![]() In fact, I never heard the fans, even though some early owners of the desktop said fan noise was a persistent problem. But even then, the Mac Studio’s fan never kicked in. Video rendering nudged the faster cores into action, as did some 3D gaming ( EVE Online), and it took running the Cinebench benchmark test to pin all 10 cores. I use iStat Menus, an app that runs in the background to monitor various aspects of my Macs’ performance, and I was surprised to see that most of my activities barely ever kicked off the performance cores in the CPU, relying 95 percent of the time on the efficiency cores. The Max and Ultra processors step up that game. The M1s are built on the same foundation as Apple’s A-series processors for iPhones and iPads. When Apple launched its M1 chips in late 2020 inside new MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, reviewers (and competitors) were impressed with its power, particularly as it relates to the chip’s energy efficiency. On the front are two USB-C ports and a memory card slot on the M1 Ultra version the two ports are Thunderbolt 4. On the back of the device are four Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports, which also work as DisplayPort connections for up to four monitors a 10-Gigabit Ethernet port HDMI two USB-A ports and a headphone jack. Want to max out your Mac Studio? That will cost you $8,000, and that’s before adding any peripherals or a display.įortunately, the Mac Studio has a slew of ports and connections that make it possible to add external expansion. Spend those big bucks wisely, because what you get is what you have for the life of the machine. The downside to this setup, however, is that you cannot upgrade a Mac Studio after the fact, unlike the Mac Pro. These components - the CPU, the graphics, the neural engine and memory - are all part of the system-on-a-chip design, making the transfer of data between them more efficient and thus faster. There’s also a neural engine for your AI needs with 16 cores. The CPU on my system has 10 cores - two efficiency cores, which are used for most day-to-day tasks - and eight performance cores, for when you need to put the pedal to the metal. However, that will cost you at least $3,999 it comes with 64 GB of RAM and the 1-TB drive. The Mac Studio is also available with an even beefier chip, the M1 Ultra, which is essentially two Max processors bolted together. This unit has the M1 Max processor, the next step up from the M1 Pro chips found in the company’s 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops. On : Apple gets its mojo back with the 2021 MacBook Pro That latter is surprising, as I’d consider 1 terabyte to be the cost of admission for a machine on this tier, but that adds $200 to the cost. The minimum amount of memory is 32 gigabytes, and the least amount of storage you can get is 512 GB. ![]() My review unit was the base model, a $1,999 offering. The specsĮven if Apple hasn’t slapped a “Pro” moniker on the Mac Studio, the specs even at the lowest end tell you what’s going on here. My everyday needs fall into the aforementioned mundane category, so I pushed the machine in different ways. I’ve been using it as my everyday computer, temporarily bumping a 2020, 27-inch iMac off my desk. I finally got my hands last month on a Mac Studio and the 27-inch Studio Display that Apple launched at the same time. But, with prices starting at $1,999 - and that doesn’t include a display, keyboard or mouse/trackpad - it’d be akin killing a mosquito with a bazooka: Impressive, but an outsized waste of resources. Sure, mere mortals could buy one for mundane uses such as working on the web, e-mail, productivity, photo management, social media, communication, music and even gaming. Although this desktop - which looks like a pair of Mac minis stacked on top of each other - doesn’t get the “Pro” designation Apple reserves for its top-of-the-line hardware, it’s very much aimed at creatives and others whose thirst for computational muscle is unquenchable. The Mac Studio satisfies a market segment hungry for an advance, given that the iMac Pro was discontinued and the Mac Pro hasn’t seen a meaningful update in almost three years. Not only had it been a long, long time since the company introduced a completely new Mac, but the product also gave notice as to the true potential of its new M1 processors. ![]() When Apple’s new Mac Studio desktop was introduced in March, it was a big deal in more ways than one. ![]() Dwight Silverman photo / Dwight Silverman photo Shown here with the optional Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard with TouchID and numeric keypad. At their lowest-priced configurations, the two together will run you about $3,600. ![]() Apple’s Mac Studio is powerful but pricey, particularly when paired with the 27-inch Studio Display. ![]()
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