WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:06.960 You guys just saw our income breakdown, so you know that unless you buy an awful 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:11.920 lot of Framework hoodies, I am not making back what I spent on this brand 00:00:09.200 --> 00:00:17.359 new M3 Ultra Max Studio. So, the question is, how can we possibly justify 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:22.960 buying it? And the answer may surprise you. You see, depending on what you're 00:00:19.680 --> 00:00:26.720 using it for, the M3 Ultra Studio is 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.240 actually, dare I say it, a good deal. 00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:33.600 Not for everyone, of course. If all you're doing is some light photo editing, you're going to be better off 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:37.600 doing that on your phone. But if you work with AI, for instance, or if you 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.719 have heavy demands when it comes to content creation, then even with our 00:00:40.559 --> 00:00:48.399 configuration, which has the topsp spec GPU and cost us about 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:54.399 $10,000, but this little puppy could end up making you a lot more than you spent. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:58.719 Let's take a look after, of course, we uh look at the accessories. There's a 00:00:56.480 --> 00:00:58.719 power 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:09.360 cable and paper. And that's it. So, after that 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:15.360 very short side quest, let's take a closer look at the machine itself. Starting at the front, we've got an SDXC 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:19.360 reader as well as two Thunderbolt ports. And these are one of the big 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:23.360 differentiators for the new Mac Studio. Whether we're talking about the topsp 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:30.000 spec M3 Ultra version that we've got here or the lesser 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:32.960 M4 Max version that has faster cores, 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:36.560 but not nearly as many of them. And the reason that these are such a big deal is 00:01:34.479 --> 00:01:41.439 because now they are Thunderbolt 5, which even under normal circumstances 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:47.439 offers up to double the performance of last gen Thunderbolt 4 because it 00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:49.840 transitions from PCIe Gen 3 to PCIe Gen 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:54.200 4. That means more bandwidth for things like connected SSDs or card readers or 00:01:52.880 --> 00:02:00.399 external GPUs, at least on non-MAC machines. But 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:05.680 it also has another trick up its sleeve. Instead of operating at 80 Gbit 80 Gbit 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:12.400 transmission and receive, it can actually stack it and do up to 120 GB 00:02:09.119 --> 00:02:14.800 transmission and 40 GB receive in boost 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:20.239 mode. This allows the new Mac Studio with its Thunderbolt 5 ports to drive 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:25.760 extremely highresolution, high refresh rate displays, and a lot of them. Apple 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:29.360 boasts it'll do up to eight connected displays in the ultra configuration. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:34.800 Now, let's take a look at the back where we find, that's right, another four of 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:38.239 those Thunderbolt 5 ports, allowing you to connect pretty much whatever you 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:41.760 could possibly want. remembering, of course, that Thunderbolt can daisy 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:46.879 chain, so you can have up to six devices off of each of those six ports. We also 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:51.920 get a 10 gig Ethernet connection, power input, and Mickey Mouse style, two USBA 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:55.599 ports that operate at up to 5 GB per second, an HDMI port, as well as a 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.959 headphone jack, and of course, conveniently located rear power button. 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:04.640 We also get a nice beefy looking exhaust to go along with our nice beefy intake 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:08.879 on the bottom. I haven't heard it in person, though I will very shortly. The 00:03:06.239 --> 00:03:13.760 Labs tells me is pretty darn quiet. A Kensington lock for the bottom. And 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:18.720 that's about it. It's just a big block of aluminum. A big block of aluminum 00:03:16.239 --> 00:03:23.040 full of some very impressive specs. Let's talk speeds and feeds while I get 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.480 this thing set up. The M3 Ultra SoC in here is equipped with up to 32 CPU 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:33.360 cores. That is eight more than Apple's last gen flagship. But perhaps more 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:37.440 importantly than that, all eight of the new cores are performance rather than 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:42.959 efficiency cores, meaning this thing should be a multi-threaded beast. In 00:03:40.239 --> 00:03:47.200 addition to that, we get a new 32 core neural engine that is apparently much 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:52.879 faster than last gen. And on top of that, we get up to an 80 core GPU with 00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:57.280 up to 800 gigabytes per second of combined memory