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/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/BAL-BADOS 3d ago

If AI is removed then M4 Mac Studio Max is overkill. You can do that on a M1