Apple Announces M1 Ultra CPU, Mac Studio and Studio Display

[Middleman]

So I just watched the Apple Event today. Have to say I am mightily impressed with the new offerings!
M1 Ultra and the new Mac Studio is certainly stunning and amazing an achievement.

But the one thing that I found amusing out of the presentation was the comparison made with the Mac Pro. Who in their right mind could afford to compare it with the more expensive Mac Pro? That basically means they will be losing a good chunk of their MP sales. That said a fully specced Mac Studio with 128GB of RAM and 8TB drive at $8,000 is still roughly 1/5th the cost of a fully specced 1.5TB RAM 8TB SSD 28-core Xeon Mac Pro at $52,000 (which includes the $400 wheels). If anyone should be happy about this new system, I think it would be the content creators who do heavy video editing ala Youtube and the MTV tribe.

That said my only concern about this new system is the reliability of it all. No doubt the CPU & GPU working together with the unified memory as one die is going to place a huge amount of pressure on the die itself. I guess that explains the massive fans they've put in this new system? How long the combined CPU will last under typical workloads on a daily basis compared with say PC based hackintoshes or even older MPs we really don't yet know. If they fail you can replace the parts separately on a hackintosh, but not on the Mac Studio.

 

[gabevf]

Yeah, I think my Hackintoshing days are nearing an end...

 

[ifyoubuildittheywill]

After 12+ years with many generations of Hackintosh running pro video apps, I think I'm going Mac..

 

[robomartion]

If the dual M1 Max is called the Ultra, what will Apple call the chip in the Apple Si Mac Pro ???

I'd bet on the M1 Xtreme for the name. I'll check back here in 2023 to see if I'm right. How will they connect two Ultras together ? That may be why it will take so long. Or maybe by then it will be the M2 Xtreme.

View attachment 543397

He said in the presentation the M1 Ultra is the final M1. Going by the connector between the two I think they have to go to M2 for the next level of performance.

 

[pastrychef]

They said the M1 Ultra GPU is 80% or 1.8x faster than a W6900X. If the M1 Ultra GPU is twice as fast as the M1 Max it would make its Metal Geekbench score 128,000 but a W6900X has a Metal score of 170,000. Even with better cooling on the desktop version I don't see how the M1 Ultra can be nearly twice as fast.

edit: OK I worked it out. Apple is using the Affinity Photo benchmark: "Tested with Affinity Photo 1.10.4 using the built-in benchmark version 11021."

Source:https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/153426-photo-benchmark-11021-results/

 

[Bustycat]

But the one thing that I found amusing out of the presentation was the comparison made with the Mac Pro. Who in their right mind could afford to compare it with the more expensive Mac Pro? That basically means they will be losing a good chunk of their MP sales.

It is like an indirect reminder from Apple not to buy a Mac Pro as a new generation is coming next.

 

[f1zzas]

I don't think that it's faster. According to geekbench.com results intel 12 gen i7/i9 CPU is faster then M1 Max. Same with GPU RX 6600 XT outperforms M1 Max

 

[f1zzas]

After buying the 14" M1 Max MacBook Pro late last year and setting it on a vertical dock, the only thing missing was an amazing Apple-designed monitor to go with it.

That problem has now been solved! Delivery expected March 18.

• 5K pixels
• Solid aluminum build (finally)
• Thunderbolt with 96W power delivery, perfect for 14" MacBook Pro
• Three USB-C ports
• 12 megapixel ultra wide angle camera with Center Stage
• 6 speakers (Apple's built-in speakers are unmatched in the industry)
• 600 nits brightness
• True Tone

View attachment 543395

I was close to order it as well, but then I checked specs and find out that it has only 60hz refresh rate, for 1600$ price range don't have 120hz is crux of the problem. ;D

 

[joe6187]

Just wonder why the new monitor is not 8k just go back to 5k

 

[kukuluku]

Within the past decade I built four generations of Hackintosh with the help of this wonderful community. But now it seems the time has come to say good-bye for a while. I'll be buying a Mac Studio in April. It was a hell of a ride with you. Thanks for that. I'm kinda hoping there'll be an ARM Hackintosh someday, which I'd consider a fun project to build. Until then, stay safe, be well, good luck and have fun. Peace. Out.