Mac Studio
Mac Studio (logo).svg
Mac Studio (2022) front.jpg
DeveloperApple Inc.
TypeCompact desktop
Workstation
Release dateMarch 18, 2022; 11 months ago (2022-03-18)
Operating systemmacOS
System on a chipApple M1 Max
Apple M1 Ultra
PredecessoriMac Pro
RelatedMac Mini, Mac Pro
Websiteapple.com/mac-studio

Mac Studio is a small-form-factor workstation designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Inc. It is one of four desktop computers in the Mac lineup, sitting above the consumer-range Mac Mini and iMac, and positioned below the Mac Pro. It is configurable with either the M1 Max or M1 Ultra system on a chip.[1][2]

Overview

The Mac Studio was announced on March 8, 2022, alongside the Apple Studio Display, and released on March 18. At the time of launch, customers reported shipping delays for the Mac Studio as late as May 2022. The delay has been attributed to the global chip shortage.[3][4]

Rear ports
Rear ports

The Mac Studio is designed as a higher-grade machine than the Mac Mini but lower than the Mac Pro, and is positioned similarly to the now-discontinued iMac Pro.[5][6] There are two models which are driven by ARM-based SoC: the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra, which combines two M1 Max chips[7] in one package.[8] The Mac Studio has an identical width and depth to the Mac Mini, both about 8 inches (200 mm), but is around 3.7 inches (94 mm) tall. It has four Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4) ports, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, HDMI (up to 4K @ 60 Hz), 10Gb Ethernet with Lights Out Management[9] and a headphone jack. The front panel has two USB-C ports (Thunderbolt 4 in M1 Ultra models) and an SD card slot (that supports SDXC cards and UHS-II bus), making it the first desktop Mac since the 2012 Mac Pro to have I/O on the front. It is cooled by a pair of double-sided blowers and a mesh of holes on the bottom and back of the case, which helps reduce the noise of fans spinning.[10] Nevertheless, there have been extensive early reports of excessive fan noise.[11]

Mac Studio models with the M1 Ultra are 2 pounds (910 g) heavier than those with the M1 Max as they are equipped with a larger copper heat sink.[12] Apple says the Mac Studio performs 50 percent faster than a Mac Pro with a 16-core Intel Xeon processor.[10]

The Mac Studio supports up to four 6K monitors connected via Thunderbolt, and a fifth monitor via HDMI.[13] It was introduced alongside the Apple Studio Display, a 27-inch 5K monitor with an integrated 12 megapixel camera, six-speaker sound system with spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support and a height adjustable stand.[10]

Repairability

A Mac Studio with Studio Display, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad in an Apple Store
A Mac Studio with Studio Display, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad in an Apple Store

Mac Studio has two removable flash storage ports, with one or two of them in use, the latter in models with 4 or 8 TB of storage.[14] While it is possible to swap the flash storage card between same size models, with an Apple Configurator restore,[15][16] upgrading is not supported yet. Some reviewers have criticized this decision as unfriendly for right to repair, while Ars Technica notes this limitation may be due to the design of Apple silicon that implements the SSD controller into the system on a chip rather than the drive itself for encryption purposes.[17] The positioning of components such as the SSD beneath an exposed power supply has also been criticized.[18][19]

