M2 Mac Studio Review: This is the New Pro Mac

Review of M2 Ultra Mac Studio w/24 core CPU, 76 core GPU & 128GB memory
My favorite Final Cut plugins mvfx.co/TylerStalman
Download the film LUT used in this video stalman.sellfy.store
Where I get my music & SFX bit.ly/artlist-tylerstalman
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Follow me on Twitter / stalman​
0:00 Intro
0:39 SSD speeds
1:35 Final Cut Pro
4:01 DaVinci Resolve
5:47 Premiere Pro
6:29 Mac Pro
7:52 Photoshop
9:43 Lightroom
10:13 Topaz Labs
12:13 Overall
#MacStudio #M2Ultra #Apple

[@janosadelsberger]

Generative Fill is actually a cloud feature - it doesn't process on device according to Ars Technica

[@stalman]

You know what, you’re probably right. I hadn’t looked into it but that’s probably the case

[@dovber]

@@stalman Switch off your internet and it will not work

[@pouyahallaj4445]

Came to comment section just to say this😁

[@stalman]

@@pouyahallaj4445 Thats what I pinned it, my bad!

[@pouyahallaj4445]

@@stalman I saw it, You are doing great. Love your content

[@dsdddsd4543we]

Apple made the Mac Studio a Mac Pro replacement to show Apple Silicon's power in a small form factor. The $2000 afterburner card is built into the Apple Silicon SOC. They are keeping the Mac Pro for users who need additional connector cards, which is a super small number of users. This is the sweet spot for Apple.

[@HakonBroderLund]

The fact that it can now do realtime noise reduction in Resolve is huge! Really opens up the workflow

[@NetvoTV]

Can MacBook Pro M2 Max do that?

[@iPhonedo]

I can't get over how much faster it is. I can't wait for my next big project!

[@rodneydangerfield7153]

Agree...Hopefully, will able to afford the next "big" Apple project!...LOL

[@24kilobytes]

always can't wait for every new Tyler video

[@SamFigueroa]

Dang, you've done it. You and ArtIsRight have solidified my decision to pony up for the Ultra. Love how you both focused more on real world use in creative apps to compare the SOCs.

[@TheSingingCelebrant]

You have great connectivity to your target audience. No annoying jumping around audio and asinine cut shots. Just good honest presentation. Thank you. Just a shame these are still so far out of most people's reach in terms of affordability.

[@AllgoodthingsTv]

I would like to see more focus on Canon R5 8k footage (raw or straight out of cam). On my 2021 MacBook M1 Pro with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD I cannot get that footage to play back smoothly in FCPX. You skimmed over that type of footage in this review. That's the *real* stress test.

[@stalman]

Yeah the Ultra really doesn’t struggle with any footage I gave it. I didn’t do any crazy grading but still, the 8K didn’t drop frames

[@AllgoodthingsTv]

@@stalman I'd love to see a YT short, maybe filmed off computer (with a camera) so as not to drag resources, of you pushing around some 8k Canon footage on this machine. I would love to shoot in that format more often and it would make this a worthwhile buy if I could.

[@michaelch5060]

I've got the fully spec'ed M1-Ultra and for me it's all I need... for now :). Thanks for sharing.

[@ImagineAS]

You always do the best reviews. Thank you for that. I did give in and stay with a Mac Pro. I tried the studio and just need more ports and the PCIE.

[@carlospcpro]

What a nice and straight forward review, thanks!

[@M_E_T_R_O__9]

So glad to see the topaz video testing, that’s what I wanted to test myself :)

[@TillThenPlease]

Oh hell ya! This is a review I was hoping for.

[@MannyWalks]

what a beast 🔥🔥🔥 Definitely a product targeted for the super pro's! as always, awesome quality video Tyler 😎👏

[@MannyG32968]

Excellent video and great info!

[@MicaelWidell]

Would love a computer like this, but for my simple editing, in 4k, it still works very smoothly with proxies disabled on my M1 Macbook Air :)

[@NarimanGafurov]

Thank you Tyler!

