M2 Max vs M2 Ultra Mac Studio: Is it Worth $2000 MORE?

The 2023 Mac Studio is here, but which spec should you get?

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Timestamps ⬇️
M2 Max vs M2 Ultra - 00:00
Specs & Connectivity - 00:30
SSD Performance - 01:05
Geekbench 6 CPU - 01:32
Web Browsing Speed - 02:11
Figma Web Design - 02:22
Graphics Differences - 02:46
Geekbench 6 Metal GPU - 03:14
3D Mark Wildlife Extreme - 03:45
Cinebench R23 Stress Test - 03:51
Heat & Fan Noise - 04:15
Xcode Programming - 04:50
Logic Pro Music Production - 04:57
Blender 3D Rendering - 05:21
Lightroom Classic Photo Editing - 06:00
Is M2 Ultra TOO Fast? - 06:13
Adobe Photoshop - 06:45
4K Video Editing - 07:00
ProRes RAW Video Editing - 07:31
8K Video Editing - 07:56
Resolve Noise Reduction - 08:28
Should you buy the M2 Ultra - 09:00

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[mgurf]

Would LOVE some After Effects and Premiere testing. As others have noted, export times are great indicators of overall power, but doing some testing in a timeline/sequence with background tasks or lots of effects to process would be a great real-world use test. Loved the vid last cycle when you threw those Premiere comparisons in...

[paullottforVAdelegate]

Engineer here. There is a good reason why scaling is never linear, and that the Ultra only doubled performance on heavy load. Basically, it comes down to the size and number of the data blocks passed to cores when using multiple cores and what size makes up a dividable core task. I worked for a company call Inspex for years as a semi-conductor engineer. Basically, it looks like the block size passed to a core in Apple Silicon is pretty large and runs out of blocks to serve to cores pretty quickly. Seems like they made it efficient for the number of max cores and not the ultra cores. Not a bad thing. It just means that all the blocks are pretty much parsed out before it needs the extra cores unless there are A LOT of blocks that need to be processed. There is actually processing lag if you optimize a chip to break data into smaller blocks to pass to more cores because A. You don't really know how much time a black takes and you may end up having some cores wait too long for a single demanding block to finish, or B. There is data assembly lag.. meaning, the time it takes to reassemble the blocks of 12 cores is meaningfully less than the time it take to reassemble the blocks sent to 24 cores. More block to more cores may actually be slower than less blocks to fewer cores for smaller black counts. I am thinking they looked at the average potential block size for tasks apple customers will likely have... Also, the weakness of the way the chips are attached means you cannot change block processing parameters. It's hardware fixed in Silicon. When you glue 2 chips together, you get what you get. There is a controller that manages traffic to and from a core. Differences in this controller faced the same issues on Intel and AMD, who use slightly different hard coded core allocation for different reasons making one better for large block processing and others for smaller block processing. Hope that makes sense. I tried not to get too technical.

[guylugenbeel]

Thanks guys. Just purchased the M2 Max Mac Studio. This channel gave me the best info between it, the Mac mini pro, and the Ultra

[stancartmankenny]

the Xcode graph at 4:53 is confusing.. its shows 1:09 vs 0:67, which is a tad confusing, because 0:67 is really 1:07 which is basically identical to 1:09. Or did they mean to write 109 vs 67 (without the colons)? Because, if so, that would be a significant difference.

[lostinhell]

I know it might sound weird but how about a comparison between m2 mac mini vs m2 ultra mac studio. Both in the base version. Maybe with the addition of performance to cost ratio. Would love to see the video.

[Adambroughton]

Thank you for being the first person to test logic pro, been waiting a while!

[jivexero]

Ok dudes. The Figma Ads are starting to become really obvious throughout all of your videos…. I mean at least switch out the tag line. Let it be known. Figma mention: Paid Ad.

[DesignedbyKirk]

Strange that you got the same results over the two machines for Davinci Resolve Noise Reduciton, Tyler Stalman clearly showcased that the M2 Max struggled to keep up with live / 24FPS playback, and the M2 Ultra was the only machine that was able to do this. Even citing the M1 Ultra not being able to keep up.

I think with a grade, noise reduction, and any other node elements, the Max would struggle big time

[ignskeletons]

I’m still on M1 Pro and I make iPhone apps with Xcode. Having no issues at all. I say don’t upgrade until you noticeably start to feel a slow down or need the horsepower. Don’t upgrade just to do it.

[MooseWillard]

Please do Music Production benchmarks on all of these!

[epizefiri]

In the Xcode benchmark the values are probably wrong. 0.67 and 1.09 are just 2 seconds of difference.

[AllgoodthingsTv]

I've never heard you say that playing back 8K footage from the RED camera was an issue on any Mac silicone base system previously – but you stated it was *not* an issue here. I know for a fact that 8K canon footage chokes my MacBook Pro M1 system (16 inch). I would really like to know how these systems handle that footage.

[c.staerk]

Guess the Xcode benchmark should be 1:09 and 0:47? (Not 0:67)
This is pretty much the only one I am interested in, so got a bit confused 😊

[juanurdaneta]

Something I would be interested to see is to run all of the benchmarks side to side or progressively and find where does each processor starts to lag.
To expect double the performance is not necessarily realistic nor a good thing. I would expect the ultra to excel at parallel tasks running at the same time (because of the increase in core count) without dropping too much performance (probably because of power limitations). I would recommend something like the studio with the ultra in case you need to open several apps at the same time and work on heavy things in parallel.

[Krell]

It would be interesting to throw in a decent spec i9/4090 PC in to the mix. Ultra for Logic sounds great but, man, the cost for the performance is difficult to justify.

[DavidJBradshaw]

Would be interested in seeing the unbinned M2 Max vs the binned M2 Ultra. Does having 38 GPU cores ever beat having 30+30 GPU cores? How close is it in some of these tests?

[jamesbridges]

Coming from a 5 year old PC-my Ultra is a badass.
After a few projects it will be paid off, then time for the next one. It’s a tool for business

[andywalter]

Great Video as always. But I don’t quite agree with your final verdict . Have a look in timeline performance with user cache or smart cache on in DaVinci Resolve. Many clips with effects and color grading are constantly rendered in background. This is significantly faster with ultra. Timeline performance is more important than export times.

[johnbarry]

I mean, 8 displays is a good start, but WTF with the 5? Who uses only 5 displays these days, does Apple think its 1990 or what? Im holding off until the 18 displays connection.

[aligizzle]

Would love to see an m2 max vs m1 max base review please, Max and Vadim!