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Post by kcatthedog on Jan 17, 2023 12:40:05 GMT -6
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Post by kcatthedog on Jan 17, 2023 12:52:39 GMT -6
A new m2 mini, 512 ssd, and 16g of ram for just under a grand, what's not to like ?
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Post by Mister Chase on Jan 17, 2023 12:55:11 GMT -6
Yep, it's here - and customizable with an M2 Pro chip with either 10 or 12 CPU cores, and up to 32gb ram. It fills a gap between mini and the studio. If I shell out, it'll probably still be for a studio BUT, this is very cool. For the record, I never thought they'd release a mini with a pro CPU so I stand corrected.
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Post by bchurch on Jan 17, 2023 13:01:00 GMT -6
Until the M4 Mega drops, I'm stuck on Intel.
People who're newer to the Appleverse, say since they migrated to Intel in 2006, may not see the pattern.
But it goes something like this.
Jurassic (84-94)
OS 6-9
Motorola 68000, 020, 030, 040
Cretaceous (94-05)
OS 9-10
PowerPC/RISC 601, 603/e, 604/e, g3 / 4 / 5
Paleogenic (06-20)
OS 10-13
Intel, Intel, Intel. From Core2Duo to Kari Lake to Camp Crystal Lake to Ricki Lake / Xenon, Boron, Agamemnon processors
Neogenic (20-present)
OS 12-present
M1, M1Pro, M1Max, M2, M2Pro, M2MegaMax, M2UberUltra, M3, M3Mega, M3UltraMega, M3UberUltraMegaMegaMax
You realize that, having been through this for however many migrations (for me it's been literally all of them including the 68xxx - anyone remember NuBus cards and ADB connections?) that every time, the carrot is dangled. More this, faster that, 32,593,103,594,294,104,593,295 petateraflops (the scariest of the dinosaurs!) per picosecond, 20-bazillion GB per second via the new EarthquakeBolt connector ($49 adapter available), and so on.
But for two things...
EITHER, you realize "holy crap, I don't need to run 1000 tracks with 50000 plugins at 16 sample latency" /OR/ "yeah, but the new OS and DAW chewed through all that extra power with their bloated ball-of-bandaids code".
It's an abusive relationship that, as an Apple user for over 40 years (yes, a IIe in 5th grade counts!), I'm powerless to escape.
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Post by kcatthedog on Jan 17, 2023 13:06:58 GMT -6
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Post by Johnkenn on Jan 17, 2023 13:41:08 GMT -6
“ The M2 Pro can't compete with the higher-end M1 Max The M2 Pro can't compete with the higher-end M1 Max The baseline M2 Pro processor has a 10-core CPU and a 16-core GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine. That's compared to the M1 Max with a 10-core CPU and a 24-core GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine. We've configured both machines with 32GB of RAM. However, the memory bandwidth is doubled on the M1 Max processor at 400GB/s versus 200GB/s for the M2 Pro” appleinsider.com/inside/mac-studio/vs/m2-pro-mac-mini-versus-mac-studio---compared/amp/ |
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Post by Quint on Jan 17, 2023 13:45:14 GMT -6
Also, if you attempt to configure the Mini M2 Pro with as much memory and storage as the baseline Studio, you basically are at the price of a Studio, so why not just go with the Studio and take advantage of the Max chip and additional ports, which aren't available as an option on the M2 Mini?
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Post by seawell on Jan 17, 2023 13:45:24 GMT -6
I hope the rumors of a more affordable Mac Pro sometime in March are true. I'm getting by with a maxed out Mac Mini intel for now that replaced my trashcan Mac Pro.
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Post by Johnkenn on Jan 17, 2023 13:52:29 GMT -6
Also, if you attempt to configure the Mini M2 Pro with as much memory and storage as the baseline Studio, you basically are at the price of a Studio, so why not just go with the Studio and take advantage of the Max chip and additional ports, which aren't available as an option on the M2 Mini? I thought I had just done that and it came up around $1699? Maybe I didn’t add in the cores. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Jan 17, 2023 13:53:43 GMT -6
2 new mbp are in that announcement, what rumours have you heard about a less expensive one?