[@cammackey]

Hereeee we go again! Tyler always doing the tests that matters.. and then making us empty out bank accounts.

[@Mrhongkongkitchen]

Tyler. Thanks. You’re my man 😊😊😊

[@benjhaisch]

I absolutely love the concept of the Mac Studio. It’ll be my next computer for sure. That being said, my 16” M1 Max MBP is still FLYING in most every thing outside of ram swap issues that still plague the Adobe apps. Wish I could have gone for a 2 or 4TB ssd instead of the 1TB

[@freekzonderland6362]

I can tell you 4TB on the MBP was one of the best decision I made. So handy to have that ultra fast internal storage.

[@OllyNewport]

Absolutely want this as my next office computer also, but I think like you, I might be able to wait until the next version as my current machine is the M1 Max MBP16. Although you probably won't like how I solved the Adobe RAM issue... I switched to Resolve 😅

[@rafaelm3404]

I have trouble editing sony a7r5 files on my 16gb ram m1 pro macbook pro. Would more ram help it? It always maxes ram... goes for swap and slows way down. Considering i use it only at home, should a mac studio m2 max 64gb fix it? And should i consider a desktop pc? Like 13900k + 4080

[@caffeinatedcameras]

Same.

[@sebastiaandewith8170]

Crazy to see so many clips taken next to my place in Amsterdam! Hope we get a coffee there sometime :)

[@stalman]

I’m ready to go back! I can’t get enough Amsterdam right, I keep shopping for apartments

[@jasonk9779]

I'm running the M2Max, and for what I'm doing, mostly 4k with Resolve, it's fantastic :)

[@KrishnaDraws]

how much of the performance can be attributed to the 128GB of RAM vs the M2 Ultra processor? I would like to know what the comparison would be between an M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra with memory being equal. Great video!

[@krishnansrinivasan830]

Awesome & Thanks :)

[@SmoothCalmMusic]

Great first impression review. How is the Memory handling overall. Swap Used in particular

[@user-gb8nx8qr2z]

I have a Mac Studio. The Mac Studio is a fine prosumer desktop. I also have a Mac Pro. The Mac Pro has PCIe and SATA internal expansion which enables it to far more efficiently handle large medical and scientific computing datasets. For example, TBs of data via PCIe SSD RAID 0 is far faster than DAS thunderbolt 3/4 or NAS 10 gbps networking.

[@gcookz86]

It's pretty much good enough for photography needs..... understatement of the decade lmao

[@TrapBoiFuse561]

Waiting for m3 next years 🎉❤

[@kcstocks2004]

Great video review, thank you. Question, what is your build or specs on your Mac M2? Thanks again

[@PranitGedham]

Cool Video..Thanks for sharing your comparison.Since u were able to generate the project successfully on the M2 Max Mac Studio as well as M2 Ultra...M2 max still can handle the same amount of load right as that of m2 ultra..its just the export time difference or its something else as a major difference?If only exporting time is the difference then i might prefer M2 Max..What u say ?

[@jamescook5931]

Excellent job as usual. Could you please recommend a specific Mac Studio m2 for an up-and-coming small independent filmmaker?

[@kwasigentleman5051]

Nice video

[@philippscheithauer]

Would love to see the export time comparisons of that stress test with NR and RED footage. Nobody really cares if you can chop of 5 seconds here and there of a low intensity project, but if you can cut from 40min to 25min, that's a huge bonus. Since NR uses mostly GPU, that would be a great test. Also regarding timeline performance, I'd like to see projects with more shots and faster cuts. Not some talking head stuff with a cut every 3 seconds as mostly all Macs play those well and there will be no difference. Overall Fusion performance for titles an animations would also be great. Although you went in more detail than others, mostly these reviews feel like the are for a crowd that does KZbin for a living rather than editors within the professional industry. And those usually buy those Macs.

