Apple Unveils M2 Pro & M2 Max Chips in Updated MacBook Pro & Mac mini
- Thread starter Emanuel
- Start date
ahalpert
Major Contributor
I mean, they're rolling out a new model on a regular basis. M1 Max launched about 15 months ago. In another year or so, there'll be an M3 Max.
Can someone explain to me how this is more than an incremental improvement to the previous model? 12 cores instead of 10? 38 GPU cores max instead of 32? But still the same video decode/encode engine?
I suppose that 96GB max of RAM is the headline change vs 64 previously. Personally, I'm fine with my 32GB of RAM on my M1 Max MBP. I've had it for 10 months and I've only cut one project which challenged my memory capacity. Of course, we all have different needs
Run&Gun
Veteran
So, file this under extreme irony…. I ordered a pretty max’d out 16” Max last night. Because less than 60 seconds after making that post, my almost 10 1/2 y.o RMBP’s screen died. Like someone flipped a light switch. Just completely and instantly “turned off”. Tried two hard reboots to no avail and crossed my fingers for HDMI to work, but if I recall, you have to make the switch on the computer, it’s not an automatic switchover just plugging it up.
Couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as I don’t have time for a Genius Bar appointment right now, because I’m prepping today and head out of town super early tomorrow to shoot and won’t be back until the first of the week, then turn around and leave two days later for another six days. If the delivery estimate from Apple holds true, it should be in two days after I get back from my second shoot, but that’s still two weeks without a functioning computer. Maybe I can get an appointment scheduled for when I get back from this weekend…
Couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as I don’t have time for a Genius Bar appointment right now, because I’m prepping today and head out of town super early tomorrow to shoot and won’t be back until the first of the week, then turn around and leave two days later for another six days. If the delivery estimate from Apple holds true, it should be in two days after I get back from my second shoot, but that’s still two weeks without a functioning computer. Maybe I can get an appointment scheduled for when I get back from this weekend…
scorsesefan
Veteran
I just picked up a Mac Studio Max during BH's holiday specials. When you spec out the Mac Mini Pro 2 to match the Studio it's the same price with less ports.
Run&Gun
Veteran
Yeah, it seems like they always used to update every 1-1.5 years. It’s a tech company. They should, right? I mean, it doesn’t make the previous gen obsolete by any stretch, but my computer is almost 10.5 years old. I usually hang onto computers for a long time, so when I buy, I usually like to get the absolute newest and max it out, because my upgrade cycle is so long.
Imamacuser
Veteran
Did a PRAM / NVRAM reset have no effect?
Run&Gun
Veteran
I have not. I only tried a power button reset. But I will give that a try, as it doesn’t look like there is anything to lose by doing it.
Apple said they no longer stock parts for mine(it is 10.5 years old…), but I booked a Genius Bar appointment for Monday to try get the drive copied. Stupidly, it’s been way too long since I’ve run a time machine BU…
Imamacuser
Veteran
My Mid-2012 13" MBP is still running, although the headphone jack is broken & the screen hinges have loosened.
Thomas Smet
Veteran
It is precisely incremental updates much like Intel was in prior years.
The launch of M1 was exciting and bold and it kind of set unrealistic expectations. We now expect that large of an increase each time and that was never going to be realistic nor should it be. We shouldn't want to buy a new computer every single year.
No one that owns a M1 should be considering moving to a M2. This is for new users who now get a bit more for the same money. New users that will be faster but the current users are not left out in the cold either in terms of software not contemning to support older chips. It creates a happy larger user base.
Nobody wants to buy a computer and have its dwarfed a year later. Especially if they just bought that model a month ago.
It has always been realistic to consider a system update every 3 to 5 years. That still holds true. Those of us owning a M1 of some kind should likely hold out for the M3 or M4. The M3 will shift from 5nm to a 3nm process which provide a larger upgrade. I expect the M4 will double the M1 performance and at that point would likely provide a realistic ROI on an upgrade. Maybe even the M3. All depends on what new technology and instruction sets are included in that chip. It's not always just about raw clock speed or cores. Sometimes it's what video formats can be decoded or encoded with hardware. A M3 could have the exact same clock speed and cores count and if it added hardware Braw decoding would be a massive boost for those working with Braw for example. Not saying that will happen. Just through out the one format I know of not hardware accelerated on Apple Silicon already.
Thomas Smet
Veteran
The point of the M2 Pro Mini is not to bump up every upgrade. Then yes you might as well just get the Mac Studio. The point is to provide a better than M2 Mac mini for a price in between and only $1,300 vs $2,000. I used to have a M1 MBA and upgraded to the M1 Pro 14" MBP and its a beast of a system even with only 16 GB of ram. A lot of pros would not mind having the base M2 Pro Mac mini at $1,300 vs being forced to pay $2,000 at a minimum for the Mac Studio when they may not need that much of a system. I know I didn't need the Max or 32 GB of Ram. $700 is a lot to save for essentially the same performing system as the base model 14" MBP.
