The fact that a Quad G5's watercooling failed in the same way as my Trans Am's water pump is not a coincidence.
On topic, my friend received his Mac Studio. It's a cute little machine.
Anyone here got a Mac Studio yet?
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The fact that a Quad G5's watercooling failed in the same way as my Trans Am's water pump is not a coincidence.
On topic, my friend received his Mac Studio. It's a cute little machine.
Apologies, I didn’t intend to come off as comparing laptops to desktops. I was merely pointing out that ‘cooling and throttling has always been a problem for Macs’ wasn’t really correct, at with least how I interpreted the statement. Some models have had issues for sure, but it hasn’t been a universal issue for all Macs. I also read ‘PC world’ as being mostly the stuff a random person buys from the store, not solely custom machines. Custom machines can indeed be quite nice from a cooling/noise perspective, and I have a few myself (including fans in that price ballpark). I even ripped apart my 48 port HP Procurve and replaced the absolutely deafening fans with tiny little Noctua ones that are essentially silent in the rack.
As for the Studio, I received the monitor but the computer has yet to arrive (even though the UPS delivery estimate insisted that today was the day despite being 4,000km away the whole time).
Has anyone measured the power usage on the Studio?
I agree that you need strong cooling under load, but my MBP consumes ~4W while idling and <10W under basic web browsing/office loads and the SoC and chassis are quite cool with the fans off. You don't need to transfer lots of heat when you aren't generating much heat in the first place.
Looks like it idles at 11.4 watts: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/p ... ch2022.pdf
Not sure I can answer that properly. In the time I had it, nothing I did in terms of app testing seemed to make much difference to the fan speed. In that sense, they are quite impressive machines. So the higher pitched "overtones" were fairly constant. But I didn't manage to get it fully integrated into my workflow where larger loads would occur, and it's now at an AASP.
Some users report directly manipulating the fan speed, indicating a connection to the fans rather than other components.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ma ... t-30982812
In my testing, sound recordings (and spectrograms) demonstrate the high pitched sound and its harmonics tonally "bending up" to a steady state as the machine wakes from sleep, which would match fan spin-up.
Apple clearly spent a lot of time on designing and selling the virtues of the cooling system. Seems odd that their anechoic chambers and sensitive testing instruments would miss this.
I have another call in with Apple Support tomorrow.
Delivery was originally April 4, then changed to yesterday, then yesterday morning they changed it to today. Looking at the shipping details, it was in Incheon until 8pm my time yesterday, and arrived in Anchorage in the wee hours of this morning, and I'm near Boston. I don't think it's getting on a truck at my local hub today, but they could surprise me, I guess.
Very, very early impressions:
1. The speakers in the Studio Display are indeed impressive. They're no replacement for dedicated bookshelf speakers, but tinny laptop speakers they ain't.
2. The default tilt-only stand for the Studio Display puts the panel a bit lower than on the 27" iMac. I'm still deciding whether I like it that way, or if I'll want to get a short monitor riser. Putting the display on top of the Mac Studio places the panel way too high for me.
3. The Mac Studio does indeed have some fan noise, but at idle it doesn't seem to be any worse than my iMac was.
4. The packaging for both monitor and Mac Studio feels a bit overboard. The monitor's box seems to weigh about as much as the monitor itself.
5. My Mac Studio was made in Malaysia, which is interesting, but what's even more curious is that its shipment to me originated in Shehznen. Maybe it was packaged in China?
1. The speakers in the Studio Display are indeed impressive. They're no replacement for dedicated bookshelf speakers, but tinny laptop speakers they ain't.
2. The default tilt-only stand for the Studio Display puts the panel a bit lower than on the 27" iMac. I'm still deciding whether I like it that way, or if I'll want to get a short monitor riser. Putting the display on top of the Mac Studio places the panel way too high for me.
3. The Mac Studio does indeed have some fan noise, but at idle it doesn't seem to be any worse than my iMac was.
4. The packaging for both monitor and Mac Studio feels a bit overboard. The monitor's box seems to weigh about as much as the monitor itself.
5. My Mac Studio was made in Malaysia, which is interesting, but what's even more curious is that its shipment to me originated in Shehznen. Maybe it was packaged in China?
Sadly, unbleached brown corrugated cardboard boxes are way better for the environment, but way worse for YouTube unboxing videos.
Pretty saddened that unboxing Apple products has become a genre of porn, or else we could see some more environmentally friendly packaging by now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrugated_fiberboard
I actually really appreciated this on my Studio Display. The outer, brown shipping box was damaged with a gouge/hole right where the front of the Display was, to the extent that the box for the Studio Display has a dent in it. But the inner protective cardboard frame in the Studio Display box provided an air gap over the front of the Display, and the thickness of the cardboard had sufficient rigidity that none of that damage appears to have transmitted to the Display itself.