[@TehSpeedRunner]

That's really amazing performance! That's a shame I'm scared to make my PC build to triple the performance with 4090 and stuck with Mac for the time being :(

[@pablomarin1746]

Great review and valueble info, I wonder of the M2 Max 38c will playback well in you timeline stress test in better quality or just in better performance in FCP or full quality in Premiere. Thanks in advance.

[@emanueleconiglio379]

Thanks al lot. Great video! Is there a lot of difference between max and ultra applying the noise in Davinci? Has the max some drops frames?

[@Nattodayy]

Waiting to see After Effects benchmarks before purchasing.

[@crisantosantaana]

Awesome video. I just ran into your channel and I just SUBBED! Do you think we'll be getting M3 ultra this year?

[@Dukeofvampires1]

Photoshop AI might work with external API, not on the machine itself. Does it work offline?

[@DBLCreations]

I have the 2019 Mac Pro with a 16-core. Which serves me fine but i do miss some GPU power. I only have the W5700XT. And i really wish i would've gone with a more powerful GPU back in the days. Now Apple doesn't sell their MPX modules anymore. And i would love that because it also gives me a addition Thunderbolt 3 ports. So that really sucks. At this point, i might be better off with a Mac Studio Ultra as it gives me the same amount of Thunderbolt 3 ports as my Mac Pro. I really hope that some day, Apple will bring back more modularity (GPU's & RAM upgrades) in a tower. Right now it's all baked on to the chip which might have some benefits as it all access faster between RAM/GPU & CPU. But i would rather have more options. Great video Tyler! I hope you will be reviewing the M3 Ultra.

[@Justgoodvids]

Be careful with those sanddisk drives lol 12:31

[@DarrellWingerak]

Maybe I missed how much storage you bought. Would you change any options? If you had the same $, is there a PC that would work as well or better?

[@cjadams7434]

owc makes expansion chassis too with 1 or 3 slots for the studio

[@mdominic]

Does Adobe ever fully optimize for new chips? I have the Studio M2 Max with 96 gigs of ram and adobe can still be funky.

[@manduja75]

what about when barelystarting to set it up? did you do a transfer of data to the new mac studio from a previous computer? how was taht>?

[@BrianBoniMakes]

It's also odd that the new PRO comes out with less memory. I think they were planning on using a different chip that didn't make it on time. The introduction of the PRO heavily promoted it as an upgradable machine but where is the upgrade board for the early PRO?

[@underconstruction1093]

Correct me if I’m wrong but if you’re training AI wouldn’t a Mac with lots of ram be your best bet? I don’t know of other gpus with 64gb ram for example or even 128gg. I assume that training models requires more than just gpu memory though..

[@dr.noir27]

i hope you do alternative monitors for mac studio other than apple studio monitor

[@DavidBakhash]

Photoshop generative fill is processed in the cloud, which is prob why there was no difference in time between chips :)

[@anata.one.1967]

The M1 Ultra had GPU scaling issue, which is why I suspect they didn't sell it in Mac Pro. M2 Ultra is much better and that's why I think they find it ok to sell in a Mac Pro case.

[@swissheartydogs]

Okay, but very happy w/ my 16’’ MBPro M1 Max. Will consider, in 2024, the forthcoming 3nm M3 Max (14’’ MBPro on the go) or M3 Ultra in MacStudio w/ a lot of unified memory…

[@frx155]

Hi . can you tell me in Topaz Video AI how many frames per second you got , for example upscale 1080p to 4K+60frame export !? ( m2 max & m2 ultra )

[@DavieMorgan]

Hi Tyler. As regards to the Davinci Noise reduction test you did. Do you think the slightly less configured Apple M2 Ultra with 24‑core CPU, 60‑core GPU, 32‑core Neural Engine 128GB unified memory could handle the noise reduction the same as the M2 Ultra configuration you used in your test buddy?

[@kakejeller]

Thanks for this fantastic comparison. What were the specs for the M2 Max?

[@steven871]

Thanks Tyler. Seems for the same $1999, the M2 studio exceeds a similarly priced M2 14" or 16", no? Should we wait for an M3 MBP if we really want a desktop laptop rather than a studio?

