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ryanrs posted:A maxed out Mac Mini M4 Pro seems to be roughly the same price and CPU performance as a similarly configured (ram, ssd) Mac Studio M4 Max, is that right? Way faster memory/memory bandwidth too
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Oct 9, 2025 16:12
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Does the higher mem bandwidth benefit the CPU, or is mostly for the bigger GPU? (Or is CPU + GPU so integrated that the question doesn't really make sense?)
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Oct 9, 2025 16:21
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The Max has higher memory bandwidth as well e;fb
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Oct 9, 2025 16:36
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ryanrs posted:Does the higher mem bandwidth benefit the CPU, or is mostly for the bigger GPU? Both, and also the onboard SSD storage is much faster on the Studio IIRC
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Oct 9, 2025 17:02
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And since the price is similar, the real tradeoff is... physical size vs. data bandwidth? Lol. e: And they have similar system TDP, so you can't even say one is more efficient than the other, either at max load or at idle. Does one or the other CPU have a reputation as a power hog in laptops? ryanrs fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Oct 9, 2025 |
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Oct 9, 2025 17:15
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The background here is that I've been stubbornly refusing to upgrade my desktop until I can get a replacement that's at least twice as fast. It's a bit of a moving target as I upgraded the current machine, but the M4 Pro and M4 Max both cross the threshold at ~2.3x.
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Oct 9, 2025 17:28
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ryanrs posted:The background here is that I've been stubbornly refusing to upgrade my desktop until I can get a replacement that's at least twice as fast. It's a bit of a moving target as I upgraded the current machine, but the M4 Pro and M4 Max both cross the threshold at ~2.3x. refurb store has M4 Max Studios starting at like $1699. I wouldn’t look at anything less
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Oct 9, 2025 17:32
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only 36GB tho e: my immediate thought process was "if I'm going to compromise that much, let's compare it to other Mac Minis". But the not-Pro M4s don't hit my made-up performance threshold, and the refurb M4 Pro Minis mostly don't have 10G ethernet, except for a few overpriced examples that also come with 8TB storage. Thanks for suggesting the refurb store, though. I hadn't looked at that in years and forgot it existed. ryanrs fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Oct 9, 2025 |
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Oct 9, 2025 17:41
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ryanrs posted:only 36GB tho I don’t have it in front of me but I think you can do 48gb for $1900 and 64 for $2100 or thereabouts M4 Max with 64gb for roughly the MSRP of an M4P MacBook Pro isn’t the worst thing
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Oct 9, 2025 18:03
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ryanrs posted:A maxed out Mac Mini M4 Pro seems to be roughly the same price and CPU performance as a similarly configured (ram, ssd) Mac Studio M4 Max, is that right? That's the big difference between Pro and Max, yeah. on the memory bandwidth advantage, it's 1.5x (32-core GPU) or 2x (40-core GPU) relative to M4 Pro. It's mostly there for feeding the larger GPU. It can matter for some niche CPU workloads (I remember someone testing CFD solvers back in the M1 generation and finding that the extra bandwidth helped) but otherwise doesn't matter. On CPU specs: M4 Pro and M4 Max always have four efficiency CPU cores. Base M4 Pro is thus 8P+4E, upgrade is 10P+4E. Base M4 Max is 10P+4E, upgrade's 12P+4E. Max also gets a small clock boost over Pro, not enough that you're likely to notice but enough to be visible in benchmarks. On power efficiency: so far, Max chips are always less efficient than Pro chips, especially at idle. This is mostly because of the wider memory interface. (For the same reason, if you really value idle to low-load power efficiency, step all the way down to the base M4.)
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Oct 9, 2025 19:47
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Given the similar max TDP (140 vs 145W), I wonder if the smaller Mac Mini gets super loud and/or throttles the processor during sustained load? Do people run into this issue with games, or handbrake, etc? e: refurb $1,869 Studio M4 Max 14-core, 36GB ram, 1TB ssd 36GB is probably enough RAM for my stuff. ryanrs fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Oct 9, 2025 |
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Oct 9, 2025 20:24
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Unless the size difference is actually a big issue for your space, just get a Studio. The value for the Mini goes way down when you start maxing out a Pro SoC and adding RAM/storage. I haven't used a mini but I imagine the fan will be louder than a studio when it's getting pegged while gaming (or otherwise) due to fan size (and for gaming the studio is a no brainer). Just get a Studio.