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Post by Quint on Jan 17, 2023 14:00:49 GMT -6
Also, if you attempt to configure the Mini M2 Pro with as much memory and storage as the baseline Studio, you basically are at the price of a Studio, so why not just go with the Studio and take advantage of the Max chip and additional ports, which aren't available as an option on the M2 Mini? I thought I had just done that and it came up around $1699? Maybe I didn’t add in the cores. Yeah, I was talking about adding in the cores. If you go with the lesser cores and/or less memory, etc., then, yeah, there's enough price difference to create a niche for the Mini M2 Pro. I was really just making the point that, if you're looking at the topped out version of the Mini M2 Pro, you might as well just go for the base model Studio. |
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Post by seawell on Jan 17, 2023 14:10:13 GMT -6
2 new mbp are in that announcement, what rumours have you heard about a less expensive one? Mac Pro I mean, not MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro is the only Apple line that is still intel now so the belief is it will be the next to get the M2 upgrade. |
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Post by kcatthedog on Jan 17, 2023 14:49:17 GMT -6
With the power of the Studio, you wonder what would be in the macpro ?
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Post by donr on Jan 17, 2023 14:59:12 GMT -6
Does GPU cores and performance have ANY application for DAW use? Seems like DAWs only use the basic CPU power and core multiple for the job, unless I'm mistaken.
Wasn't there a DAW once that utilized nVidia GPU's to do plugin computations?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2023 15:01:47 GMT -6
Until the M4 Mega drops, I'm stuck on Intel. People who're newer to the Appleverse, say since they migrated to Intel in 2006, may not see the pattern. But it goes something like this. Jurassic (84-94)OS 6-9 Motorola 68000, 020, 030, 040 Cretaceous (94-05)OS 9-10 PowerPC/RISC 601, 603/e, 604/e, g3 / 4 / 5 Paleogenic (06-20)OS 10-13 Intel, Intel, Intel. From Core2Duo to Kari Lake to Camp Crystal Lake to Ricki Lake / Xenon, Boron, Agamemnon processors Neogenic (20-present)OS 12-present M1, M1Pro, M1Max, M2, M2Pro, M2MegaMax, M2UberUltra, M3, M3Mega, M3UltraMega, M3UberUltraMegaMegaMax You realize that, having been through this for however many migrations (for me it's been literally all of them including the 68xxx - anyone remember NuBus cards and ADB connections?) that every time, the carrot is dangled. More this, faster that, 32,593,103,594,294,104,593,295 petateraflops (the scariest of the dinosaurs!) per picosecond, 20-bazillion GB per second via the new EarthquakeBolt connector ($49 adapter available), and so on. But for two things... EITHER, you realize "holy crap, I don't need to run 1000 tracks with 50000 plugins at 16 sample latency" /OR/ "yeah, but the new OS and DAW chewed through all that extra power with their bloated ball-of-bandaids code". It's an abusive relationship that, as an Apple user for over 40 years (yes, a IIe in 5th grade counts!), I'm powerless to escape. I finally made a clean template around the new MDWDRC2 and MDWEQ6 with Nova GE, some Goodhertz plugs, and choice fx sends. It runs on most modern computers. Old ones… no. What stops my i9-12900k and the m1 dead is tons of heavy fx sends and heavy bus processing in say 16-24 track projects. You will max out a core and cause the thing to stutter through buffer overload at 50-60% total load. Unless Apple has increased the single core speed to match Intel, there’s little benefit for real time audio processing over the m1. Now the thing with Intel and Amd is the new CPUs require a full ATX case to cool, which is huge. Skylake you could use a smaller case. Raptor lake. No. And you need an aio liquid cooler. |
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Post by the other mark williams on Jan 17, 2023 15:02:40 GMT -6
With the power of the Studio, you wonder what would be in the macpro ? With the MacPro, you get to wear gold diapers, baby |
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Post by Blackdawg on Jan 17, 2023 15:16:24 GMT -6
2 new mbp are in that announcement, what rumours have you heard about a less expensive one? Mac Pro I mean, not MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro is the only Apple line that is still intel now so the belief is it will be the next to get the M2 upgrade. shouldn't be hard to beat $7000 price tag of the old one..but then again the Studio is almost 5k so I doubt it'll that much more affordable.. Does GPU cores and performance have ANY application for DAW use? Seems like DAWs only use the basic CPU power and core multiple for the job, unless I'm mistaken. Wasn't there a DAW once that utilized nVidia GPU's to do plugin computations? GPU Audio is making plugins to tap into the GPU power of computers. Which yes, is largely wasted in most DAWs unless you're doing post production with video playback. |
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Post by Blackdawg on Jan 17, 2023 15:17:23 GMT -6
With the power of the Studio, you wonder what would be in the macpro ? native PCIe support would be the main feature at this point. Because no matter what, a dedicated GPU is still much more powerful, especially with the newest ones, and other PCIe cards folks use. HDX in our world for instance. |
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Post by reddirt on Jan 17, 2023 15:22:31 GMT -6
They are so bloody contrary sometimes - if you go for the model with the extra ports then you can't have ( my sweet spot ) 24 gig of ram; you either stay at 16 or pay heaps to go to 32 which brings you close to the cost of a studio which has the max chip with more ports and faster memory bandwidth to name a couple of advantages that readily come to mind
The lower specced mini model will allow 24 gig of ram but it also means shelling out for a dock to cover the lack of ports.