[@_EdMorris]

How do I know which one max studio ultra to buy!? As a photographer & filmmaker. Which gpu, memory do you pick? Price almost doubles with all the top specs

[@ricardorgomez]

I'm glad that Apple got the decoder-issue sorted out. Really, it's not worth getting a M1 Ultra over the M1 Max. Yes, it's faster in some things but certainly not what it should've been. I'm a photographer I've seen another, great video talking about the performance improvements in Capture One. From what I've heard, CO won't utilize all the resources in the Ultra. Which is strange and odd. I'm guessing it's just software optimization. I had a Mac Studio Max for a week while my laptop was in the shop and it was stupid-fast compared to my 2020 i5 MacBook Pro. Not even close in exports. I'll have to figure out if I want the Ultra for the eventual video work I want to do....

[@djxcel23]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@trogdor]

Shocked to see Apple update the Mac Studio. Seems like it's a signal that they're giving up on the Mac Pro tower. I'm happy with my M1 Mac Studio and will look to see what the M3 brings with the new chip architecture.

[@julianperry4767]

Mac Studio is the Mac Pro for the 'rest of us' who are not crazy Nasa Engineers, Pixar animators, etc. Fits that 'upper professional' level just right without going to absurd levels of horsepower and expansion needed at a much lower price. $4K vs $7K+

[@trogdor]

@@julianperry4767 And its an admission that Apple will just keep the Mac Pro around for the small market but not really invest in it. I thought they were going to do a full redesign and improve it after years of ignoring it. Which is totally fine with as I love my Mac Studio.

[@rodneydangerfield7153]

Thanks, Tyler, for the great, thorough video! QUESTION: How did decide on your M2 Ultra Mac Studio configuration ( 24c CPU, 76c GPU, 128GB Unified Memory)?

[@markhollis5850]

A comment about the Mac Pro: You cannot get a fiber card for the Studio and put it into a slot. You are limited to the highest speed of the Studio’s Ethernet port. I ran a facility where we had several Mac Pros hooked up to a Facilis Terrablock using ATTO fiber cards. So the Mac Pro, at least for that, is still an excellent option, especially for a post facility or a facility where one’s workflows includes editing using several systems and finishing with sound design and graphic elements for a regular-running series. That is not just Hollywood. My Studio has 192GB of RAM and an 8TB SSD. It has the full complement of GPU cores, and I think it will be able to work for me for at least five years. But, were I in a facility, it would be a Mac Pro for the connectivity to a server and the ability to share material. Additionally, one may configure a Mac Pro with inexpensive SSD cards for more internal storage, all in the case with plenty of cooling.

[@channelz567]

For DaVinci DeNoise. Do you think the M2 Max would also provide smooth footage, or only the Ultra? I'm trying to decide on which version to get and I agree that DeNoise has also been a sticking point.

[@stalman]

It’s right at the edge for the Max, I wouldn’t expect it to work reliably

[@7-bs]

My m2 ultra base modle with 128 gb of memory has the choppiest playback .. video codec cinema4k from the fx3 as well as all intra 4k codec timeline is set at 1080*1920

[@ryansmith9711]

At 12 minutes and nine seconds, you mentioned that the fan noise was audible is it just a fan noise or does it have a whine in it? I ask because when you put the microphone and it did sound like he was whining, but that also may be exaggerated.

[@ProducerSikste]

IM BUYING IT. i make music and movies. Animation, ONLY THAT RAM will do a Engineer justice, Thanks for the video! Ive read alot about this model before hand. Music Videos is where my old Mac 16 gigs crashes

[@wedomusic.]

nice

[@MaiElizabeth]

DaVinci even struggles with M2 Max but FCP doesn’t. But still Davinci can still make it into non M iPad but FCP can’t. That bothers me a lot.

[@tonyburzio4107]

Why Mac Pro? You actually mentioned the reason, both media engines can work on the same file. Apple has been working on board interconnects sharing memory. Now, create daughterboards for the Mac Pro case, each with their own M3 Ultra chip that can use their media engines for the same export. How about four Mac Ultra boards working on the same project export, sharing a combined pool of memory.