It appeared to me that the packaging on the Studio Display was designed to minimize the use of plastic foams and maximize recycling. There's still the film that was on the Display, but overall I was really impressed with how thoughtfully designed the packaging was.
There are really good ways to deal with punctures, and increase padding, using corrugated cardboard. I bought a high density Seagate HDD recently which is similarly fragile to a large-screened display, and it was packaged extremely well.
I believe I read somewhere (maybe here?) that final assembly of the Malaysian units is still done in China, but the way they can account for value-add by doing some of the initial build in Malaysia allows them to get around certain import tariffs.
edit: relevant tweet
Although Apple gave us no reason to think this would be the case, I was sort of hoping they might use some of what they learned building the Mac Pro in Austin to take another high margin, lower-volume specialty product like the Studio and build some or all of it here as well.
Yes, I realize that's likely totally unrealistic. "Has to start somewhere" comes to mind, though.
Yes, I realize that's likely totally unrealistic. "Has to start somewhere" comes to mind, though.
More can always be done. On the other hand, my current Samsung monitor, as with just about everything else I buy, was packaged inside acres of polyfoam, which is much worse.
Per monitor packaging—that probably's built on bad experience. Warehousing and shipping can be quite rough, resulting in costly damage. All it takes is a little bit of carelessness or errant forklift tine to ruin the day.
As I write, with the Studio running Safari, WeatherCat and a few other apps open but not doing anything, it sits at about 20W according to iStat Menus.
Early days but reports in the Resolve forums are positive over a variety of formats.
A 64 core GPU 64GB unified memory Ultra is reported to have exported a 10 min clip (nothing contrived; a standard project) with lots of noise reduction to mp4 in 4min 05sec, averaging 62fps, while his 3090/Threadripper 3970X took 4min 24sec, averaging 56fps. Depending on the definition of ‘lots of noise reduction’ this looks promising in relation to GPU performance.
A clearer picture would be nice, but that will take time as more and more people get hands on with real projects. I won’t be able to get my hands on an Ultra until May/June.
I finally received mine and got it set up. I'm still transferring everything over, so not much in the way of first impressions. It feels quick like other M1-based machines, no surprise there. I find it actually looks better in person than in photos as well, and the display is fantastic. Waiting ~8 years between desktop upgrades does indeed make for quite the big jump.
When I bought my iMac Pro, a corner of the display on my first unit cracked in shipping, even in the same sort of packaging Apple is now using for the Studio Display. I don't think they could go a lot lighter/less protective without sharply increasing damage claims.
Well, I was excited to try out some Photoshoppy things, but despite PSE 2022 claiming to be Apple Silicon native, and despite Adobe claiming in multiple places that they fixed this bug, I can't actually open the editor. Immediate crash to desktop. The only other software I have that I thought might be massively improved is the Silhouette Studio software for my craft machine, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow morning for me to try it out.
That said, the Studio has all Teh Snappy that I was hoping for, over my poor 2013 iMac. The Studio Display looks great. 5K text is razor sharp. (And tiny at native resolution, which I knew would be the case.) Icons are fancy pretty. I'm loving the Apple Watch integration with Monterey. Universal Control makes me so happy when combined with my iPad. Haven't tried out the camera or speakers yet; that will come tomorrow.
The only other software I have that I thought might be massively improved is the Silhouette Studio software for my craft machine, but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow morning for me to try it out.That said, the Studio has all Teh Snappy that I was hoping for, over my poor 2013 iMac. The Studio Display looks great. 5K text is razor sharp. (And tiny at native resolution, which I knew would be the case.) Icons are fancy pretty. I'm loving the Apple Watch integration with Monterey. Universal Control makes me so happy when combined with my iPad. Haven't tried out the camera or speakers yet; that will come tomorrow.
Well 2 pages later the question that needs to be asked, now that you have your new Mac Studio
Are you ?
1. Overwhelmed
2. Underwhelmed
3. Just Whelmed
Are you ?
1. Overwhelmed
2. Underwhelmed
3. Just Whelmed
For me, it's #3, but in the best way possible. I've been using an M1 MBA for a year now and have occasionally used my wife's M1 Pro MBP, so 'teh snappy' is something I'm already accustomed to. I don't think I've done anything on the new machine yet that stressed it beyond the initial setup and a handful of benchmarks though (very little free time with sick kids the last few days). The whole setup is an exceedingly nice improvement though -- first time with 'retina' on my desktop, I replaced my original aluminum apple keyboard with a new TouchID model (what is that, 15 years old?...egad), enough internal storage to handle my photo library on a super fast SSD vs an external HDD, etc. Hopefully I'll get some time to transfer my Xcode projects over and do some media transcode testing. Basically, I'm very pleased with it but there's nothing really unexpected there. With a handy SD card slot, I decided to pop the card out of my camera vs just connecting my camera to the computer which is how I've always done it. It's not really any more convenient, but holy crap was it fast.
