tests for the Bedroom and Supercar scenes yielded 1.679 and 3.848 Megasamples per second, respectively. Notably, Blender’s popular Barcelona Pavilion Demo took 7 minutes and 2 seconds to render, whereas the Classroom scene required 5 minutes and 50 seconds to complete.
When using Final Cut Pro to convert a 23.8GB ProRES 4K video file shot with an iPhone 13 Pro to H.264 1080p, the process took around 37 seconds. However, if you chose to maintain the resolution at 4K, the conversion time increased to approximately 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Regarding graphics performance, the Aztec Ruins and Car Chase tests in GFXBench both achieved a maximum of 60fps, most likely due to the limitations imposed by the Studio Display. However, when these tests were configured to render off-screen at 4K resolution, they delivered an impressive 144.934fps and 589.78fps, respectively, surpassing the performance of the Mac mini significantly.
In Unigine’s Valley benchmark, the Mac Studio achieved 114.6fps at 1920×1080 with the Ultra quality settings and 4X anti-aliasing. While AAA games are somewhat scarce on the Mac platform, the well-known Rise of the Tomb Raider ran at an average of 111fps at 1920×1080, 75fps at 2560×1440, and 38fps at 4K resolution, all while using the High quality preset.
Notably, the Mac Studio’s cooling system operated almost silently throughout the testing process. At no point during the tests did I detect any significant fan noise, and the top of the unit only became slightly warm.
Final
Our performance testing and observations pertain to the M2 Max-based Mac Studio. It’s essential to note that this SoC outperforms the M2 Pro in certain aspects, but not across the board.
Therefore, before deciding between the Mac Studio and the Mac mini, it’s crucial to thoroughly assess your workload and future needs. Additionally, the M2 Ultra version of the Mac Studio represents a distinct product category due to its exceptional performance and pricing, catering to a different target audience, particularly for those engaged in intensive creative production work.
As a result, the brand new Mac Pro primarily serves an extremely specialized user base. It’s tailored for those who require expansion cards to support specific workflow requirements, such as fiber-based network interfaces, expanded NVMe storage, and low-latency audio/video interfaces.
In contrast, the Mac Studio lacks such expandability options (excluding external Thunderbolt devices), but this limitation may be acceptable for many creative professionals.
Given the impressive power of the Mac Studio, it’s quite astonishing how Apple managed to maintain its compact size. However, the tradeoff here is the lack of upgradability; none of the Mac Studio’s internal components can be upgraded or replaced. Apple’s pricing for RAM and storage configurations at the time of purchase can be frustratingly high, but there’s no way to work around this.
The Mac Studio appears to cater primarily to video editors, 3D artists, and software developers dealing with high-resolution content. While it may offer good value for money, it’s advisable to thoroughly explore all the options within Apple’s current product lineup before making a purchase decision.