Jack Flesher wrote:
I'm due for both a new laptop and desktop. I've been waiting for the M4 chip to make it into the Studio; and I would do 64GB/1TB at just under $3,000. But... I am also thinking that for about the same money I could run off a MBP M4 48/1TB and TB dock and get by with just one machine -- I don't do, and don't plan to do video.
I've been rolling with the M2 MBP Max (64GB) and 2TB. No plans to upgrade soon. You should be fine with an M4 MBP Max ... of any configuration 32GB or more. Boils down to form factor preference ... and the need for external peripheral support (i.e. multiple monitors, etc.).
stuuke wrote:
Also for Mac users that don't upgrade the storage be sure to delete some of Apple's screensavers. They take up an insane amount of space. I believe it's over 50gb. To remove some of the files go to
Library - Application Support - com.apple.idleassetsd - Customer - 4KSDR240FPS
If you are at the point where deleting less than 50GB from your SSD is necessary…
… you really need a larger SSD, not deleted files.
I've been actively looking to replace my Windows build that I made 2 years ago. And the Mini M4 Pro makes a lot of sense. I'm still trying to see the performance gain/loss between my current system and Apple's M4 Pro. My windows build is running:
Intel I7 12700K
16GB DDR4
RTX 2080 8GB
As I render video, performance would be most important to me.
mcbroomf wrote:
That RTX 2080 is pretty old tech. No Tensor cores which are used for AI. Have you considered a GPU upgrade and more RAM?
Yeah.. I have, always tempted but the size of that Mini M4 would save quite a bit of space on my desk as well. Although, I can always build something with Windows in mind, small form factor for the price of the Mini M4 Pro
This is what I am using for Lightroom and PS ( for video work I use MacBook Pro M1)
Question about new Mac Studio or MacMini M4 PRO - If now I have TOTAL - 40 GB of RAM *2x4GB + 2x16GB OWC Memory) is this memory comparable to a new memory in Mac Studio or Mac Mini M4 PRO ( like 36 or 48 GB of Memory in New machines )
This is what I am using for Lightroom and PS ( for video work I use MacBook Pro M1)
Question about new Mac Studio or MacMini M4 PRO - If now I have TOTAL - 40 GB of RAM *2x4GB + 2x16GB OWC Memory) is this memory comparable to a new memory in Mac Studio or Mac Mini M4 PRO ( like 36 or 48 GB of Memory in New machines ) ...Show more →
I had 40 GB in my old i9 27” iMac. That was always more than enough memory. I got 48GB in my new Mac mini M4 Pro.
I typically have ACR/Bridge and Photoshop _always_ running on my machine, often with a few other things as well: BBEdit, Safari, Mail, and a few other odds and ends.
I think that 48GB is the sweet spot for most folks using one of these machines for photography post-processing.
As to the 1TB or more question, take a look at home much of your 1TB you are using on the older machine. I was using about 70% of that, so I went with the 2TB SSD on mini, thinking that over its lifetime I would likely be pushing toward and likely past that 1TB SSD.
A leak (?) of the M3 Ultra benchmark test results. I've seen them come out quite early from other launches so it's possible this is legit. Does not look too compelling for either single of multi-core.
The M3 Ultra machine looks like it's the one you want if you need massive amounts of ram (up to 512GB) or internal SSD (now up to 16TB)
mcbroomf wrote:
The M3 Ultra machine looks like it's the one you want if you need massive amounts of ram (up to 512GB) or internal SSD (now up to 16TB)
Which would be necessary for essentially zero photographers. ;-)
Until now I was always ok with 1 TB
I keep Photos Folder on External 10 TB LaCie HDD
For LR I have 5 2TB SSD drives if needed. No way I will pay Apple this ridiculous prices for SSD
I really don't understand this company why you can't upgrade base Mac Studio memory- only option is 36 GB
RoamingScott wrote:
They are clearly going for less customization, less SKUs, and more mass production. The base Studio is more machine than 90% of people need.
See their asterisk: 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB available with M4 Max chip with 40-core GPU.
96GB or 256GB available with M3 Ultra chip. 512GB available with M3 Ultra with 80-core GPU.
This is the market of people who will customize their machine the most.
So are you saying I would be ok with base Mac Studio 36 GB Memory... I think I read your comment before that 64 GB Memory is what people should get ?
PIOK wrote:
So are you saying I would be ok with base Mac Studio 36 GB Memory... I think I read your comment before that 64 GB Memory is what people should get ?
No, I said most people, aka not photographers who just need a computer. There are deals to be had on older Studios as these new models come around.
PixiPhotography wrote:
I've been actively looking to replace my Windows build that I made 2 years ago. And the Mini M4 Pro makes a lot of sense. I'm still trying to see the performance gain/loss between my current system and Apple's M4 Pro. My windows build is running:
Intel I7 12700K
16GB DDR4
RTX 2080 8GB
As I render video, performance would be most important to me.
I'm not sure the Mini with M4 Pro is going to be more than a modest improvement over what you have. The biggest improvement may be in single/lightly threaded programs and tasks involving tons of read/write to the hard drive.
If you use machine learning accelerated apps, your Nvidia card will run circles around the Apple. My RTX 2060 Super is completing DXO Deepprime noise reduction faster than my M4 Pro. I haven't tried rendering video, because that's simply not part of my work. I'd venture to guess that your RTX will still outperform the M4Pro, just because the RTX has that many more compute units and access to electricity.
Oscarsmadness wrote:
I'm not sure the Mini with M4 Pro is going to be more than a modest improvement over what you have. The biggest improvement may be in single/lightly threaded programs and tasks involving tons of read/write to the hard drive.
If you use machine learning accelerated apps, your Nvidia card will run circles around the Apple. My RTX 2060 Super is completing DXO Deepprime noise reduction faster than my M4 Pro. I haven't tried rendering video, because that's simply not part of my work. I'd venture to guess that your RTX will still outperform the M4Pro, just because the RTX has that many more compute units and access to electricity....Show more →
Thank you, that was informative. I figured since Adobe programs like Premier use CUDA so the RTX cards should shine here. Perhaps I should bump up to 64GB since I noticed that these programs eat up RAM during rendering. Perhaps I'm looking for an excuse to build a new PC as well
PIOK wrote:
Question about new Mac Studio or MacMini M4 PRO - If now I have TOTAL - 40 GB of RAM *2x4GB + 2x16GB OWC Memory) is this memory comparable to a new memory in Mac Studio or Mac Mini M4 PRO ( like 36 or 48 GB of Memory in New machines )
The M series (“Apple Silicon”) processors in the new Macs have “unified memory”, which means the graphics memory and main memory are all one thing. So you need to add the 4GB in your iMac’s graphics adapter in, meaning your current machine has 44GB. As well, 8GB has been the usual minimum for graphics memory for quite a few years, so you should probably imagine you’re starting with 48GB.
Program code for Apple Silicon uses a bit more space than code for Intel, but most of what is in memory is not code.
Modern photo software is adding AI features which will use graphics memory (just memory on modern Macs, since it is unified). You can choose not to use those features. So you might need more memory than you did. On the other hand, you might not be using all of the imagined 48GB you have now—I know the photo software I use doesn’t come close to that. You can see what you are using with Activity Monitor, which is in the Utilities folder under Applications.
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