I've had my Mac Studio (Base Config M1 Ultra - 20 core CPU/48 core GPU/1TB SSD/64GB RAM)) for exactly 2 weeks now (I cancelled my original CDW business order as I was able to find one at my local Apple Store at 5am PST on launch day).
I really haven't used it that much due to a lot of work over the past 2 weeks, but I have my Xcode development environment setup on it. It's definitely building my projects faster than my other Macs, but I have to do more testing. It will serve as my main iOS - iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS dev workstation. I will note a few quick things though:
- I was able to get slightly warm air to blow out of it while building some projects in Xcode. Once the build completes, the air remarkably returns to being pretty cool again shortly after my build
- It's definitely a chunky little thing. Feels dense (like Cylinder Mac Pro) in my hand when I unboxed it.
- The unboxing experience is actually similar to that of my Rack Mac Pro 7,1. Just way smaller. The box aesthetic and handle has design queues taking straight from that Mac Pro's box
I need to test out a bunch of software and workflows. Mainly, running Xcode UI/Automation tests, DaVinci Resolve, Logic Pro X, Unity Engine, and Unreal 5 Engine.
I really haven't used it that much due to a lot of work over the past 2 weeks, but I have my Xcode development environment setup on it. It's definitely building my projects faster than my other Macs, but I have to do more testing. It will serve as my main iOS - iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS dev workstation. I will note a few quick things though:
- I was able to get slightly warm air to blow out of it while building some projects in Xcode. Once the build completes, the air remarkably returns to being pretty cool again shortly after my build
- It's definitely a chunky little thing. Feels dense (like Cylinder Mac Pro) in my hand when I unboxed it.
- The unboxing experience is actually similar to that of my Rack Mac Pro 7,1. Just way smaller. The box aesthetic and handle has design queues taking straight from that Mac Pro's box
I need to test out a bunch of software and workflows. Mainly, running Xcode UI/Automation tests, DaVinci Resolve, Logic Pro X, Unity Engine, and Unreal 5 Engine.
I'd say I'm "just whelmed" too. Using it isn't a mindblowing experience, it's just faster and smoother in intensive apps (Final Cut, Affinity Photo, etc). I'm still disappointed in the price tag (especially for the Studio Display) but can definitely see myself using this rig for the next 5 years.
I’d agree. I was impressed with the m1 mini but it’s memory limit meant the performance dropped off quickly for me. The studio just stays fast.
It’s a solid machine, i’m happy, but a mini with 32gb would have probably done
Can you say more about this? It seems like when I configure up a Dell or Alienware or whatever with roughly similar specs, a Studio is within spitting distance.
I've seen it referred to as the Mac Chonky and I kinda want that to stick.
This.
I'm a #3 with a generous pinch of #1, especially when using Lightroom Classic on the Studio Display. I've been making desktops instead of working...
This is a really interesting thread. The context of what someone's previous machine was helps me to gauge their experience of using the Mac Studio. I'm considering upgrading from a late-2012 iMac, so I expect a huge difference in just about every aspect of daily use. If I was using an M1, I'd expect a lot less difference.
Well, my Studio Max should arrive early this week, if UPS are to be believed, It'll replace an 16GB M1 mini, which is moving over to server duty. I'll post some initial impressions once it's set up, and provided the week doesn't get away from me.
My biggest problem is this: $2600 or so used to buy you a top-of-the-line 27" 5K iMac. Granted, that's not a professional machine, but it had a high-end consumer-level CPU (i7/i9) and support for at least 32GB of RAM, putting it squarely in "prosumer" territory like the base model Mac Studio. Since the Mac Studio and Studio Display are now the "spiritual successor" to that machine, the base price is now $3600. The Mac Studio with M1 Max feels like a solid upgrade performance-wise, but not a revolutionary one, so I don't think the $1k price increase reflects any significant additional value. I think the Mac Studio is probably closer to an appropriate price target than the monitor -- $1600 for what's effectively an iMac screen with speakers and webcam is overpriced, IMO, by about $600.
If there were any realistic competitors in the 5k Thunderbolt 4 display space, Apple would likely never have aimed for that $1600 price.
