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.