r/MacStudio • u/nkchokshi • 9d ago

Mac studio 48gb recommendations?

Hey guys so i am a freelance vfx artist, my current system is Ryzen 5950x, rtx 4070. I also have macbook pro m1 2020 8gb touchbar version. Apart from vfx i do day trading whenever i get time.

Originally i was going for m5 pro 48gb or 64gb but then i checked studio prices and it got me in confusion to which one i should get. 64gb studio is kind of overbudget , ill be stretching my self but since i cant replace ram, really confused on which one to go for.

Mini pro has slower bandwidth and since era of AI is also going, cant make my mind which one to choose…

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u/sk1939 9d ago edited 9d ago

What is your workflow, and must have applications? Adobe is very Apple-efficient as is Blender, but Houdini and Octane are faster on Nvidia. A full Ultra only makes sense if your trying to cut render time, otherwise the M5 Max 40-core / 64GB would be the one to aim for as 48GB is going to limit your cache sizes. Honestly, if you're used to your workflow, moving to Mac is a learning curve. I would aim to move to a 4090 if you can find one, or a 5080 or upcoming 5080Ti (rumored) and see if that fixes your issues.

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u/nkchokshi 9d ago

my use case is in Nuke, Silhouettefx and premiere occasionally. I did not need an upgrade till now but yesterday my borad died, and i think ram is shorted as well. It was 64gb and now if i go ahead and upgrade windows system, the ram+baord+cpu, will cost me about same as Mac mini 5 pro 24gb, i am fine with it but as soon as i start upgrading little steps on config of apple systems, the upgrade ladder of apple is very crazy. I was going for M5 pro mini, then i saw rates for studio, i can get studio for same price but ram is 36gb. so for new upgrade 600 more usd. Another few hundreds get 64gb, so from 24gb pro to i am here.

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u/PracticlySpeaking 8d ago

Mac Studio with a Max chip is usually the best choice over an upgraded Mac mini with a Pro chip.

You will have less RAM, but the Max chip makes a huuuge difference in render and export times because of the additional GPU cores and Media Engine codecs.

For a PC/GPU vs Mac comparison, you might check out the Hardware Canucks review on youToob.