My mac pro is about 9 years old and its time to replace it.
This will exclusively be a photo and video editing machine. I need it to be performant and run Lightroom, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro (edit <10 min musc videos in 4k). I want the machine to be fast and reasonably future proof (~4-5 years)
Here are the specs I'm looking at:
Apple M4 Max 16-Core CPU
64GB Unified RAM | 1TB SSD
40-Core GPU | 16-Core Neural Engine
Please let me know if you'd change anything and why. I'm willing to spend a bit more but want to ensure it is required.
While we're at it, I may potentially update my monitor. So if you have any suggestions for a 32" wide gamut, pls let me know as well. Thank you !
In case anyone is curious, I ended up going with the M3 ultra with 96gb memory and 2tb with base processor specs. SSDs are on the way (scratch disk + another app data disk).
As to displays, while preferences vary, I’d rather have two 27” monitors than one 32” monitor. (My setup is arranged to keep the image on which I’m working on the left monitor with minimal other distractions, and to keep all of the tool palettes and similar on the right monitor. )
gdanmitchell wrote:
As to displays, while preferences vary, I’d rather have two 27” monitors than one 32” monitor. (My setup is arranged to keep the image on which I’m working on the left monitor with minimal other distractions, and to keep all of the tool palettes and similar on the right monitor. )
I agree with setup if possible. Having a second screen is great, whether it's for toolbars/palettes/option menus or reference text, photo mechanic/Lightroom/Capture One/etc, or whatever.
That said, I do have an ultra wide 32 inch at work (not related to any photo or video editing) and you really have 2 24 inch monitors at that width.
The apple studio display 5k is pretty nice. Color accuracy is very important and its coverage at 98.8% of DCI-P3 but only 86% of AdobeRGB ?
I have an old HP ZR30w monitor. Of course the newer ones are much better in terms of resolutions, nits etc but the HP has 99% adobe rgb coverage. Impressive for a 10 year old monitor that is still going strong and is still a beautiful screen. Going to stick with it for a bit more time.
The mac studio m3 ultra is here. Amazing machine. SSDs are arriving tomorrow.