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Oct 9, 2025 23:27
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Mac Hardware Megathread: louder when it’s getting pegged while gaming
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Oct 10, 2025 02:12
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ryanrs posted:Given the similar max TDP (140 vs 145W), I wonder if the smaller Mac Mini gets super loud and/or throttles the processor during sustained load? Do people run into this issue with games, or handbrake, etc? tl;dr on the Mac mini the fan gets audible under sustained heavy load vs Studios basically being silent.
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Oct 11, 2025 01:20
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Pretty sure I'm buying the Studio, including the +$1000 to bump it up to 64GB. I'm mad about that, but it can't be upgraded later and I keep my computers for a long time.
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Oct 11, 2025 04:09
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Do you need it like right now? The m5 stuff is probably releasing in the next month
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Oct 11, 2025 14:13
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brand engager posted:Do you need it like right now? The m5 stuff is probably releasing in the next month M5-series Studio isn’t coming for a long time. these just got updated a couple of months ago
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Oct 11, 2025 14:17
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ryanrs posted:Pretty sure I'm buying the Studio, including the +$1000 to bump it up to 64GB. I'm mad about that, but it can't be upgraded later and I keep my computers for a long time. think of it as 64gb of VRAM. Or 48/etc gb (you need ~16gb + of regular system memory after all) of VRAM. How much would you have to pay for a GPU with 64/48/etc gb of VRAM on it?
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Oct 11, 2025 14:19
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That guy clearly wants to spend as much money as humanly possible and is just posting in the thread to get another person to tell him it's okay lol.
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Oct 11, 2025 15:10
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ryanrs posted:Pretty sure I'm buying the Studio, including the +$1000 to bump it up to 64GB. I'm mad about that, but it can't be upgraded later and I keep my computers for a long time. There's no way that's a better plan than saving $1000 now and using it to push up your next upgrade date.
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Oct 11, 2025 15:22
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Scott Baculum posted:M5-series Studio isn’t coming for a long time. these just got updated a couple of months ago Are they even coming? The M4 studios came out at the end of the M4 series not even that long ago and skipped M3 entirely (except for the M3U chip). I would expect them to skip M5 and go with some kind of M6 Studio/Pro refresh
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Oct 11, 2025 15:46
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my money's on the pro just getting killed
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Oct 11, 2025 15:50
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Only reason I could see them doing a mid cycle refresh for the Studios would be bumping the Ultra model to an M5 Ultra or something since the last gen was weirdly M3 Ultra since M4 Ultra never materialized. Dunno if they’d bump the Max model in that scenario tho
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Oct 11, 2025 15:55
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landgrabber posted:my money's on the pro just getting killed Also thinking this is likely
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Oct 11, 2025 15:58
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American McGay posted:That guy clearly wants to spend as much money as humanly possible and is just posting in the thread to get another person to tell him it's okay lol. this is gonna be me when the new macbooks drop lol. Want to run xcode but my only macOS device is a m1 mini hooked to the living room tv. Cant run it on windows or linux afaik
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Oct 11, 2025 16:35
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American McGay posted:That guy clearly wants to spend as much money as humanly possible and is just posting in the thread to get another person to tell him it's okay lol. no that’s the lord bude Chemmy posted:There's no way that's a better plan than saving $1000 now and using it to push up your next upgrade date. this is honestly the correct answer. No reason shelling out $1200 for an M4 Pro mac mini, etc, when you can just spend $650 now and $650 in one year/two years/three years, minus the resale of your original Mac if you decide to flip it.
