Extreme performance for video professionals: Apple introduces Mac Studio with new M1 Ultra

[23:10 Tue,8.March 2022 by Thomas Richter]

Apple has just unveiled the world&s most powerful desktop processor, the new M1 Ultra chip, at its PeakPerformance event, along with a new compact Mac Studio desktop that uses the new chip and a new 27-inch Studio Display. Apple combines two M1 Max chips in the new M1 Ultra Apple Silicon using its new UltraFusion technology. This creates a new SoC that has an astonishing 128 GB of unified memory as well as 20 CPU and 64 GPU cores - exactly twice the number of performance cores and memory of the previous M1 Max in each case - and can be addressed as a whole, so no program code needs to be optimized for it.

Apple Mac Studio

This is reminiscent of classic dual CPU systems, but here both CPUs (along with memory and GPUs) are integrated much faster, because Apple&s UltraFusion architecture enables a bandwidth of 2.5 TB/s between the two SoCs, which should be by far the fastest connection of two CPUs (including GPU) at the moment. Unfortunately, the performance does not scale linearly here either, i.e. it does not simply double compared to an M1 Max, it roughly varies between 60 and 90% additional performance - depending on the task.

Apple Mac Studio with Studio Display

Workstation power in a compact format

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The new Mac Studio comes in the form of a compact cube in the style of an enlarged Mac Mini, but its size should not hide its enormous performance, which is aimed at professional users in the areas of 3D as well as video editing, among others. The high energy efficiency, already known from the previous M1 chips, makes the small form factor (19.7cm x 19.7cm x 9.4cm) possible despite extremely high performance, since the cooling system can be significantly smaller than in classic workstations and the power of the integrated GPU cores is used instead of space-consuming graphics cards. The Mac Studio is thus a well transportable workstation. The lack of space for expansions is compensated by the possibility to connect additional devices via the extremely fast Thunderbolt 4 interface.

The Mac Studio can be configured with either an M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra (effectively 2 x M1 Max). If the performance of the M1 Max was already

impressive, this is even more true for the new M1 Ultra. Of course, the performance of the new M1 Ultra in video-specific tasks is particularly interesting. For example, it enables parallel playback of 18 8K30p Apple ProRes 422 video streams and transcoding video up to 12 times faster than the 27-inch iMac and up to 5.6 times faster than the 28-core Mac Pro.

M1 Max vs M1 Ultra

Otherwise, Apple uses its "old" Macs with Intel CPUs and AMD Radeon GPUs for performance comparison: so the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra offers up to 3.8 times faster CPU performance than the fastest 27" iMac with 3.6 GHz 10-core Intel Core i9 processor, up to 90% faster CPU performance than the Mac Pro with 3.2 GHz 16-core Intel Xeon CPU and up to 4.5 times faster graphics performance than the 27" iMac with Radeon Pro 5700 XT graphics with 16 GB GDDR6 resp. up to 80% more performance than the fastest graphics card currently available for the Mac, the AMD Radeon Pro W6900X GPU with 32GB GDDR6.

Mac Studio GPU Performance

When it comes to the size of the GPU memory, which is especially important for fast calculations in the field of video editing, the Mac Studio sets new standards for a desktop system: thus, on a Mac Studio with M1 Max, up to 64 GB and with M1 Ultra, up to 128 GB of shared (unified) memory are available for CPU and GPU, surpassing the currently most powerful workstation graphics card, which has "only" 48 GB of VRAM.

Of course, the speed and size of the available storage is also important for working with video: The Mac Studio can be equipped with a maximum 8 TB NVMe SSD, which reaches a speed of up to 7.4 GB/s. The storage capacity can be expanded via Thunderbolt 4 using external drives. This storage can be expanded via Thunderbolt 4 using external drives.

Apple Mac Studio Front

The Mac Studio&s interface selection is significantly better than that of the current MacBook Pros (with M1 Max), so it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10 Gbit Ethernet port, two USB-A and one HDMI port as well as a Pro Audio jack on the back - WLAN 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 are also integrated.
Other interfaces are more easily accessible at the front, for example for devices that have to be changed frequently. Two more USB-C ports are available there: the Mac Studio with M1 Max supports 10 Gbit/s USB 3 and the M1 Ultra supports Thunderbolt 4 (with 40 Gbit/s). In addition, there is an SD card slot to easily import photos and videos, for example. Up to four 6K Pro Display XDRs plus a 4K TV can be driven via the Thunderbolt 4 ports and HDMI.

Apple Mac Studio back panel.

The Mac Studio also features a special thermal management system that makes its exceptional performance possible. The system of dual-sided fans, precisely placed airflow channels, and over 4,000 perforations on the back and bottom of the case direct air through the internal components and help cool the high-performance chips, which should still remain very quiet even under the heaviest workloads. The M1 Ultra is said to consume around 100 watts less than, say, an Intel/AMD desktop CPU with 16b cores.

Prices and availability of the Mac Studio

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The new Mac Studio is available for pre-order now at prices starting at ,299 (M1 Max with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD) and ,599 (M1 Ultra with 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD), with shipping starting Friday, March 18. The maximum version with M1 Ultra, 128 GB RAM and 8 TB SSD costs 9,199 Euros.

more infos at bei www.apple.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: Extreme Leistung: Apple stellt Mac Studio mit neuem M1 Ultra vor