06.16.2023
Apple at WWDC surprised us with the M2 Ultra chip, which is the key feature in the new second-generation Mac Studio. We thought we'd compare it to the first-generation Mac
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Compared to the base M1 Ultra, the base M2 Ultra has a 24-core CPU (up from 20 cores) and a 60-core GPU (up from 48 cores). It has the same 64GB unified memory and 32-core Neural Engine.
In a real world Final Cut Pro export test with 4K footage, a 13 minute clip exported in five and a half minutes on the M1 Ultra machine, and just over three minutes on the M2 Ultra. An export of an hour-long video took almost seventeen minutes on the M1 Ultra Mac Studio, and just eight and a half minutes on the M2 Ultra.
Over time, the M2 Ultra is going to save a lot of exporting time for video editing, and other GPU-intensive tasks will likely see the same time savings.
The Mac Studio with M2 Ultra we tested is equipped with an upgraded 2TB SSD, and on the BlackMagic Disk Speed Tests, we got read speeds of 5,455 and write speeds of 5,100. With a 1TB SSD on the M1 Ultra machine, we were seeing read speeds of 1,853 and write speeds of 5,092, so SSD speeds are up on the higher end at a minimum.
If you've already got an M1 Ultra Mac Studio, it may be worth upgrading if you want to save time on video exports and similar tasks, but if you're not going to take advantage of the increased GPU speeds, it won't be worth the $3,999 starting price for the entry-level M2 Ultra Mac Studio. The M2 Ultra Mac Studio is unquestionably the best desktop machine that Apple sells in terms of price and performance for professionals.
There is an M2 Mac Pro, but it is priced starting at $6,999 for the same performance but with PCIe slots. What do you think of the M2 Ultra chip? Let us know in the comments below.
This article, "Hands-On With the M2 Ultra Mac Studio" first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
You may also be interested in this
Apple seeds first develop…
05.19.2023
Apple has released the first developer betas for watchOS 9.6 and tvOS 16.6, following the end of the previous beta cycle.Apple releases new betas for Apple Watch, Apple TV, and
Daily deals: $729 Apple W…
05.20.2023
Today's top bargains include discounts on Razer products, 11% off the iPad Air, and an $85 Apple Pencil Gen 2.Get an Apple Watch Ultra for $729. The AppleInsider team combs
Jim Cramer: ‘Own Apple, d…
08.04.2023
CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday repeated his advice to “own Apple, don’t trade it” on the strength of the company and the U.S. consumer. Julie Coleman for CNBC: When it
How to use SFTP and rsync…
05.23.2023
SFTP and rsync are two tools that can help you transfer files across networks and the web. Here's how to use them within macOS.You can use SFTP and rsync on
What We Know About the Ap…
06.08.2023
With the Apple Vision Pro not set to launch until 2024, there's a lot that we don't know about it. Apple has given us a rough overview of the hardware
You can’t combine t…
12.07.2022
You absolutely cannot combine two Apple IDs — but there are steps that you can take to reduce the problems and confusions of having more than one.This could be the
Vision Pro and everything…
06.06.2023
Macworld Apple’s big keynote presentation to kick off WWDC 2023 was over two hours long. I’m as excited about new products as the next person, but who has that kind
Apple to update iPhone 12…
09.15.2023
France’s digital affairs minister said the iPhone 12’s radiation levels are still much lower than what scientific studies consider potentially harmful to users.
