Mac Studio M4 Max or M3 Ultra...

[Tom W.]

What are people's thoughts on this, if any, yet...?

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, Tom W. said:

What are people's thoughts on this, if any, yet...?

 

I hope it's a hoax ....

 

But hey, it's Apple. Tim Cook did so many strange decisions so far. May not be the last.

[zoomer]

1 hour ago, zoomer said:

I hope it's a hoax ....

 

Oooops, .... it is already reality .....

I missed that. Came unexpected.

 

Beside that the Ultra embarrassingly is an M3 (!?) ....

(Couldn't Apple just have already released that last fall ?)

if I would need to buy a Studio Ultra now,

I would get even more annoyed by Apples insane memory spec offers and costs - or better artificial limitations. When you think they allready reached the max annoyance limit, like with MBP and the binned M4 Max memory offers which they continue (Apple may be still too lucky with their SoC yields - or just throw the binned versions to trash) they also add new limitations to the M3 (!?) Ultra. Greedy poor stock 96 GB or a minimum 2000€ upgrade for exaggerated 256 GB WTH.

 

Apple does really everything to avoid any Mac Studio Ultra sales.

(Maybe to not cannibalize MacBook Air, iPhone16e and Apple Watch Sales 😉 )

 

And now it is official  .....  (MBP vs Studio, same specs)

My MBP's Display + Keyboard + Touchpad is only worth 1400 € including VAT

OK, which on the other side is at least exactly 7 Apples aluminium keyboards with Numpad and TouchID

 

 

Edited March 5 by zoomer

[Tom W.]

@Mark Aceto...?

[Pat Stanford]

No idea as to which would be faster or better for VW.

 

But I am happy to run a test on any file you like on my M3Max MBP with 128GB ram.

 

test results from Geek Bench on older machines:

 

The 2024 16" MBP  M4 Max is about 22-25% faster than my 2023 16" MBP M3 Max.

 

The 2023 Studio M2Ultra is about 45% faster on Multicore than the 2023 M2 Max

The 2024 Studio M2Ultra is about 1% SLOWER on Singlecore than the 2023 M2 Max.

 

Can't really make comparable system as M4Max maxes out at 128GB RAM while the M3 Ultra has options of 96 or 256 (or more) GB.

 

So about 30-40% more cost for probably 160% of the speed.

 

What is your budget. How long do you keep machines? How much is machine speed currently holding you back?

 

 

[Tom W.]

The M3 Ultra is clearly the better chip it’s just counterintuitive that it’s the older generation chip

[Pat Stanford]

Hard to make there very top of the line chip.  They have had a year to perfect the M3 making it easier to get 4 good versions to work together.

 

The Ultra has always been one version back if I remember correctly.

[Kevin S]

Benchmarks will tell the tale once they start appearing:

https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks

[zoomer]

4 hours ago, Pat Stanford said:

No idea as to which would be faster or better for VW.

 

 

I would assume the one with the better single core performance. (So M4 Max)

 

[Flair-Studio]

Sorry for the dumb question: as a general rule to work with WV on a Mac is it better to prioritize the latest chip or the amount of RAM?

 

I am also looking to change my machine, but with something more affordable...

Thanks!

[Tom W.]

13 minutes ago, Flair-Studio said:

Sorry for the dumb question: as a general rule to work with WV on a Mac is it better to prioritize the latest chip or the amount of RAM?

 

I am also looking to change my machine, but with something more affordable...

Thanks!

 

Best single core performance plus as much RAM as you can afford...?

[zoomer]

23 minutes ago, Flair-Studio said:

I am also looking to change my machine, but with something more affordable...

Thanks!

 

The standard M4 has basically the same fast single core performance as the bigger versions.

With more cores and more memory lanes and throughput, the bigger ones get a little bit faster.

 

The standard M4 is limited to 32 GB memory, a M4 Pro allows up to 64 GB.

 

 

[Tom W.]

M4 Max Studio is 128GB RAM max which is a lot but not as much as 512GB for M3 Ultra!

[Pat Stanford]

8 hours ago, Flair-Studio said:

Sorry for the dumb question: as a general rule to work with WV on a Mac is it better to prioritize the latest chip or the amount of RAM?

Don't skimp on RAM. At least 64GB. If you are doing large 3D models then you want 96GB, 128GB or more.

 

The slowest M1 will still be faster than you can use it for about 95% of the tasks you throw at it. But if you don't have enough RAM you will have some functions that will either be painfully slow or impossible.

