Apple Mac Studio With M4 Max Evaluate: Huge Positive factors, Petite Package deal

Again in mid-2022 once we reviewed the M1 Max Mac Studio, we weren’t all that into it. Initially, the M1 CPU structure was almost a yr and a half previous at that time, and the brand new model did not have any higher single-threaded efficiency than when it was first launched. Apple was drip-feeding its CPU tech to the world, and it was taking longer than we might have favored to get one thing highly effective on the desktop. 

Quick ahead to 2025 and all the M4 lineup of chips was added to the desktop and pocket book line-up mainly unexpectedly. All through the tail finish of 2024 into the early a part of 2025, each Mac desktop and pocket book was up to date — save for the Mac Professional, which nearly no one wants — and the efficiency upgrades have been fairly stellar. The M3 Professional was disappointing, at the least on paper, and so this improve was welcome. 

If the entry value appears sort of steep….nicely, it sort of is. Nonetheless, that is Apple Silicon’s high chip. In a 14-inch MacBook Professional, our actual assessment configuration with the M4 Max, 36GB of reminiscence, and 1TB of storage would set you again $3,199 versus $2,199 for the Studio. So should you do not want that a lot energy on the go, you may get the Mac Studio and an M4 MacBook Air for a similar value. Leaping as much as a 16-inch MacBook Professional provides one other $300. Then again, should you’re simply into a giant CPU, step all the way down to $1,399 for the Mac mini M4 Professional. That system has solely 24 GB of reminiscence and a 12-core CPU, however we predict that the overwhelming majority of Mac customers can be happy with that setup. And that is why we’re evaluating the Mac Studio to a kind of little techniques in the present day. 

The Mac Studio we’re right here has the binned model of the M4 Max. Nonetheless, it is fairly spectacular with its 14-core CPU, which has 10 efficiency cores and a quartet effectivity cores that, in accordance with Geekbench 6’s CPU scanner, clocked as much as 4.5 GHz. Apple does not publish official clock velocity or cache configurations for its chips, however it’s broadly believed that the M4 Max has 4MB of shared cache for the effectivity cores and 32MB shared by the efficiency cores. Add to that the 4MB of L1 cache complete reported by Geekbench and also you wind up with 40MB of cache complete. There’s additionally a next-gen 16-core Neural Engine able to 38 TOPS of AI efficiency. 

All of that is attached to a 384-bit reminiscence bus with 410GB/sec of bandwidth unfold throughout 36GB of LPDDR5x-8533. The total model of M4 Max provides two efficiency cores and ups the reminiscence bus to a full 512 bits for 546 GB/sec. That appears like quite a lot of throughput (and it’s!) however do not forget that it additionally has to energy the built-in graphics in addition to feed the CPU. 

Very like the remainder of the M collection, the M4 Max is a monolithic chip with a comparatively massive GPU constructed proper in, sharing that reminiscence bus with the CPU. The GPU in our binned M4 Max has 32 cores, unfold throughout 512 execution models and a complete of 4096 SIMD ALUs. The total M4 Max has 40 cores, 640 EUs, and 5120 ALUs. The M4 household of GPUs helps Apple’s Steel 3 low-level graphics API together with extensions for real-time ray tracing. When it comes to its specs, the Mac Studio appears to be like prefer it may doubtlessly be a gaming-worthy chip…if video games ever seem on the platform. For now, that GPU will do different issues like render 3D scenes, encode and decode video, and truly play some video games — we’ll speak about that in a bit. 

For a time, Apple’s M silicon has been considerably distinctive in its design and configuration, however not too long ago a competitor for the M4 Max emerged. It wasn’t all that way back that we reviewed the ASUS ROG Movement z13 with AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ 395, affectionately often known as Strix Halo. That chip has an enormous built-in GPU as nicely, the Radeon 8060S, which has 20 RDNA 3.5 Workgroup Processors (or 40 CUs, which additionally maths out to 2,560 ALUs) hooked as much as a 256-bit LPDDR5-8500 reminiscence bus shared with 16 Zen 5 CPU cores. Taking all of that under consideration, the Ryzen appears to have the sting in uncooked CPU throughput, however Apple has a doubtlessly beefier GPU (assuming that this stuff may even be instantly in contrast in any respect). 