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Oct 11, 2025 16:44
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ryanrs posted:Pretty sure I'm buying the Studio, including the +$1000 to bump it up to 64GB. I'm mad about that, but it can't be upgraded later and I keep my computers for a long time. Where are you getting $1k to bump it to 64 GB? It's $270 for the upgraded Max CPU/GPU (required to bump the RAM to 64 GB) and $360 for 36 > 64 GB (at least on the edu store). $1800 base vs $2430.
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Oct 11, 2025 18:27
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Disargeria posted:Also thinking this is likely i'm young, i grew up viewing the mac pro the same way kids used to view the dodge viper. but holy poo poo they need to put this thing out of its loving misery. as a product the only reason you would buy it at this point is like... the very small amount of PCI hardware you still need that still works in current macOS ans hasn't been made obsolete by thunderbolt, or like, to use your budget so you don't end up with a surplus at the end of the quarter in a business. maybe it would make sense for storage on riser cards but it would still be cheaper to max a mac studio out storage wise than even get a base pro that's stuck on the M2 just put it out of its misery, holy poo poo.
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Oct 11, 2025 18:36
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Splinter posted:Where are you getting $1k to bump it to 64 GB? It's $270 for the upgraded Max CPU/GPU (required to bump the RAM to 64 GB) and $360 for 36 > 64 GB (at least on the edu store). $1800 base vs $2430. $2209 Refurb 14-core, 36GB, 2TB $3299 New 16-core, 64GB, 2TB If you stick with 512GB storage, the difference is exactly $1000. I'm fine with refurb, but there are no 16-cores in the refurb store. I don't do the 3 year upgrade cycle with my computers. I mean, I would if it was it was possible to upgrade. But I don't want to buy a whole new computer that often. I assume I'll be using this computer into the early 2030s. I hadn't looked at the Mac lineup since before the ARM transition. Thank you for explaining the current hardware to me.
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Oct 11, 2025 20:41
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Scott Baculum posted:no that’s the lord bude Even I was perfectly happy with 32gb of ram for my M1 Max studio (which I still have, and am still perfectly happy with - this thing is well on its way to being my longest in service computer ever.) Most of my spare money goes towards tailoring these days.
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Oct 11, 2025 22:13
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ryanrs posted:$2209 Refurb 14-core, 36GB, 2TB Nerds love to frivolously throw money at shiny new toys, so you do you, but spending $1000 for more RAM to "future proof" is beyond silly unless you actually have a specific use-case for it like editing high bitrate videos or 3D graphic work or whatever. Both computers will last a decade+ of normal usage and having to occasionally use of the SSD for swap isn't the end of the world, even though it won't be often, if ever, unless you're doing pretty specific work with it. Corb3t fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Oct 12, 2025 |
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Oct 12, 2025 00:11
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ryanrs is a yosposter, it's safe to assume he knows quite a bit about how much RAM he should or should not buy. @ryanrs you might benefit from F5'ing the refurb store for a few weeks, various configs should come and go.
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Oct 12, 2025 04:04
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I think I was misunderstanding how the refurb store was stocked. I found this site refurb-tracker.com that will email you when your special snowflake sku shows up.
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Oct 12, 2025 04:25
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I'm trying to figure out a cost-effective way to get a Thunderbolt dock with 25gb Ethernet for my Macbook M1. Most of what I've been able to find online are just standalone 25g adapters with prices ranging from ~$250 for some no-name low review stuff on amazon to $1000-1400 for something that would probably work, but I really want just one device instead of needing to daisy-chain a network adapter off of a regular dock. My current thought has been to buy an "eGPU" dock and then slap a ConnectX-4 card into the PCIe slot, but I'm wondering if there's a more refined option available.
