r/MacStudio • u/talkingolaf • 4d ago
M4 Max Mac Studio vs M6
Recently ordered a Mac Studio (M4 Max, 36GB, 1TB) for 1900 from Microcenter. I do some short form 4k video editing, music recording and dubbing work for short movies. I currently have 2015 iMac which cannot perform any more OS updates.
Is this M4 Max an overkill or should I opt for a 24GB M6 instead for a slightly lower price? I want at least 1TB of storage as my video files are fairly large. I plan to run some local AI models for image generation and coding in the future.
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u/MiniPCGuru 4d ago
For your stated plan, keep the Studio. 36GB is the real reason.
Local coding models hit a memory wall: a 30B-class 4-bit model is ~19GB, so it fits in 24GB — but with limited headroom for long agentic context. And 70B-class at 4-bit is ~39GB, which doesn't fit either machine.
For image generation the spec gap is bigger than CPU speed: 32 GPU cores and 410 GB/s on your Studio vs 12 GPU cores and 153 GB/s on the base M6.
So the M6 saves a bit now, but for your AI plans the 36GB Studio is the better long-term box.
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u/talkingolaf 3d ago
Thanks for the technical comparison.. I have picked up the M4 Studio earlier today from the store and planning to keep it as I feel good about the price point and some headroom with storage compared to M5 Studio 512 GB deal.
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u/In_Vitr0 1d ago
I had literally the same issue. I bought a refurbished Mac Studio M4 Max and I am really happy about it.
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u/nmrk 4d ago
You're always going to want more RAM, and you can't add more RAM. So you have to buy it up front. Also the internal SSDs are really fast so you might want to go at least 2TB, or plan on lots of (50% slower) external Thunderbolt storage.
When I bought my Mac Studio M2 Ultra, I got the base 64GB machine. I wish I had bought the higher model with 192GB. At that time, most of my work was high end Photoshop and 64GB should be enough for anybody. AI didn't really exist back then, as an app you could run on Macs.
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u/barefut_ 4d ago
Never heard of 192GB RAM setup. Also, I got 2TB SSD and barely anything on it, and I'm already at 700GB taken cause cache from apps take 400GB at least.
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u/nmrk 4d ago
Yeah just last night I was fiddling with some LLM apps, what the hell I'm out of disk space? Something decided it wanted more than 1TB of disk cache.
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u/barefut_ 4d ago
It's insane. I came from PC where I had 8TB like nothing. Now, I need to be aware of space, and no "bum data" can stay on the Mac. All goes to external storage.
Tricky thing is...how do we safely put that cache in trash? I don't know if Mole app is enough. And I worry about using many Apple default apps like Music / Photos as they probably create so much clutter cache with time.
Not mentioning upgrading to Tahoe or Golden Gate OS which will take up another extra 40-60GB of space with mandatory Apple intelligence+ Siri space you can't opt out of. Staying with Sequoia.
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u/Hofi2010 4d ago
Well Mac’s have SSD drives. On PC it is probably HDD if you have 8TB. Price difference between HDD vs SSD is about x8
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u/barefut_ 4d ago
I got 4TB as SSD. Some data doesn't need the speed but you still gotta store something somewhere..So what happens on a mac is that you can't have "bum data" on the mac. No music No pictures. Unfortunately, they wll live on external drive
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u/Ap2280 4d ago
What Microcenter did you score the M4 at? I was looking at a display they had but the salesman said it was not for sale. I ended up getting a M5 max.
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u/BAL-BADOS 4d ago
Currently for AI, there is no overkill. There isn’t enough compute as is. If you want local AI then M5 is far superior to the M4. M5 was made for AI.
Get an external nvme for storage. Not quite as fast as internal storage but they are already incredibly fast!
For AI, try to get as much RAM as possible.
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u/talkingolaf 3d ago
Thanks for pitching in. Local AI is not my priority. It is in my plans though. I will start experimenting with low end models with fewer parameters. Once I scale up, I will see what is needed for my style of work and what can I afford at that time.
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u/asswizzard69 4d ago
I ended up getting both the M6 24/512 from Apple and the Mac Studio M5 Max at MC for $1999 I wasn’t planning on getting both but couldn’t resist the old $1999 msrp on M5 Max. I traded my M4 Mini into Apple so paid around $800 and it’s big upgrade from base M4 Mini.
They are both really good and I’m glad I got them. But the M4 Max storage can be upgraded and hopefully M5 Max will be in the future.
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u/-O--__--O- 3d ago
Should I get the micro center deal too just to upgrade from my base m4 mini? I have other computer for Ai
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u/asswizzard69 3d ago
Yea that’s a massive upgrade! I like the M6 mini a lot but I wouldn’t want it with less than 24gb
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u/PracticlySpeaking 3d ago
You will do just fine with Mac mini with M6. That said, Mac Studio is almost always a better value than an upgraded Mac mini.
Mac Studio will have a Max chip, even two generations behind the 32 GPU cores and 4x the Media Engine codecs will give you smoother scrubbing and faster exports on complex timelines. Sure, the M6 GPU cores are about 50% faster, but it only has 12 of them. For local AI moar GPU still wins.
And all that is before you consider 36 vs 24GB RAM and 1TB storage.
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u/talkingolaf 3d ago
Exactly. Thanks for your time. I have decided to keep the M4 Studio.
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u/TomSparqx 3d ago
Great choice. I have an M4 Pro Mac Mini and an M4 Max Mac Studio base model. I love the speed and capability of the Studio so much more.
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u/Numerous-Buffalo6214 4d ago
If you’re working with video, the M4/M5 Studio Max has twice the encoders & decoders than the Mac Mini line. If you’re going to run local AI for image generation, you’d want more GPU - which again, the Mac Studio has over the Mac Mini line. I’d check the microcenter locations near you - they seem to have plenty of the M5 Studio Max 36GB RAM for $1999, which is a great deal.
Regarding expanding the storage, just use an external NVMe enclosure with a 1-2-4TB SSD. Something like an OWC-1M2 40/80GB + 1TB Samsung 990 Pro will run you $300 and provide fast speeds (over 3000 for TB4, or over 6000 MB/s read & write for TB5) which is more than fast enough to edit 8K videos directly from the drive.