Apple’s desktop was similarly quick when it came to jamming out in Ableton Live, exporting an intricate 16-track electronic music project in just 24 seconds. And when it came time to export the whole thing down to a single 4K video, the Studio took just 22 seconds to finish the job. The Mac Studio allowed me to smoothly swim through a massive Final Cut Studio project, playing back and scrolling between nine simultaneous 8K video streams without a single stutter. We haven’t gotten a chance to test an M1 Ultra Mac Studio just yet, but even my review unit - which packs a 32-core M1 Max chip and 64GB of RAM - has pumped out some of the most impressive performance I’ve ever seen.

It offers your choice of Apple’s two highest-end processors: the M1 Max, which debuted on the 2021 MacBook Pros, and the new M1 Ultra, which is effectively two M1 Max chips fused together and promises to run circles around just about every Mac available. Our Mac Studio with M1 Max outperformed nearly every Mac and PC we’ve tested in terms of general processing power, only falling behind dedicated gaming desktops when it came to graphics.Ī compact design you can sneak into any setupĭon’t let its tiny design fool you - the Mac Studio is one of the most powerful Macs ever. How it compares: The Studio is the middle child of Apple’s dedicated desktop lineup, offering more power and connectivity than the $699 Mac Mini but not quite as many high-end configuration options as the massive Mac Pro that starts at $5,999. It packs all of this muscle into a small cube that manages to offer a good amount of connectivity options, including a plethora of Thunderbolt 4 ports and two USB-A ports. What you need to know: The Mac Studio offers your choice of Apple’s fastest processors - the M1 Max and M1 Ultra - and in our testing, delivers some of the best overall speeds we’ve seen from any computer. It’s also ideal for folks who want tons of power but don’t have a lot of space, thanks to a compact design you can sneak under just about any monitor. Who it’s for: The Mac Studio is for creative professionals and ‘prosumers’ who want the best processing performance you can find.

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Best mac desktop for music production