1st world problems but not the result I was waiting for.
Cheers, Ross
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2023 15:29:16 GMT -6
Does GPU cores and performance have ANY application for DAW use? Seems like DAWs only use the basic CPU power and core multiple for the job, unless I'm mistaken. Wasn't there a DAW once that utilized nVidia GPU's to do plugin computations? No. Just having a modern gpu is enough to take some load off the cpu. Most daw builders will use cheap ones so they can lower the fan speed and reduce the ambient noise. The biggest issue are bad -and inefficient coding of drivers and plugins. The UADx and MAAT stuff phones home all the time. I could go on about bad plugin emulations all day. WTF? |
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Post by enlav on Jan 17, 2023 15:33:49 GMT -6
With the power of the Studio, you wonder what would be in the macpro ? native PCIe support would be the main feature at this point. Because no matter what, a dedicated GPU is still much more powerful, especially with the newest ones, and other PCIe cards folks use. HDX in our world for instance. Does the new Apple M1/M2 architecture support third party graphics cards at this point? I know eGPU was dead at one point (not sure if that's still the case) for new Mac's, but I guess I never really considered what a new Mac Pro would look like. |
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Post by bchurch on Jan 17, 2023 15:51:32 GMT -6
Does the new Apple M1/M2 architecture support third party graphics cards at this point? I know eGPU was dead at one point (not sure if that's still the case) for new Mac's, but I guess I never really considered what a new Mac Pro would look like. Clearly, neither are Apple. Really strange that their flagship professional machine is the last horse on the track. |
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Post by Blackdawg on Jan 17, 2023 16:12:36 GMT -6
native PCIe support would be the main feature at this point. Because no matter what, a dedicated GPU is still much more powerful, especially with the newest ones, and other PCIe cards folks use. HDX in our world for instance. Does the new Apple M1/M2 architecture support third party graphics cards at this point? I know eGPU was dead at one point (not sure if that's still the case) for new Mac's, but I guess I never really considered what a new Mac Pro would look like. I don't think so. But if they really want to be top dog in the professional rendering world again, they will need to. They still can't keep up with a RTX4090. Or really probably any of the new 4000 series. Or 7000 from AMD. They aren't slouches either mind you. But for intense video rendering or 3D modeling, they are no where near the top dogs. I have an HDX card and would rather it be contained in the Mac chassis vs having to get some other chassis which tend to be loud. |
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Post by dok on Jan 17, 2023 16:13:56 GMT -6
I bought a refurb M1 Mini in April, and to get the same 2TB of storage with double the RAM (from 16 to 32GB) is an extra $800 or so from what I paid. The similarly RAM and storage spec'd Studio is another few hundred on top of that. It would probably future-proof the machine for another couple of years but isn't really worth the price to upgrade now, and I haven't found myself needing it for my rather simple audio needs. I'll be fine to wait a few years for sure, but I'm still excited about these machines. This is the fully-realized Mini I expected when they first announced the Apple Silicon transition.
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Post by the other mark williams on Jan 17, 2023 16:16:22 GMT -6
Does the new Apple M1/M2 architecture support third party graphics cards at this point? I know eGPU was dead at one point (not sure if that's still the case) for new Mac's, but I guess I never really considered what a new Mac Pro would look like. Clearly, neither are Apple. Really strange that their flagship professional machine is the last horse on the track. I don't know, I don't think it's too strange. It's the model that will sell the least and cost the most. And it's replacing the Intel model that was the most powerful, and thus the hardest to beat with native Apple Silicon. It made a lot more sense in terms of efficiency of scale to introduce lower models first, and then see how best to scale those processors up to the needs of the (relatively) few pros who would actually buy a top-of-the-line model. Not speaking as an Apple fanboy - I just think what they did made sense in this case. The Mac Pro was initially supposed to come out Q4 2022 - that was the planned release date at the beginning of the transition to AS. Between supply chain issues and the general economic slowdown, I think it makes sense that they didn't make that release date. |
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