[@familiacacereslema1776]

Could you test 3D rendering?? Cinebench, Octabench, Blender, etc.

[@tofulosophy]

LR on my 2021 14 MBP M1Pro fees sluggish. Probably the software? Waiting for full screen images to load or cycling through photos in the develop module take a bit longer to load. Anyone else?

[@jonasfotograf]

I had the Mac Mini M1, and it worked well for what I was doing. But the biggest problem with both the Mac Mini and the Studio, compared to my home-built PC, is the storage. It’s so incredibly easy (and cheap) to just buy a disk and insert it into the computer and start working. Instead of needing a NAS with 10 GbE, or how do you solve the storage part?

[@kubik554]

Easy with USB c thunderbolt enclosure can fly really high.

[@cazzaparrphysique]

Hi Tyler, my old 2014 Macbook Pro 15” is sadly on its last legs so i’m looking to upgrade. For someone who films in 4K on a Sony A6500 and uses Premiere Pro to edit Instagram Reels and Tik Tok content - would the M2 Macbook Air be sufficient? No fancy edits or anything. I always get stuck on whether to go Air or Pro!

[@cazzaparrphysique]

@Pablo Thank you.

[@SMor42]

Is the sd reader faster than the ones in the MacBook Pro laptops? Those are dog slow compared to a modern card reader. I definitely push my M2 Max base 14” MBP in Lightroom editing a lot of R5 files with color edits, AI masks and crops. Not sure why you can’t push it, but editing them I hit the swap with 32gb ram and have 10+ minute processing times with 100+ files.

[@stalman]

Same speed SD readers

[@User57655]

Those Mac Pro compromises on expansion seem a rough trade off

[@FerventAstronomy]

WWTSD: M2 Ultra with the 60 or 76 core GPU? Basically the identical use cases you demonstrated, except focused on Resolve Studio which unless I’m mistaken makes use of GPU acceleration. Is the 76 core GPU worth the extra 1250 Canuckbucks?

[@The_Punisher202]

No way

[@derzuschauer2126]

What are you shooting on? 🎥🤔

[@Coops12241]

I really wish you would have thrown in the older M1 Ultra into the comparison tests. I own a production company and my editor uses the maxed out M1 Ultra and I’m trying to see if it’s worth the upgrade or not.

[@ghost-user559]

I think the M1 in general was 40% slower than M2 pro. The Gpu performance between generations was stellar. But Ultra is less of a gap. So I imagine it’s significant, but I honestly would hold off for M3 as long as everyone is already happy with the current workflow. I don’t know if people would honestly notice that improvement day to day.

[@stalman]

Only if you’re really desperate to squeeze every drop of performance out of your computer, it’s probably fine to wait for M3

[@Coops12241]

@@stalman From what I gathered there were large improvements in the GPU compared to the CPU. Have you seen real world applications of that in export times? We use FCPX and After Effects as the main applications. Any improvement in render or export times would be amazing.

[@njpme]

Nice beard man 🧔

[@skymakai]

“Pretty effective card reader”. It should be UHS-II. When offloading a bunch of cards, UHS-I is tedious.

[@cinematools9621]

I wonder how Topaz Video would stack against a PC since it utilizes the GPU for processing.

[@stalman]

I’d like to know too

[@wazy_7]

I'm thinking of going with the base model M2 Max, but I'm considering the the 38 core GPU upgrade, is it worth it? I do plan on doing a little gaming, especially some emulation stuff.. Switch with Ryujinx for example... Just can't make my mind up on the extra 8 cores 😂 - Anyones input appreciated 👍🏻

[@TalonNismo]

I read some where that it’s a 27% bump on the gpu at only $200. I’d get it.

[@alfonsoiannn]

I wonder if it can handle Excel files with lots of formulas of about 100mb per file. Has anyone tried? Thanks!