Apple additionally launched an M3 Extremely model of the Mac Studio, which hyperlinks collectively a pair of the last-generation M3 Max chips. The bottom mannequin has 28 CPU cores (20 efficiency and eight effectivity), a 60-core GPU, and a 768-bit reminiscence bus for 819GB/sec of bandwidth throughout 96GB of system RAM. Upgrading the CPU will get you 32 complete CPU cores (24 of that are efficiency sort), 80 GPU cores, however no extra reminiscence bandwidth. Why M3 Extremely as a substitute of M4 Extremely? That is anyone’s guess, however our cash is on an upgraded Mac Professional that would be the debut of the M4 Extremely. 

Anyway, again to the Mac Studio. Internally, we now have 1 TB of storage in our $2,199 assessment mannequin, the place the bottom $1,999 mannequin has 512 GB. Sure, that is $200 to improve the inner storage, which is not one thing we would sometimes suggest, however it’s not a typical M.2 SSD. That 1TB is included within the M3 Extremely mannequin, together with 96 GB of system RAM fairly than 36 GB within the M4 Max. 

In latest months, modders and {hardware} engineers have began to determine tips on how to improve the storage within the M4 Mac mini and the M2 Max/M2 Extremely Mac Studio at a semi-reasonable value. Each Mac’s storage is simply dumb NAND with out a controller, for the reason that NVMe controller is constructed into the processor. It could not take lengthy earlier than we will improve the storage for an inexpensive quantity on this factor, and you may ensure we’ll doc the method if it really works out. RAM is soldered, however the signaling charge of LPDDR5 reminiscence makes detachable modules troublesome — simply ask Framework about its Strix Halo desktop. 

Mac Studio M4 Max Construct and Connectivity

The design of the Mac Studio hasn’t modified within the final three years. It nonetheless has the identical peak and width because the 2010-and-older Mac mini, however is about twice as tall. It is comprised of a single block of milled aluminum and has a round base with air flow holes that permit the cooler to attract air from beneath. Except for two USB-C ports, the SD card reader, and an influence LED, the entrance of the chassis is totally unadorned. The highest has the standard shiny Apple brand, whereas the left and proper sides are fully barren of any ports or markings. 

These entrance USB-C ports are completely different relying on which chip is powering the Mac Studio. For the M4 Max, it is only a pair of 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, which is not actually something to sneeze at. However for the M3 Extremely model, these ports are additionally Thunderbolt 5 120 Gbit/sec ports. I suppose for $4,000 Apple figures they will up the ante a bit of bit. 

It is across the rear that we discover the majority of the Mac Studio’s connectivity. From left to proper, we begin with 4 Thunderbolt 5 ports that assist 120 Gbit/sec of bandwidth every. The Thunderbolt 5 ports additionally deal with USB 4 at 40 Gbps, USB 3.2 Gen 2 at 10Gbps, and DisplayPort alternate mode, as nicely. Virtually nothing helps Thunderbolt 5 simply but, however there are a number of cheap M.2 enclosures that assist USB 4 at 40 Gbps, so should you can dwell with exterior storage fairly than inside storage (a should if you wish to do a lot gaming with this factor), including further area is simply an exterior SSD buy away. 

After that’s 10 Gbit Ethernet in an RJ-45 connection. The particular controller is the Aquantia (now a part of Marvell) AQtion AQC113, which is good to have on a $2,000 laptop. Whereas we’re on the subject of networking, barely much less high-end is the Broadcom BCM4366C2. It is a Wi-Fi 6E model of the venerable (learn: previous) BCM4366 with 6 GHz assist and Bluetooth 5.3 and a 2×2 MIMO interface with twin inside antennae. 

After we get previous the usual C5 energy cable enter, we get to a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 1 5Gbps Sort-A ports. These are fairly customary, though it is disappointing to see solely two of them.  After that’s the HDMI 2.1 output, which lastly provides assist for 4K 120 Hz and 8K 60 Hz to the Mac Studio’s HDMI capabilities. Lastly is the three.5mm audio jack constructed for headphones or exterior analog audio system. 

As all the time, the Mac Studio is operating macOS. Ours got here out of the field with macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, and in the course of the setup course of it upgraded itself to fifteen.3.2, which was the newest accessible on the time. It additionally got here with Apple’s GarageBand entry-level DAW, iMovie non-linear video editor, and its Workplace-like Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. 

Subsequent up we will see how this child handles our system benchmarks…