bandwidth that is shared 00:03:55.040 --> 00:04:02.680 across all of those processors. This was a really key Apple innovation in the 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:05.920 last few years, their unified memory. Of 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:09.040 course, fast memory is great, but when 00:04:05.920 --> 00:04:11.680 it comes to AI, more memory is in some 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:15.519 cases more important, and that is where this thing is really appealing to AI 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:22.320 developers. It can be equipped with up to 512 GB of LPDDR5 memory. That means 00:04:20.400 --> 00:04:29.040 that compared to last gen, which topped out at 192, we can run much larger AI 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:33.520 models. And that ignores the fact that the hardware is faster, allowing us to 00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:37.440 run them in a more performant manner. Of course, it's not all for AI. Apple 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:42.560 loaded the M3 Ultra up with a new media engine that they claim supports up to 24 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:47.440 streams of ProRes playback in addition to supporting hardware encode and decode 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:53.919 of many of the most popular formats, including AV1 decoding. Note that I said 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:56.639 AV1 decoding, though. One major omission 00:04:53.919 --> 00:05:02.000 is that Apple's SOC's still do not support AV1 encoding. And this is true 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:06.560 of both the M3 Ultra configuration as well as the M4 Max configuration. Either 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:11.919 way, these machines are going to be Photoshop and Premier Powerhouses. 00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:15.759 Because even limited to CPUAV1 encoding, 00:05:11.919 --> 00:05:17.440 the M3 Ultra beat a Threadripper 7980X, 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:22.720 a chip that consumes more power than this entire box and has twice as many 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:24.080 cores. Pretty impressive. It's just 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:28.240 worth noting that it doesn't support hardware encode, which is a shame when 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:32.479 you look at the incredible performance of Apple's hardware encoder for H.264. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:37.039 Now, another thing that's worth noting is that Apple doesn't have a clear 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:42.560 flagship with the Mac Studio anymore. I mean, they obviously have one that costs 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:44.960 more, the M3 Ultra version, but the M4 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:49.280 Max version may end up outperforming it in some cases. Now, we don't have an M4 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:53.919 Max yet, but we do have an M4 Pro machine. And we found that in cases 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:59.520 where singlethreaded CPU performance is more important than having a big beefy 00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:01.840 GPU or lots of CPU cores, it could end 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:06.080 up being the more performant option. Of course, you'll also be limited to a 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:10.560 maximum of 64 GB of memory. Now, before we go any further into performance, 00:06:07.840 --> 00:06:14.759 let's thank our sponsor, Dbrand. Uh, Dbrand told me they want you to go 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:18.759 outside and touch grass. 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:21.680 Okay, that shouldn't be that hard. I see 00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:26.720 some over there. I think there's some grass in there. There you go. 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:31.199 Oh, sorry, boss man. I misread. They actually want you to touch grass on your 00:06:28.479 --> 00:06:36.720 Mac Studio. Oh, this. They actually told me they 00:06:34.400 --> 00:06:40.800 were working on this a while back. I didn't know they were ready to ship yet. 00:06:38.479 --> 00:06:47.600 That is really impressive. Apparently, every square centimeter contains a,000 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:51.759 grass strands. Man, you can really feel the density of it. It's like having a 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:56.479 putting green on the top of your Mac Studio. This is not an April Fool's 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:59.680 joke. This is a real product. Well, like the Touch Grass skin is a real product. 00:06:58.400 --> 00:07:06.319 They don't make skins for the Mac Studio, so get wrecked. I guess Dbrand has 00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:09.599 fantastic guides on their site for how to apply their skins, but I don't give a 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:13.759 if those guys want me to follow their guide, they're going to have to pay me more and be a little 00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:23.520 nicer. There you have it, folks. This is as real of grass that you can stick to 00:07:21.599 --> 00:07:28.039 your phone. It's ultra limited edition. Once it's all sold out, it's sold out. 00:07:25.440 --> 00:07:30.960 You can get it now at shortlininus.com. All right, let's talk 00:07:29.599 --> 00:07:34.800 a little bit more about the Mac Studio, shall we? I want to fire up some kind of 00:07:33.039 --> 00:07:38.880 a load and see how loud this thing gets for myself. Let's go with Blender. We're 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:42.000 going to do the Barberhop render. I'm going to see if I can hear this 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:52.479 