The chip upgrade is pretty minor anyway and may not really be worth the $300. I think a lot of M1 Pro Macs are sold without ever upping the Ram to 32 GB. They tend to be users that want to walk into a store to pick up something better than the consumer systems but not power users. So I'm not a lot of people will even bump up to 32 GB. Unified memory is a different beast and even 8 GB blew me away how much it could handle. 16 GB seems to be a rather sweet spot right now on Apple Silicon. Even if one does bump up to 32 GB it's still $300 les than the Mac Studio. There realistically isn't much wiggle room in terms of price for something between a Mac mini and Mac Studio. The Pro was always going to be an odd choice for Apple. The ram and storage quickly skew the cost to create a lot of overlap.
On the plus side a M2 Mac mini with 16GB and 512GB is also only $1,000 or only $300 less than the M2 Pro Mac mini which has a better CPU, GPU, more ProRes video encoders/decoders and 4 TB4 ports vs 2 TB4 ports which really helps. Thats a pretty significant boost for only $300. Anything after that and one really does need to consider pushing their budget a bit more and just get the Mac Studio. But is one doesn't need 32 GB or a 10% faster chip the M2 Pro Mac mini saves $700 vs the Mac Studio which is a decent chunk of change for a much better Mac Mini. A Mac mini that now kills the 2018 6 core i7 Mac mini I had with a Vega56 eGPU which by the way did cost $2,000 at the time. The first true pro level Mac mini 100% self contained. Minus the keyboard, mouse and display of course.
Thomas Smet
Veteran
One more thing t consider is the top M2 Pro Mac mini has a faster CPU than the base Mac Studio. The M1 Max has a faster GPU of course but the CPU is more or less the same as the Pro CPU. The M2 is faster. So if one only cares about CPU speed the M2 Pro maxed out chip may be faster for the same price. The Mac Studio only really makes sense for those that need the faster GPU. For us video centric people that likely rings true of course. But I could see those using CPU based tools to maybe prefer the decked Mac Mini. We have yet to see what cooling is like for long term use vs the Studio. Geekbench is rather useless as a short benchmark. For things like rendering we need to know how much that chip slows down under long load. The Mini might start off faster but after five minutes or so could be slower than the M1 Max.
scorsesefan
Veteran
Yeah, I think GPU performance is more important to most of us here..Trying to chase computer technology is a futile exercise anyway. As soon as you buy a system and get working it's getting smoked by something coming down the line from Apple (especially since they started making their own chips)...
ahalpert
Major Contributor
10.5 years old! I'd say you're in for a treat
But as Thomas says, I think there's a strong case to be made for upgrading every 4-5 years and buying cheaper computers. First of all, garden variety newer tech sometimes smokes top of the line older tech. But specifically for video people, the support for new compression codecs is a huge differentiator.
The lead editor at my biggest client uses a maxed out Mac Pro at the office that they bought in 2014 or a little earlier maybe. He was choking on H.265 and H.264 long-gop formats that weren't so hard for my 2017 MBP (not maxed out) to handle.
So, if your machine already has hardware acceleration for all available codecs, there isn't a reason to upgrade so soon. But if there's a new codec kid on the block and it gets supported on the M3 or M4, it would give me an additional incentive to upgrade
Run&Gun
Veteran
Unfortunately it didn’t do anything. Screen is still dead. But as long as they’re able to clone my drive so that I don’t lose anything and can load everything onto my new one when it gets here in a couple of weeks, I’ll count that as a (semi) win.
Run&Gun
Veteran
I really never intended to go 10+ years, it just kind of happened. I mean it did struggle with some stuff, especially 4K and h265. The fans would kick into overdrive within seconds, usually, as soon as you started to play it. But it just kept chugging along fine with most day-to-day stuff.
I ended up going with a maxed out M2 Max w/2TB internal SSD. Way more computer than I “need” currently(well, I do actually need a bigger internal drive), but I have the horsepower, if I need it…
ahalpert
Major Contributor
what about starting in recovery mode?
also, I thought that usually if you plug in an external HDMI monitor that it would work right away
Run&Gun
Veteran
I have two theories: 1) it’s because the computer is in the lock/log-in screen, because I did a power cycle with the physical power button or 2) the whole “video card” is or is also dead.
What gives me hope that the important stuff is or may still be alive is when I power it up, I do still get the power on chime and the keyboard lights up.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
I would try to start it in recovery mode. I think the command varies depending on your model (or maybe just depending on your OS?) I contacted Apple help a couple weeks ago and this lady was trying to get me to enter recovery mode by holding down a key combination after it began restarting. Gave me two different commands that didn't work. I looked it up for my machine and it turned out I just needed to hold the power button down until it restarted and entered recovery mode. I'm not sure why she didn't know that, but it didn't exactly instill me with confidence.
Alternatively, if you think you're getting to your log-in screen, I would try to enter your password and log in if you haven't already. But I still feel like maybe if you power on and your operating system starts, you will probably see a continuation of your wallpaper on an external monitor if you plug in HDMI. I dunno
But I'm 98% confident your hard drive is fine