[@alessandrosfligiotti1694]

Am I the only one running out of memory space while exporting or rendering on FCPX. I have the Mac Studio M1 and can’t export a 2 min 6k timeline. Editing is ok but exporting a real headache… try running task manager while doing so, you’ll be shocked on ho fast you burn through memory space. Any suggestions 😅

[@3dus]

How many GPUs core on this M2 Ultra?

[@dell1032]

Did you purchase this Mac Studio with your own money or is this a review unit from Apple? This information should be disclosed upfront.

[@derjung]

Well, as a graphic designer and part 3D artist, I'm very limited with the new Mac Pro. Unfortunately I can't install a faster GPU anymore. So at the moment I'm still faster with my 2019 Mac Pro than the new one in GPU rendering. So I can't buy the Mac Studio either, because I can't buy any improvement in that point. So I can only hope that my software for Intel will be supported a little longer. But I'm already worried that this will soon be history, now that Apple has banned intel and AMD. Also that they maybe not continue to maintain the drivers internally and next year macOS drops (eventually) support.

[@cjadams7434]

if you’re doing 3-D rendering work, then it’s a pretty easy situation at the moment you could always have a PC over in the corner bare bones with just a 4090 in it and do network renders with red shift or octane. Eventually once octane gets its act together and synchronizes the SDK for Mac and PC network rendering (eventually)

[@kinocchio]

Why can’t they put the power button on the front?

[@mdominic]

You should mention in your title that you are comparing the M2 Ultra and the M2 Max. I've been looking for a video that does this and I kept skipping this one.

[@Applefanboy2012]

How to screen record in such high quality?

[@colinbennett]

What read speed did you get in Disk Speed Test? You posted the write speeds, but didn't mention reads. Thanks!

[@stalman]

5100 on the M1 Ultra and 5800 on the M2

[@colinbennett]

@@stalman Thanks so much!

[@frazerweb]

Video going same way as 2d art, and the m3 ultra chip next year will be even more impressive eventually the m4 will be enough for everyone.

[@Doty6String]

try running a super long thunderbolt cable out of these...doesnt work. not enough bus power

[@skymakai]

All the effects you applied in FCPX are fairly basic. Add a de-flicker plug-in, or Neat-Video denoiser. That’s a true test.

[@stalman]

True, i just don’t use those tools in Final Cut so i didn’t think of it. Hopefully the Resolve tests help

[@siewer]

What's really annoing is the fact, that Apple has no hardware encoding support for AV1. Until this happens I'm very happy with my M1's.

[@kezboy1]

what monitor is that?

[@brentsmithline3423]

This is my view on the Mac Pro. Only people/companies that should be purchasing the NEW M series Mac Pro are ones that need to use cards/devices that go into PCI expansion slots. So in sound production if you have an Apple Intel Mac Pro with PCI cards for production. This would be a very good investment if it is going to improve your work flow. Looking to start a video production house, or local broadcast station? Feel a rack mount version of the M series Mac Pro along with the existing, and any new hardware, and software looks like it could be an over the moon solution. Is the M series Mac Pro going to sell as well as the Apple Mac Studio? No it is not. This is designed for true professional production houses that need the PCI expansion slots.

[@SimplySora_]

I use an M1 Max Studio and man I really gotta learn how to use Final Cut, I just learned Premiere first while I was on Windows and have been too lazy to make the switch 🫠

[@roberto19801909]

ill wait till they add hdmi 2.1 having used 120 hz aint no way im going back

[@m0nztam0nk]

Weird, why is NO ONE comparing these to rtx 4090 PCs? The first M1ultra was compared and Lost handily, now with these it would be closer no? Would really like to see that…

[@azwb]

Around 3:50 You state the m1 ultra couldnt used both media engines to render on the same clip. Can the m2 max and m2 ultra?

[@stalman]

Yes it was updated with the M2, but only the Ultra

[@azwb]

@@stalman thank you for clearing that up. Ultra can only use both media rendering engines on same clip, while the m2 max has 2 but only can use one during rendering of 1 clip.