GMC:er Posts: 25.297
Joined: 23-December 09
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
The Mac Mini and Mac Studio with the M1 chip has been showing up in wads of home studios for folks using LOGIC X and FINAL CUT PRO. If you don’t use these apps, there is honestly not a great reason to buy a Mac computer to start with, as a much cheaper PC running Windows will get the job done just fine.
M1 REVOLUTION The M1 chip has replaced the Intel Chip in the Mini and Mini Studio. It’s a very fast chip and really shines when software is written just for it, as is the case with Apple software. However, it must be said that since the switch to essentially, mobile chips (M1/Arm), that Apple has started building these machines the same way they build their mobile devices like the iPhone and soldering everything to the motherboard. So whatever amount of RAM you buy when you purchase a Mini or Studio, and whatever amount of hard drive space you purchase, is as much as the unit will ever have. You can add external drives of course, to the Mini and Studio, but the internal ram/storage is fixed. Also, The Mini and Studio have different maximum amounts of ram that you can have installed. Let’s take a look.
THE RAM GAME The M1 Mini will max out at 16GB of Ram and 2 TB of SSD storage. So if you regularly use large amounts of ram, the Mini may not be the computer for you. However, it must be said that the SSD is so fast that running out of ram and using the internal SSD as a swap file is actually a functional strategy on the Mini. There is no shortage of youtube videos showing huge track counts and huge virtual instrument libraries running on a scant 16 GB of ram due to the SSD being so fast as to make this feasible. So while the hard ram limit may seem like a big factor, in practice, it’s not turning out to be that big of an issue for many folks using Logic and Final Cut.
The Mac Studio has higher limits on every aspect of hardware as it costs nearly triple the base model mini, for the base model Studio. Of course, if you are willing to pay double the cost of the base Mac Studio ($2,000 base) and get the upgraded Mac Studio ($4,000) you can have up to 128 GB of ram and 8 TB of SSD storage. At that point, the Mac Studio price (at the top of the range) is $8,000 before software apps. The Base Mac Studio ships with 32GB of Ram as standard.
If you are doing lots of orchestral library work, then you may need more ram. One way to find out if you need wads of ram is just to do your normal activities and look at the Activity Monitor and see how much ram is being used and especially look at the Ram Pressure Graph. If it’s green, you current amount of ram on your mac is enough. When you get a new machine, that amount should do it. If you see the graph go yellow or red, you probably need more ram. Again, you can’t upgrade the ram so buy as much as you need. THE CPU GAME The M1 Mac Mini comes in two flavors, both of which are very similar in terms of performance. It really comes down to how many CPU and GPU cores are in the unit. The Mac Studio lets you have the M1 Max and M1 Ultra CPU/GPU which basically ramps up the number of CPU and GPU cores in the unit. So how many cores do you really need?
Honestly, if you are doing high track count LOGIC projects, and Editing 4k footage, you will probably be fine with either version of the M1 Mac Mini. To wit
If you are editing 8k, or lots of RAW footage, you may need to upgrade to the Mac Studio. No matter what, the Mac Studio is a way faster machine. Everything you do will probably be quicker on a Mac Studio compared to a Mini. It’s hands down a way faster machine in every possible way. However, no amount of audio work is going to tax the huge number of GPU cores in the Mac Studio. M2 THE SECOND COMING The new M2 chip is already available on certain Mac Laptops. However, it’s not much faster than the M1. The real performance gains will come when we get the M2 Max and M2 Ultra versions of the new M2 chip. It’s likely that the Mini will get the M2 chip but only the new version of the Mac Studio will get the M2 Max and M2 Ultra which should have double or more cpu cores. The same rules will apply. If you don’t need an M1 Mac Studio, you won’t need an M2 Mac Studio.
This article has been focused on the Mac Mini and Mac Studio. Both of these are M1 based units that do not have a built in display. If we start talking about units with built in displays, we have to add all of the laptops and the iMac. This is far beyond the scope of this piece. I hope this has been helpful. Here is a great buying guide video.
Gear Tyler Burning Water 2K Burny RLG90 with BK Emeralds Fender US Tele with BK Piledrivers Epiphone 335 with Suhr Thornbuckers PRS SE Custom 24-08 Ax8
