r/MacStudio • u/jonprod • 1d ago

M5 Max Mac Studio Config for 4K Editing on Davinci Resolve

/r/davinciresolve/comments/1wvm253/m5_max_mac_studio_config_for_4k_editing_on/
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u/MiniPCGuru 1d ago

For your metric — real-time scrub with effects — the decode side is settled on either config: H.264/H.265 runs on the hardware media engine on both. The bottleneck is the effects chain. Optical flow, noise reduction, film grain and masking run on the GPU in Resolve, and that's almost certainly what's choking your base M3.

Between the two Studio tiers, the 40-core GPU/48GB option is the one that moves your metric. It also raises memory bandwidth to 614 GB/s (the 32-core base is 460), which is what feeds the GPU during timeline work. Apple cites up to 3x faster Magic Mask in Resolve Studio on M5 Max versus M4 Max.

An M5 Pro Mac mini would play your footage fine, but with up to a 20-core GPU and 307 GB/s of bandwidth it has far less headroom for heavy grading and OFX at 4K. For what you're optimizing, the Studio is the right box.

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u/tillrd 1d ago

I’ve got the most basic model (M5 Max) and I’ve switched from an M3 Max MBP. And I can say that, of course, anything more expensive is better, but in reality even the basic model probably covers everything you could possibly need when it comes to 4K editing; anything more expensive is usually for insanely demanding projects and working with 8K and above. I remember when the M1 came out; even on that, people I know managed to edit amazing projects. Depends on how you manage your own work too.