Apple’s latest offering, the M2 Max and M2 Ultra-powered Mac Studio, bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor.
Let’s start with the overall design, which remains unchanged from last year. The Mac Studio still boasts a sleek and elegant brushed aluminum body, making it a visually appealing addition to any office setting.
In terms of ports, the desktop Mac retains its four Thunderbolt 4 ports with speeds of up to 40Gbps, along with one 10Gbps Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, the new refresh introduces an HDMI port that supports most of the HDMI 2.1 specification, including 8K display at 60Hz and 4K at up to 240Hz. It also supports variable refresh rate, HDR, and multichannel audio. While these advanced features may not be utilized by many Mac Studio owners, it is commendable to see Apple keeping its devices up to date in terms of HDMI connectivity.
Noteworthy updates to the HDMI support enable the Mac Studio to seamlessly connect with 8K displays at 60Hz and 4K displays at up to 240Hz. Additionally, it incorporates features such as variable refresh rate (VRR), HDR, and multichannel audio. While these features may not appeal to most Mac Studio users, they exemplify Apple’s commitment to ensuring its devices remain up to date with the latest connectivity standards.
On the front, you will find an SDCX card slot and two USB-C ports with transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. Other new features introduced with this iteration include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
“This desktop Mac is aimed at power users who require intensive performance from their devices.”
In my experience with the M2 Max Mac Studio, it has consistently delivered smooth performance. Whether I was engaged in light video editing using Adobe Premier, or editing images in Photoshop or Lightroom, the desktop Mac effortlessly handled everything I threw at it.
However, it is worth noting that my experience with the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air over the past few days has been similarly smooth. Therefore, I may not be the ideal target audience for the Mac Studio. Nevertheless, the Mac Studio (2023) performed admirably for my needs, even though its substantial power may be considered overkill.
This desktop Mac is specifically designed for users who are well aware of the resource-intensive nature of their tasks, particularly in a market where the more affordable M2 Pro Mac mini is available ($1,699).
But let’s move on to what you’re probably most interested in – the benchmarks.
We’ll begin with the Geekbench 5 scores for the M2 Max Mac Studio provided by Apple for testing purposes.
These Geekbench 5 results come as no surprise. The Mac Studio outperforms its 2022 predecessor in both single-core and multi-core CPU performance by a narrow margin, placing it slightly ahead of the M2 Pro Mac mini and MacBook Pro that I benchmarked earlier this year. Additionally, it significantly surpasses every Apple M1 chip we have tested, as expected.
Next, let’s examine the M2 Max’s CPU performance in Cinebench.
Once again, there are no significant surprises here. The M2 Max chip in the Mac Studio delivers superior single-core and multi-core performance compared to the M1 Max. However, it falls slightly behind the performance of the MSI Raider Ge76 with its 12th Gen i9-12900HK processor, which is a few years old.
Finally, let’s explore the Mac Studio’s GPU performance in Heaven and GFXBench.
As expected, there are no surprises here (as you may have noticed by now). The M2 Max demonstrates a significant improvement in GPU performance compared to the M1 Max, largely due to its additional GPU cores. It also outperforms every chip in Apple’s M1 series that we have benchmarked thus far.
It is worth mentioning that while the Mac Studio (2022) that I previously benchmarked featured 64GB of RAM, the Mac Studio (2023) is equipped with 96GB of RAM, which may contribute to these improved benchmark scores to some extent.
The pricing for Apple’s Mac Studio starts at $2,699 for the M2 Max version.
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Alex Smith is a writer and editor with over 10 years of experience. He has written extensively on a variety of topics, including technology, business, and personal finance. His work has been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, and he is also the author of two books. Alex is passionate about helping people learn and grow, and he believes that writing is a powerful tool for communication and understanding.
