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There’s another factor to consider in upgrading from an older MacPro. Savings in electricity. That has to count for a few hundred dollars or more per year. Especially in California. I just have these SSDs in my MacPro I’ll want external housings for I suppose.

James Steele wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:29 am Yeah. Might have to go with M1Max version for the price. Probably will still smoke my intel 12 core.

Same here the Ultra has horse power then I'll ever use, I'm glad I waited for this release.

I'm long overdue to upgrade my 2008 Mac Pro and I was set on the Mac Mini. I was hoping to see the announcement for a new Mac Mini that would allow for more RAM but no. The Mac Studio sure looks good but seems overkill for audio (when a Mac Mini can do the job really) and at 3X the cost.

I was looking forward to the Mini Max... now I'm looking at my bank account and thinking Ultra. Yikes!

Geekbench Multicore reference numbers:

6,000 (Approx): 5,1 12 Core 3.33

11,893: 2019 12 Core Mac Pro

12,233: M1 Max

14,626: 2019 16 Core Mac Pro

19951: 2019 28-Core Mac Pro

22,000 (Estimated): M1 Ultra ("50% Faster than 16 Core 2019 Mac Pro" per Apple)

Good chance this Mac would outlast my ears.

wylie1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 1:19 pm

James Steele wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:29 am Yeah. Might have to go with M1Max version for the price. Probably will still smoke my intel 12 core.

Same here the Ultra has horse power then I'll ever use, I'm glad I waited for this release.

More power than you need possibly, but if you need more than 64gb RAM it’s the only option.

Gate 13 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:08 pm

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:59 am Older monitors will be fine though you will probably want at least 4K such as this @ $348 LG. Others are available once again under $300.
https://smile.amazon.com/LG-27UL500-W-2 ... r_1_2_sspa

You mean with older monitors (10 or more years) it will not work? Why 4K when we don't really care about pixels and image quality as audio people?

Don't put words in my mouth. I didn't write Need.

There is an answer, however, and that's Heat. If your monitors are not cool to the touch, new ones will save you money—a lot more than you think. Even this 4k @ $213.
https://smile.amazon.com/Sceptre-DIspla ... ef=sr_1_21
2K and lower resolution energy saving monitors cost even less.

Otherwise, as long as you can connect using an adapter—most old displays can, you're good. You do not need HDMI — DVI, mdp, DisplayPort to USB-C adapters and cables are all readily available.

Speaking for myself, having gotten used to 5K on my main screen, I'm spoiled. My two side monitors are older 27" LG 4Ks so I see the differences every day.

James Steele wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:14 pm There’s another factor to consider in upgrading from an older MacPro. Savings in electricity. That has to count for a few hundred dollars or more per year. Especially in California. I just have these SSDs in my MacPro I’ll want external housings for I suppose.

Oh yea. The right housing will let you hold as many as you have and configure 'em as needed. I like fanless docks and have the TB2 version of this through the Apple TB2–TB3 adapter:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/externa ... drive-dock

I really like it and see the version I have on eBay now and then. Here are the old specs:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2U3DRVDCKU/

If your externals are NVMe 3 x4 blades, then empty versions of the OWC TB3 housing I posted earlier should be all one needs.

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:20 pm

Gate 13 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 12:08 pm

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:59 am Older monitors will be fine though you will probably want at least 4K such as this @ $348 LG. Others are available once again under $300.
https://smile.amazon.com/LG-27UL500-W-2 ... r_1_2_sspa

You mean with older monitors (10 or more years) it will not work? Why 4K when we don't really care about pixels and image quality as audio people?

Don't put words in my mouth. I didn't write Need.

There is an answer, however, and that's Heat. If your monitors are not cool to the touch, new ones will save you money—a lot more than you think. Even this 4k @ $213.
https://smile.amazon.com/Sceptre-DIspla ... ef=sr_1_21
2K and lower resolution energy saving monitors cost even less.

Otherwise, as long as you can connect using an adapter—most old displays can, you're good. You do not need HDMI — DVI, mdp, DisplayPort to USB-C adapters and cables are all readily available.

Speaking for myself, having gotten used to 5K on my main screen, I'm spoiled. My two side monitors are older 27" LG 4Ks so I see the differences every day.

Thanks for the info but I never said that you said NEED....

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/08/m1 ... benchmark/

Over 24,000

BTW, I've been using DP 11.04 in beta tests with other apps on my wife's 16GB MBAir. Not doing much AV except testing ReWire so I'm not pushing that little thing at all.

