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I have a pro camera that creates HUGE images (81 MB, and that is before they are edited). I need to edit in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Not having enough machine has always been an issue. I also intend to do some light video editing.
I’m ready to upgrade and I’m looking at the Mac Studio but I’m not sure which processor is right for me. Do i need the Ultra or is it overkill?
What machine are you using now?
For starters, compare the spec's of the Mac Studio's with what you currently use.
Mac Studio - Technical Specifications - Apple
The M2 Max is an adequate machine for hobbyist and professionals, doing photo and light video editing.
The M2 Ultra is twice the machine as the Max and should be the go to for more serious professional video editing.
What machine are you using now?
For starters, compare the spec's of the Mac Studio's with what you currently use.
Mac Studio - Technical Specifications - Apple
The M2 Max is an adequate machine for hobbyist and professionals, doing photo and light video editing.
The M2 Ultra is twice the machine as the Max and should be the go to for more serious professional video editing.
Russelline wrote:
I have a pro camera that creates HUGE images (81 MB, and that is before they are edited). I need to edit in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Not having enough machine has always been an issue. I also intend to do some light video editing.
I’m ready to upgrade and I’m looking at the Mac Studio but I’m not sure which processor is right for me. Do i need the Ultra or is it overkill?
In my opinion, the M2 Ultra Mac Studio is overkill for someone who is mostly doing still photo work.
The M2 Max is already pretty fast, so given that, the main things you need are probably lots of RAM, and lots of storage. There are lots of ways to add external storage to a Mac Studio – and "slow" desktop hard drives might even turn out to be the best place to store full-size photo files when you consider price/TB and capacity.
For most photographers, I'm guessing that 16 – 32 GB of RAM would be about the right amount. All Mac Studios include 32 GB of RAM or more. Because you are working with such huge files, you could consider custom-ordering your Mac Studio with 64 GB of RAM. That's an enormous amount of RAM, and it's possible you wouldn't actually need that much, but it would give some headroom even if you were working with multiple layers and/or panoramas.
Yes, the M2 Ultra machine has more CPU and GPU cores. But the performance is unlikely to scale in a completely linear fashion – and that $1400 could go towards your savings, or towards some other piece of gear (high-quality lens or color-accurate monitor) that would be useful for your photography.
IMHO, the M2 Ultra Studio is best suited for people who are going to be doing intensive video work (or other very-high-end niche work) all day long.
The last few rows of this table help to point out a few more differences, in addition to raw compute power. The Ultra doubles the speed of access to memory, and doubles the number of various types of video acceleration engines.
The Ultra is a Beast -- IF you Edit Video at the bleeding edge. Otherwise, it's too expensive.
Russelline wrote:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9820X CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.31 GHz
Installed RAM 96.0 GB (95.7 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
That's what I have. I have no idea how to compare this to the Mac M2 Max or Ultra
Are those specifications from a Mac or a PC?
Apple offered Core i9 processors on three MacBook Pros, and two iMacs. None of the MacBook Pros could take 96 GB of RAM. That leaves the iMacs, but it looks like their Core i9s ran at 3.60 GHz – not 3.30 GHz.
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support
Looking at Geekbench 6 results,
Keep in mind that these are synthetic benchmarks – and that CPU speed is just one component that affects real-world performance.
What I am curious about now is that, given that you have 96 GB of RAM, how much of it does your workload use? Are you pushing things to the point that you would want 96 GB – or even more – on a new machine?
That's an intel 10-core processor with HyperThreading released in 2018. Built on 14 nm process. Thermal Design Power 165 Watts. Uses DDR4 RAM memory.
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9820X CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.31 GHz
Installed RAM 96.0 GB (95.7 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
That's what I have. I have no idea how to compare this to the Mac M2 Max or Ultra
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
Mac Studio M2 Max vs m2 Ultra
