Why is my M4 Max Mac Studio read speed slower?

Question

Why is my M4 Max Mac Studio read speed slower?

Hi everyone,

I just set up my new M4 Max Mac Studio via migration assistant from my M1 Max Mac Studio and I’m hoping for some guidance. I ran Black Magic disk test on my M1 Max before I got the new M4 Max, and I noticed the my write speed is faster on the M4 Max, but my read speed is slower than my M1 Max. Both Mac Studios have the 1 TB SSD. I know that this is not definitive, but is this something I should be concerned with?

Thanks!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Apr 7, 2025 7:48 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 8, 2025 6:57 AM in response to bigkahunaintx

<< and maybe I'm making much ado about nothing. >>

THAT

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Answer 2

Apr 8, 2025 4:44 AM in response to imacken

Sorry, I guess I should have put those numbers in.

M1 Max Mac Studio - Write speed is 5932.1 MB/s, Read speed is 5478.0 MB/s

M4 Max Mac Studio - Write speed is 6258.5 MB/s, Read speed is 5088.6 MB/s

Both units have the 1 TB SSD.

Am I worried about nothing?

The only reason I'm asking is I just spent a good bit of money upgrading to the M4 Max model and I want to make sure that all the components are working correctly. I know that these speeds will very some from device to device, and maybe I'm making much ado about nothing.

Any thoughts friends?

Thanks, Mark

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Answer 3

Apr 8, 2025 12:16 PM in response to imacken

imacken wrote:

Hmm, I'm now questioning my speeds! From what I can see the write speed should be around 7000MB/s!

You said that you have a 512 GB SSD. Someone who has a 1 TB or larger SSD might see faster speeds if the way the storage is arranged with >1 TB allows the Mac to write data to, or read data from, more flash chips in parallel.

Similar to how Macs with plain M1 chips and 256 GB SSDs used (2 x 128 GB) while those with plain M2 chips and 256 GB SSDs used (1 x 256 GB), resulting in the speeds on the (plain M2, 256 GB) models being slower.

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Answer 4

Apr 8, 2025 12:31 PM in response to imacken

imacken wrote:

Well, we don't know what numbers you are getting, but just for context, my 512Gb internal drive on M4 Max Studio is 4300MB/s write and 5200MB/s read.

512 GB SSD on a M1 Max Mac Studio => 4987.8 MB/s write and 5203 MB/s read. (With default settings: 5 GB reads and writes. Running the test with different data sizes might result in different numbers.)

This machine boots from power off so fast it's like waking up my Late 2009 iMac from Sleep. I'm not sure how much of that is due to the fast SSD, and how much to changes in how macOS loads, but overall, the real-world improvement is impressive.