Still, when a 10 Core iMac Pro with 32GB discrete RAM can handle 1,000 instances of VIs in Logic with 2 plugs incl. a convo 'verb on each track and not break a sweat…

The M1 Max with 32GB Unified RAM should be way more than enough. 64GB is certainly overkill. I can't imagine the capacities of 128GB but I hope to live long enough to find out, ya know? Anyway, it's an $800 difference. Compare that to Apple's original RAM prices on the iMac Pro (pre-7/2019) and that's a bargain. Uh yea…

"I'm thinking it over"

I just ordered an Ultra
64GB Ram
2TBHD

Mid-April delivery.

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 3:01 pm BTW, I've been using DP 11.04 in beta tests with other apps on my wife's 16GB MBAir. Not doing much AV except testing ReWire so I'm not pushing that little thing at all.

Still, when a 10 Core iMac Pro with 32GB discrete RAM can handle 1,000 instances of VIs in Logic with 2 plugs incl. a convo 'verb on each track and not break a sweat…

The M1 Max with 32GB Unified RAM should be way more than enough. 64GB is certainly overkill. I can't imagine the capacities of 128GB but I hope to live long enough to find out, ya know? Anyway, it's an $800 difference. Compare that to Apple's original RAM prices on the iMac Pro (pre-7/2019) and that's a bargain. Uh yea…

"I'm thinking it over"

Mike!
What about the 10 cores VS 20 cores?
I am thinking of the M1 Max (10 cores, 64 GB memory) over the equivalent M1 Ultra (20 cores, 64 GB memory) only because of the price. I posted another thread in this forum but nobody yet answered. In your opinion are the extra 10 cores worth the price difference?
It is a $1300 difference...ouch!
Or let me set it differently, do you think DP will benefit from the extra 10 cores?

woohoo !! this ...

Guess I'll settle for a BTO MAX

HCMarkus wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:03 pm I just ordered an Ultra
64GB Ram
2TBHD

Mid-April delivery.

Gate 13 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 4:16 pm …Or let me set it differently, do you think DP will benefit from the extra 10 cores?

A little perspective:

The maxed out 28 Core $53K MacPro 7.1 was built to compete with $150k 56 Core MAYA Box rendering stations running Windows 10 used by the film industry and animation studios. Cores aren't everything. They are something, though. Raw GeekBench scores without real world performance comparison are, again, only a start. Logic, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop, MAYA are often used to compare. Only Logic is an audio app.

The 10 Core M1 Max compares favorably to the 18 Core iMac Pro, a very fast machine for DP. The M1 and M1 Pro do not.

I upgraded from a 14 Core iMac Pro in late 2020 to get 4TB storage onboard (wasn't available before 7/2019) and the 18 Core was the only iMP I found in the Refurb Store with that. I was pleasantly surprised to find that DP 10 was noticeably faster on the 18 core—didn't expect that. Now that I work 32bit float, DP has slowed to what I remember with my 14 Core but I'll never be able to bench test it. The Vega 64 GPU was definitely faster than the Vega 56 in rendering video and that was expected (another reason for the upgrade). I got a nice price on the 14 Core and that made the upgrade le$$ painful.


No one has real world performance numbers with audio on the M1 Max 10 Core vs the M1 Ultra 20 Core. When they exist, it will be Logic ProX because average users can test that. So many variables in ProTools make such comparisons absurd. Anyway, 20 Core should be very fast but the 10 Core is already smokin' hot.

I am weighing the same options but am not in a hurry. Being in my late '60s, this will likely be the last big desktop computer I will buy and I just may go with the Ultra in an effort to future-proof my investment. At this point, I just don't know.

An old adage is that, if you spend the extra money now, you'll forget about it when everything works as good or better than expected. However, if you didn't spend the extra money and you come up with a limitation on performance, it will be a lot more than the money saved to fix the problem and you'll not forget the 'savings'.

So, I can't answer if blistering hot will prove to be a better bargain over smokin' hot. I'm not you. Heck, I haven't answered it for myself!

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:46 pmThis will likely be the last big desktop computer I will buy and I just may go with the Ultra in an effort to future-proof my investment.

I'm thinking along the same lines. At the very least, this machine will almost certainly last until my ears wear out.

PS: Unless you know someone at Apple, don't forget about the education store, folks. It just so happens, my daughter is in a Master's program at the moment...

HCMarkus wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:53 pm

mikehalloran wrote: ↑Tue Mar 08, 2022 5:46 pmThis will likely be the last big desktop computer I will buy and I just may go with the Ultra in an effort to future-proof my investment.

I'm thinking along the same lines. At the very least, this machine will almost certainly last until my ears wear out.

PS: Unless you know someone at Apple, don't forget about the education store, folks. It just so happens, my daughter is in a Master's program at the moment...

Oooooh... Good tip!

Although my son-in-law is an iOS engineer in Austin, he is limited on how many big ticket items he can buy in a year so I rarely ask. My wife and daughters do qualify for EDU discounts.