Specifications

Current
Model 2022[20][21][22]
Timeline Announced March 8, 2022
Released March 18, 2022
Discontinued In production
Unsupported Supported
Model details Model number (on underside) A2615
Model identifier Mac13,1 Mac13,2
Part number (order number) MJMV2 MJMW3
Performance
System on a chip Apple M1 Max Apple M1 Ultra
CPU cores 8 × 3.23 GHz performance cores (Firestorm) and 2 × 2.064 GHz efficiency cores (Icestorm); 10-core overall 16 × 3.23 GHz performance cores (Firestorm) and 4 × 2.064 GHz efficiency cores (Icestorm); 20-core overall
Cache Performance cores: 192 KB L1i, 128 KB L1d, 12 MB shared L2
Efficiency cores: 128 KB L1i, 64 KB L1d, 4 MB shared L2
System level cache: 48 MB 		Performance cores: 192 KB L1i, 128 KB L1d, 24 MB shared L2
Efficiency cores: 128 KB L1i, 64 KB L1d, 8 MB shared L2
System level cache: 96 MB
GPU cores 24-core Apple G13X (384 EUs, 3072 ALUs) or 32-core Apple G13X (512 EUs, 4096 ALUs)
Optional 32-core GPU at time of purchase, not upgradable after 		48-core Apple G13X (768 EUs, 6144 ALUs) or 64-core Apple G13X (1024 EUs, 8192 ALUs)
Optional 64-core GPU at time of purchase, not upgradable after
Neural Engine 16-core (11 trillion operations per second) 32-core (22 trillion operations per second)
Cooling system Aluminum heat spreader, double fan Copper heat spreader, double fan
Memory type 512-bit quad-channel LPDDR5-6400 unified memory (409.6 GB/s) 1024-bit octa-channel LPDDR5-6400 unified memory (819.2 GB/s)
Memory capacity 32 GB
Optional 64 GB at time of purchase, not upgradable after 		64 GB
Optional 128 GB at time of purchase, not upgradable after
Storage SSD type PCIe-based SSD with up to 7.4 GB/s read speed
SSD capacity 512 GB, not upgradeable
Optional 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB or 8 TB at time of purchase, not upgradable after 		1 TB, not upgradeable
Optional 2 TB, 4 TB or 8 TB at time of purchase, not upgradable after
Audio Speaker Built-in speaker
3.5 mm headphone jack Included with advanced support for high-impedance headphones
Connectivity Wi-Fi Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Bluetooth Bluetooth 5.0
Ethernet 10 Gb Ethernet with Lights Out Management
Ports USB-C 2 × (USB-C 3.1 Gen 2) ports supporting charging and DisplayPort protocols among others 6 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C 4) ports supporting charging and DisplayPort protocols among others
4 × Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C 4) ports supporting charging and DisplayPort protocols among others
Other ports 2 × (USB-A 3.0), 1 × HDMI 2.0, 1 × SDXC memory card slot (UHS-II). No eGPU support.
External display support Four displays up to 6016 × 3384 at 60 Hz at 10-bit color depth via 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports and one display up to 3840 × 2160 at 60 Hz at 10-bit color depth via HDMI 2.0 port; 5 displays total
Power 370 W (max continuous)
Greenhouse gas emissions 262 kg (578 lb) CO2e[23] 375 kg (827 lb) CO2e[23]
Dimensions 7.7 in (19.56 cm) × 7.7 in (19.56 cm) × 3.7 in (9.40 cm)
Weight 5.9 lb (2.68 kg) 7.9 lb (3.58 kg)
Operating system Initial release macOS 12 Monterey
Latest release macOS Ventura 13.2.1

References

  1. ^ Dillet, Romain. "Apple introduces a brand new Mac, the Mac Studio". techcrunch. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  2. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (March 8, 2022). "Apple announces $1,999 Mac Studio workstation with new 20-core M1 Ultra chip". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  3. ^ "Delivery Estimates for Mac Studio and Studio Display Slip to April". Mac Rumors. March 8, 2022. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  4. ^ "Mac Studio shipping dates already slipping to April and May". Apple Insider. March 8, 2022. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  5. ^ "Mac studio: Everything we know about Apple's powerful new desktop computer". The Independent. March 11, 2022. Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  6. ^ "Apple's Mac Studio Is the iMac Pro Reboot You've Been Waiting For". PCMAG. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  7. ^ "Apple's new M1 Ultra aims to beat Nvidia's RTX 3090". The Verge. March 9, 2022. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  8. ^ "Apple M1 Ultra Chip Is Nearly 3 Times Bigger Than AMD's Ryzen CPUs, Benchmarks Show Desktop Intel & AMD CPUs Still Ahead". wccftech.com. March 19, 2022. Archived from the original on March 21, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  9. ^ "Lights Out Management MDM payload settings for Apple devices". Apple Support. Archived from the original on April 27, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
  10. ^ a b c "Apple's Mac Studio Is a Mightier Desktop for Creative Pros". Wired. March 8, 2022. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  11. ^ Maring, Joe (March 22, 2022). "Mac Studio Fan Noise: Here's How Loud Apple's Latest Mac Gets". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on April 24, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  12. ^ "Apple explains why the M1 Ultra-equipped Mac Studio is two pounds heavier". The Verge. March 9, 2022. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  13. ^ "Does the Mac Studio have Thunderbolt 4?". XDA Developers. March 10, 2022. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  14. ^ Porter, Jon (March 24, 2022). "iFixit teardown offers a detailed look inside the Mac Studio and Studio Display". The Verge. Archived from the original on April 15, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  15. ^ "iFixit on Twitter". March 23, 2022. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  16. ^ "Mac Studio Teardown: No Upgradable Storage … Yet". ifixit. March 21, 2022. Archived from the original on April 20, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  17. ^ Cunningham, Andrew (March 22, 2022). "Explaining the Mac Studio's removable SSDs, and why you can't simply swap them out". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
  18. ^ "The Mac Studio's removable SSD is reportedly blocked by Apple on a software level". The Verge. March 22, 2022. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  19. ^ "Explaining the Mac Studio's removable SSDs, and why you can't simply swap them out". Ars Technica. March 22, 2022. Archived from the original on May 24, 2022. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  20. ^ "Mac Studio (2022) – Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  21. ^ "Mac Studio – Technical Specifications". Apple. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
  22. ^ "Identify your Mac Studio model". Apple. Archived from the original on April 1, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  23. ^ a b c "Mac Studio Product Environmental Report" (PDF). Apple. March 4, 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2022.

External links

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Apple hardware
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