thing. I mean, surely it's got to ramp up. This is CPU mode, too. This is with 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:56.240 all the CPU cores going full tilt. I can barely hear it. And I'm pretty much the 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:59.840 biggest diva there is when it comes to computer noise. Like to the point where 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:04.639 I put my computer in a separate room, so I don't have to hear it. If I could game 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:12.080 on a Mac Studio, I probably wouldn't even bother. To be clear, I can game on 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:13.759 a Mac Studio. Uh the performance is fine 00:08:12.080 --> 00:08:17.919 whether we're looking at games that rely on Rosetta or whether we're looking at 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:22.879 games that run natively on Apple Silicon. 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:25.840 But what it isn't is a tremendous value 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:30.720 and the compatibility is still a major struggle for the macOS platform 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:33.120 compared to Windows or even Linux these 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:37.039 days. With that said, I still feel that GPU benchmarks are relevant because they 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:41.360 give us some idea of what Apple has improved from generation to generation. 00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:45.680 And at least when it comes to gaming, it looks like not much. Most of this 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:51.560 performance difference compared to the M2 Ultra could be explained by going 00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:54.000 from 76 to 80 GPU cores in the maximum 00:08:51.560 --> 00:08:58.640 configuration. But what's curious is that if I wasn't running this in CPU 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:06.360 mode, if I was running Blender in GPU mode, it is much faster in GPU Blender 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:09.760 rendering. And the same holds true in 00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:12.399 AI. Actually, in AI, performance is up 00:09:09.760 --> 00:09:18.320 across the board. So depending on the application, it'll use either the neural 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.800 processor, the GPU, or the CPU, 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:26.399 typically in that order in order to get the best performance out of the M3 Ultra 00:09:23.040 --> 00:09:29.920 SOC. And we found that across the board, 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:32.560 the M3 Ultra is much faster than the M2 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:36.640 Ultra in AI. And that's in addition to being able to run much larger models. 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:41.600 So, this was the main justification that Nick, and I'm naming him, Nick from the 00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:48.880 lab gave me for us buying this machine because we actually use our 192 GB M2 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:50.560 Ultra Studio daily to run local LLMs 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:56.320 that help with programming for our coders. He says, and he promises me that 00:09:54.080 --> 00:10:02.640 this machine will justify itself because we'll be able to run better LLMs. Is 00:09:58.560 --> 00:10:03.920 that right, Nick? Yep. Okay. Oh, wow. 00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:08.480 I'm just looking a little closer at those gaming results. This thinging 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:13.360 sucks for gaming. This is like on par with a 4060 Ti. The way it kind of keeps 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:19.680 up in Blender, though, is so bizarre to me. Like, yeah, it's slower than a 7980X 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:23.040 with an RTX 5090, but like not by that 00:10:19.680 --> 00:10:25.120 much, you know? Like a 4060 Ti would get 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:30.880 crushed by that configuration, and this doesn't. What a strange strange machine. 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:38.399 And boy, will you ever pay for it. The M4 Max configuration starts at $2,000. 00:10:34.640 --> 00:10:41.440 And the M3 Ultra starts at $4,000, going 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:44.320 up as high as about $14,000 if you max 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:49.120 out both the RAM like we did, and the storage, which we did not. A terabyte is 00:10:47.839 --> 00:10:53.600 fine when you're going to be accessing most of your storage over the network. 00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:58.240 Oh, with that said, could we maybe try to do a storage upgrade for an LT DIY? I 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:04.160 don't know if there's a way to do that on this one yet. We'll have to figure that out because of course like other 00:11:01.839 --> 00:11:08.720 Apple silicon machines, Apple does not officially sanction any kind of storage 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:12.800 or memory upgrade after the fact. You got to buy it and that's what you get. 00:11:11.040 --> 00:11:19.040 And actually, for that matter, I don't think there's any official way to upgrade like the the Wi-Fi chip in it 00:11:15.839 --> 00:11:20.640 either, is there? Which is already kind 00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:26.720 of an issue because it only ships with Wi-Fi 6E. So, you'd have to get like a 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:30.040 Thunderbolt to PCIe to Wi-Fi 7 adapter 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:32.279 card solution if you wanted faster 00:11:30.040 --> 00:11:37.000 Wi-Fi. Oh, Apple. Subscribe to ShortCircuit.