Right now the LG 5k Ultrafine, being the only other competitor, is $1300 with missing functionality compared to the Apple Studio Display. But also out of stock: https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27md5 ... ed-monitor
Right, and that's why I reluctantly paid the price -- I really like the 1440p workspace, and I really like high-DPI, so my choices are limited. I also think the UltraFine display is overpriced too (it's maybe a $700 display at most), but when there are exactly two choices, yeah the companies can charge whatever they think the market will bear. But that doesn't mean the product actually has that value.
I take your point about the Studio Display, and unfortunately that's just down to competition and no doubt to some extent, production. It's not a good value relative to a great 4K, but if you really want Mac-focussed PPI, well, you don't really have an option. And that sucks.
Respectfully though, $2600 never got you close to top of the line with the iMac. A 2020 8-core, 3.8ghz machine with 32gb RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 5700XT was $3400, and except for a modest edge in GPU, that machine is seriously outclassed by the base Studio. I think the bigger issue is the current lack of a desktop M1 Pro option, would would make comparisons to more reasonable iMac configs much more fair. Currently there's nothing in Apple's desktop lineup to meet that need.
Yeah, everyone wants to compare the 5k iMac prices against the Studio, but the Mini is really the more apt comparison (unless you cranked the options on the 5k, which would bring it in line with the Studio anyway).
I don't think there is a comparison to the Studio. It's a completely brand new product category for Apple, and the last computer that looked like it was the PowerMac G4 Cube.... which the Mini replaced by going seriously down market. And even the Cube wasn't the same, it was a low end desktop when you compare it to the G4 towers. Whereas the Studio is a high end desktop with the same design ethos as the Cube. Right down to modular design and ease of repair. The closest current product I can think of to the Studio would be something like the NUC Ghost Canyon or Beast Canyon. All out no-compromises performance in a tiny package.
It just gets really confusing if you try to compare the Studio to past Apple products, because there is nothing that's quite the same.
So yeah, I agree, the Intel Mini is the best comparison to the 5K Intel iMac. You could think of it as a headless 5K iMac, but you couldn't configure it to be as high spec. So once you throw the M1 Mini into the mix, the decision becomes pretty clear.
It just gets really confusing if you try to compare the Studio to past Apple products, because there is nothing that's quite the same.
So yeah, I agree, the Intel Mini is the best comparison to the 5K Intel iMac. You could think of it as a headless 5K iMac, but you couldn't configure it to be as high spec. So once you throw the M1 Mini into the mix, the decision becomes pretty clear.
I think the closest thing to the low end studio (with the max) is the Cube. The high end (with the Ultra) is more like the trash can which was a somewhat weak workstation for the time it came out.
I'm also really appreciating this thread.
My wife, who is a serious amateur-starting-to-think-pro photographer, using a medium format system (i.e. ~120 MB RAW files) and printing to a Canon large format fine art printer from Affinity Photo, has been struggling along for years with her creaky old 2011 iMac. So I want to surprise her with a Mac Studio and Studio Display for her birthday next month.
Obviously this will be a big upgrade and I'm sure it will make a huge difference for her. The questions I'm pondering are: 1) Are there likely to be software issues? I know Affinity is AS native, but Canon supplies horrible software with it's printers, and I wouldn't be too surprised if their drivers aren't AS native or even functional on the Mac Studio. I suppose the worst case scenario would be for her to set up the old iMac as a printer diver to which she transfers files that are ready to print, but that would be kludgy. And 2) should I splurge for the Studio Display; it seems expensive for what it is... worth it for a photographer tho?
The sticker shock is making me hesitate, especially WRT the Studio Display.
@TheGnome
Use this link below to cross check compatibility for your software stack
https://isapplesiliconready.com
Use this link below to cross check compatibility for your software stack
https://isapplesiliconready.com
I can tell you that Affinity Photo has zero problems on Apple Silicon. And unless your particular printer is very old, Canon likely has compatible drivers for it.
As for the monitor, a 27" 5K like the Studio Display is a logical upgrade from a 27" iMac. Since the 2012s were non-Retina, the biggest difference will be the overall sharpness of the screen. By default it's a high-DPI 1440p workspace, so there won't be any change in the amount of "real estate" between the two. Whether you want to go with the Studio Display specifically, or choose the LG Ultrafine 5K (and save $300) probably comes down to how important the design aesthetics, built-in speakers and webcam are.
As for the monitor, a 27" 5K like the Studio Display is a logical upgrade from a 27" iMac. Since the 2012s were non-Retina, the biggest difference will be the overall sharpness of the screen. By default it's a high-DPI 1440p workspace, so there won't be any change in the amount of "real estate" between the two. Whether you want to go with the Studio Display specifically, or choose the LG Ultrafine 5K (and save $300) probably comes down to how important the design aesthetics, built-in speakers and webcam are.