There are two new Mac Studios in town as Apple has updated the Mac Studio for only the second time in its life. This update splits the line a bit as the choice is now and Apple Silicon choice: an M4 Max or M3 Ultra. The form factor is the same, but more power.
The Ultra really ups the game in overall specs, with more processor cores, GPU cores, faster memory bandwidth and video encode and decode engines.
I would love to know more about how our video post applications take advantage of these video encode and decode engines. Having four ProRes engines feels like, on the surface, it could worth the extra money if you’re deep in an all ProRes workflow but it all depends on how the application uses them. This is a performance note from Apple’s press release: “With 2x the resources of M3 Max, the media engine within M3 Ultra is capable of far more concurrent video processing. The chip offers dedicated, hardware-enabled H.264, HEVC, and four ProRes encode and decode engines, allowing M3 Ultra to play back up to 22 streams of 8K ProRes 422 video.” Perhaps I’ll research that a bit.
If you’re wondering why it’s an M3 Ultra and not an M4 Ultra, Ars Technica is reporting that Apple told them that not every generation will get an Ultra chip. I think the truth is that either of these machines is going to be great for almost all post-production tasks you throw at it.
Thunderbolt 5
As I mentioned, the Mac Studio’s form factor has not changed; one important update is that the new Mac Studios now have Thunderbolt 5 with transfer rates up to 120Gb/s . If you opt for the M3 Ultra, that’s six Thunderbolt 5 ports, with two on the front. For the M4 Max, the front ports are USB-C. While Thunderbolt 5 SSDs and docks are just starting to come online for preorder and purchase, it’s the next generation of Thunderbolt, so it’s an expected update.
From the Apple press release:
Mac Studio M4 Max specs:
- Up to 1.6x faster image processing in Adobe Photoshop when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.9x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 2.1x faster build performance when compiling code in Xcode when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.1x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.2x faster ProRes transcode performance in Compressor when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 2.8x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
- Up to 1.6x faster video processing performance in Topaz Video AI when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 5x faster when compared to the 27-inch iMac with Core i9.
Mac Studio M3 Ultra specs:
- Up to 16.9x faster token generation using an LLM with hundreds of billions of parameters in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, thanks to its massive amounts of unified memory.
- Up to 2.6x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.1x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 21.1x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
- Up to 1.4x faster 8K video rendering performance in Final Cut Pro when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster when compared to the 16-core Intel-based Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X.
While most of us reading this care about video post-production performance, some will use the power of a Mac Studio for more than video.
For those curious about running Local LLMs on the new 512GB M3 Ultra Mac Studio, this helps put the significance of today’s announcement into perspective.
M4/M5 Ultra Mac Pro later this year will be a game-changer! https://t.co/MajRTrLtXH
— Vadim Yuryev (@VadimYuryev) March 5, 2025
Preorders for the new Mac Studio have begun, with availability on March 12.
Oh, and Apple also introduced a new M4 MacBook Air. While I’ve never been an Air owner or user, there are those who do use MacBook Airs to edit video.
As for costs?
The thing to remember about these Mac Studios is that they are an investment. You will be able to get years of use out of these machines in your post-production suite. The M1 Mac Studios are still going strong, as are the M2s. Yes, a new M4 Mac mini is a great little post machine as well, but the longevity and connectivity of a Mac mini will begin to show its age before a Mac Studio, so buy accordingly.
Say hello to the new MacBook Air! The world’s most popular laptop now features M4, Apple Intelligence capabilities, and a beautiful new color—sky blue. pic.twitter.com/CZzHpVvIhO
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 5, 2025
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