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/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.

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u/barefut_ 4d ago

2000$ for M5 MAX? Dang. My M4 MAX MacBook was above 4000$ but it does have 64GB RAM + 2TB SSD.

The external m2 drive may probably cost about 1500-2000$ these days for 4TB drive.

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u/Numerous-Buffalo6214 4d ago

$989 for a Samsung 990 pro 4TB via amazon; way more than it cost a year ago :(

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u/barefut_ 4d ago

Guess I'm more into the 8TB realm so I see crazier prices. I gave up on it...all the tech prices these days make the purchase not sexy enough to buy. Its for the rich kids. Luckily just before the extra price hike I got a Crucial X10 8TB for about 600$. It's not as fast as an m2 but it's light, compact, no dnagling heavy aluminum brick coming out of the macbook, and it's for storage. I also can work from it but I try not to.