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Oct 14, 2025 13:54
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A benchmark leak supposedly puts the M5 at double the single thread performance of the M1 which is a neat milestone but not sure many "normal" users have been performance constrained even with an M1 device It's an old complaint but I wish gaming was more of a thing on Mac since the hardware is there
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Oct 14, 2025 14:26
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Actuarial Fables posted:I'm trying to figure out a cost-effective way to get a Thunderbolt dock with 25gb Ethernet for my Macbook M1. Most of what I've been able to find online are just standalone 25g adapters with prices ranging from ~$250 for some no-name low review stuff on amazon to $1000-1400 for something that would probably work, but I really want just one device instead of needing to daisy-chain a network adapter off of a regular dock. My Lenovo "ThinkPad Universal Thunderbolt 4 Dock" (code 40B0) has Intel 2.5GbE. For some reason Lenovo's spec sheet lists it merely as "Gigabit Ethernet", but the driver recognizes it as an I225-LMvP in Windows. Other folks online report having 2.5G with the same model so I don't think I got a weird one-off. If I plug in the M4 MBA I borrowed from work, the dock seems to work OK except that for some reason the port is listed as "Realtek LAN". I checked the PCI ID 8086:5502 (which you can tell is Intel just from the first half) and it's the right code for an I225 so I don't know what the hell macOS is on about, but if I plug in the port it does come up. However, if I plug it into a 2.5G switch the link status only reports 1G. It's not fixed at 1G, as it reports 100M correctly for a Fast Ethernet switch, but it won't go higher than 1G. If I switch the hardware configuration from automatic to manual, I can select the "2500Base-T" option but it won't stick; when I press "OK" and reopen the menu, the active option is "autoselect". I have very little experience working with drivers on Macs so I have no idea if fixing this is feasible. If not, then at least it's probably a useful detail for your search to know that docks with the I225 are going to have this issue. e: If I plug in a USB RTL8157 (specifically https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DYTVGVDG), which is a 5000Base-T chip, then it's reported as "USB 10/100/1000/2.5G/5G LAN" and correctly autonegotiates to 2.5G with a 2.5G switch on the other end. e2: My bad, I just realized that you want Twenty-Five gigabit and not Two Point Five gigabit. Is that even going to work on an M1? It looks like at least at one point they were struggling to do 10Gb over USB: https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/18/m1-mac-thunderbolt-4-ports-speed-tests/ Not to presume that I'd have a better idea, but I do wonder now - why do you need such a fast link on a laptop? Eletriarnation fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Oct 14, 2025 |
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Oct 14, 2025 14:49
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I got a notification today that future versions of OSX won't support my Time Capsule for backing up my Macbook. I really enjoyed how seamless the wireless backup capabilities are. Any recommendations for something to replace it with? Don't necessarily need the router functionality, I have one of the Xfinity cable modem routers.
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Oct 14, 2025 18:20
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Eletriarnation posted:e2: My bad, I just realized that you want Twenty-Five gigabit and not Two Point Five gigabit. Is that even going to work on an M1? It looks like at least at one point they were struggling to do 10Gb over USB: https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/18/m1-mac-thunderbolt-4-ports-speed-tests/ Not to presume that I'd have a better idea, but I do wonder now - why do you need such a fast link on a laptop? Basic build https://kittenlabs.de/blog/2024/05/17/25gbit/s-on-macos-ios/ Some kickstarter thing https://www.servethehome.com/raidendigit-lightone-25gbe-thunderbolt-adapter-nvidia/ From my understanding, since its using the PCIe lanes on a Thunderbolt connection its not as limited as a USB-based adapter. Won't expect to get a full 25gbit, but it should still be pretty good. I've got big video files I want to edit on an all-flash NAS and a 25g switch. I've got my desktop connected to it and its great so I'd like to get my Mac also hooked up. Its not needed, but I'm already looking to buy a dock so I figured I'd try to get this.
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Oct 14, 2025 18:24
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the gently caress is this article? They analyzed the tweet to see how many times 5 "appears". https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/14/apple-teases-m5-macbook-pro/
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Oct 14, 2025 19:19
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Squeem posted:I got a notification today that future versions of OSX won't support my Time Capsule for backing up my Macbook. I really enjoyed how seamless the wireless backup capabilities are. Any recommendations for something to replace it with? Don't necessarily need the router functionality, I have one of the Xfinity cable modem routers. I connected a NAS to my Synology router and I’m using that now for Time Capsule, fwiw
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Oct 14, 2025 19:26
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