[Mark Aceto]

On 3/5/2025 at 10:28 AM, Tom W. said:

@Mark Aceto...?

 

there's not a m4 ultra?

 

that is the 2nd most disgusting BS tim apple has pulled yet

 

F apple

 

get a PC and a MacBook air that runs Parsec (back to the PC)

[Mark Aceto]

btw VW will run fine on either system--hardware ain't the bottleneck

[rDesign]

17 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

there's not a m4 ultra?

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2025/03/apple-announces-m3-ultra-and-says-not-every-generation-will-see-an-ultra-chip/

[Mark Aceto]

9 hours ago, rDesign said:

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2025/03/apple-announces-m3-ultra-and-says-not-every-generation-will-see-an-ultra-chip/

yeah there wasn’t a m3 ultra chip last year

 

this is just more pathetic cost cutting greed to increase shareholder value instead of give users what they need

 

that said 512gb memory is bonkers

 

too bad the GPU is trash

[zoomer]

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/06/m3-ultra-chip-first-benchmark-result/

 

And it looks like Geekbench results for M3 Ultra are underwhelming also for GPU.

[zoomer]

BTW,

M3 Ultra doesn't look that bad.

There are 2 x GB v6 GPU Benchmark sets on top that are bad but the third later isn't that bad. It is 40% better in Metal than my M4 Max. 40% is much better than just 8% but not overwhelming though.

Edited March 7 by zoomer

[Mark Aceto]

Been ruminating about this, and for more constructive context:

 

M4 single core clock speed will be faster (roughly 20%) than M3, which is something that VW (and literally every other app) will directly benefit from.

 

Apple intentionally Nerfed the memory on the M4 Max build because Tim Apple is the master of artificial limitations to create market segmentation. If they had bumped it to 256gb as they could/should have, fewer customers would buy the M3 Ultra. It's basically a headless 2024 M4 Max MacBook Pro. Also, I'll wager 3 tacos that the next Mac "Pro" (just threw up in my mouth and swallowed a little) will offer the M4 Ultra to distinguish itself from the studio (as they've completely nerfed that machine, and ostensibly just slapped a Studio in a cheesegrater case which is a f'ing war crime) in that product lineup.

 

The M3 Ultra build is the Studio everyone expected last summer, and is the best all-rounder (albeit with 2024 components at 2025 pricing). The only caveat of this build is single core clock speed (unless you count some perceived hardware accelerated ray tracing on a weak GPU).

 

As a Mac user for 40 years (and also a PC user for the past 2; plus the early oughts), it's disgusting to see how greedy leadership has turned our once beloved computer manufacturer into a luxury brand. I'll always use a Mac laptop for my daily driver but I could care less about their hardware anymore. I cannot fathom buying a Mac desktop for 5-15k, and then having to sell the entire thing to be replaced with another entire 5-15k thing.

 

Also if you want to save money on Apple's storage tax, there's an abundance of 4TB SSD's for round 300 bucks (Samsung, Crucial, etc).

 

[Tom W.]

11 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

Also if you want to save money on Apple's storage tax, there's an abundance of 4TB SSD's for round 300 bucks (Samsung, Crucial, etc).

 

Are removable NAND cards a red herring?

[Mark Aceto]

33 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

Are removable NAND cards a red herring?

 

Removable in a Mac?

 

This is what I was referring to:

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/products/external-hard-drives-portable-usb/ci/6543?filters=fct_capacity_844%3A4tb%2Cfct_drive-type_4391%3Assd-flash%2Cfct_form-factor_936%3Aportable%2Cfct_system-connection_9815%3Ausb-c-3.2-gen-2-x6

 

 

Edited March 7 by Mark Aceto

[rDesign]

10 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

This is what I was referring to:

 

So are external SSD drives like this one fast enough to use for storing all of your Vw files that you're actively working on? Thx.

[Tom W.]

21 minutes ago, Mark Aceto said:

 

Removable in a Mac?

 

This is what I was referring to:

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/products/external-hard-drives-portable-usb/ci/6543?filters=fct_capacity_844%3A4tb%2Cfct_drive-type_4391%3Assd-flash%2Cfct_form-factor_936%3Aportable%2Cfct_system-connection_9815%3Ausb-c-3.2-gen-2-x6

 

 

 

Sure. I meant removing the SSD card + replacing it. But didn't know if this was just talk.

 

7 minutes ago, rDesign said:

 

So are external SSD drives like this one fast enough to use for storing all of your Vw files that you're actively working on? Thx.

 

There are a couple of Thunderbolt 5 external hard drives which are presumably the fastest option...?