Buying a new Mac Studio

[smadell]

After Apple’s announcement of an M2 Mac Studio, I am about to drop some cash on that upgrade. Here’s the only real question I have, and hope that someone in the forum can give some advice.

I will purchase an M2 Max Mac Studio with 64 GB of RAM and 2 TB of SSD storage. There is an option to increase the GPU from 30-core to 38-core. What will this achieve, and is it something that is worth considering?

For completeness sake, Affinity Photo and Capture One are the two applications I use that are most demanding, and if increasing GPU cores will make that experience better, then I consider it money well spent. What does the group think?

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, smadell said:

There is an option to increase the GPU from 30-core to 38-core. What will this achieve, and is it something that is worth considering?

Well it will give you slightly (a little bit) more GPU processing power for GPU intensive apps and only for those which do *really make use of all the GPU-cores*! These might be only few very good GPU optimized apps like some video or 3D graphics rendering apps.

To get an idea look through this video and the there shown comparison diagrams for various apps (for Capture One - it makes so far no real difference here for the 30 vs 38 GPU-cores) ...

• M2 MAX 38GPU vs 30GPU Real World Photo Test, is it worth the extra $200?

See also:

• Apple M2 Max (38-GPU) vs Apple M2 Max (30-GPU) (the bench results down that page)

Where I live the price difference between the M2 Max chips with a 30-core and 38-core GPU is about ~ € 230.-, which I personally would usually better invest into more RAM (though your choosen 64 GB is already the max RAM for a M2 Max chip) or SSD size then. - So overall your Mac Studio M2 config is already good choosen for those things you want to do with it.

[smadell]

Thanks for the rapid input, @v_kyr. Actually, if I upgrade to 38 GPU cores, I can then go as high as 96 GB of RAM. That sounds like overkill, but what do you think? (NB - I haven’t watched the video yet, but will do so in a bit! Thank you.)

[v_kyr]

32 minutes ago, smadell said:

Actually, if I upgrade to 38 GPU cores, I can then go as high as 96 GB of RAM. That sounds like overkill, but what do you think?

Usually I tend to say "the more RAM & disk storage the better", BUT in case of Apple hardware that's then always sadly a pretty high price one has to pay.

• Mac Studio M2 MAX with the 30-core GPU, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD   = 3549.- €
• Mac Studio M2 MAX with the 38-core GPU, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD   = 3779.- €
• Mac Studio M2 MAX with the 38-core GPU, 96 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD   = 4239.- €

Well that's a bunch of money for an initial system which comes without any monitor, keyboard, mouse, webcam ... so far, which you may have to add then all too here, in case you don't have already something good to reuse here!

I'm not sure if it is worth that much money privately just for fun, so if you don't make any money/income out of that equipment then, or have an urgent need for it. You have to decide and think how long you will probably use that hardware then, so if it's overall worth that/a higher price investment. Aka how long you plan to use that hardware and if it then amortizes for you over time here somehow.

 

[smadell]

Some really cogent advice, @v_kyr. Thank you. I’m almost certain that my purchase will go as follows:

M2 Max Studio with 30-core GPU - the possibility of increased performance in Affinity Photo would seem to be marginal, at best (extrapolating from the video you referenced) and the benefit in Capture One sounds to be non-existent.

64 GB of Unified Memory - Going up to 96 GB of memory would require me to upgrade to the 38-core GPU. That’s an added expense of another $1,000 and I have serious doubts as to whether that kind of upgrade would result in a palpable benefit.

2 TB SSD Storage - I toyed with the idea of bumping my SSD storage to 4 TB, but I can always add an external SSD without too much of a speed downgrade.

Guessing at a lifespan for the computer and amortizing the cost over that lifetime might make good financial sense, but my goal is simply to put my money toward a machine that will improve my day-to-day enjoyment without feeling like I flushed that money down the proverbial drain. And, since I am in this for my own enjoyment (and not for income) I will leave the amortization tables to those for whom they make more sense.

Thank you so very much for your help. I think I’ll be online tomorrow morning, putting my order in!

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, smadell said:

I’m almost certain that my purchase will go as follows: ...

You made wise decisions, I would have opted pretty much for the same config here.