Mac M5 Ultra Studio vs. M5 Max Studio for X18

[DHerb2014]

I tried searching without success, for a discussion thread on the new M5 Ultra vs. M5 Max...for those running the Mac OS platform, and price difference set aside, what are your thoughts on these machines? I'm investing in the future and am leaning toward the Ultra with standard core and 96 GB of RAM, just for shear horsepower. I used to build PC's from scratch every three or four years, but abandoning that platform (i9 13900, Win 10) entirely for Mac ecosystem. 

 

Edited September 30 by DHerb2014
incorrect spec

[ValleyGuy]

I am looking at the M5 Ultra as well. For a few main reasons: 1) I currently run 5 displays on my M4 Max Mac Studio and have a sixth that runs on my iPad. I would like to have all 6 run off the new studio on TB5 cables without using a doc. The Ultra will do that comfortably with it's double the channels and additional TB5 ports of the Max model. 2) I did a little research on AI and am not exactly sure how this will effect my business in the next few years, but I would like to prepare for it. One thing that I am playing with currently is rendering. A Mac based app called Draw Things will learn and render locally using the LLM stacks that I choose to use. This is instead of using general web based engines that are maybe not geared specifically toward architecture accuracy. If I want to use Chief at the same time, while using all these displays, bumping up to 96GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot. Bumping up the memory on the Max puts the cost at almost equal to that of the base Ultra. 3) Additional CPU and GPU cores will help as well. I'm interested in the binned 30/64 base model as I don't think that the additional cost for a few more cores out weighs the added benefits.

 

I bought my current studio reconditioned from Apple and saved about 15%, while still receiving all of the benefits like AppleCare service and support thats included with a new purchase. I am thinking that I'll do the same for the M5 Ultra when some used ones become available - I'm guessing March, April or May next year. 

 

Random thoughts:
- my M4 Max runs smooth as butter and with Chief's recent improvements, X18 is a lot faster than X17. Just like you, the ultra for me is mostly just for more brute horse power.
- I expect the M5 will be faster in many different areas, and just like most tech things, the M5 will probably perform faster than I can. I did start to find myself waiting on my old intel Mac, but I'm pretty certain that the M5 will stay ahead of my abilities to input commands for a few years.

- I like the Apple ecosystem, everything just works. Everything just connects and makes things very convenient. I really like that I can just copy and paste between my phone, iPad, and desktop without any other stuff messing up the communication path, just click and there it appears.

- I like the fact that my Studio doesn't make any heat or noise, my office doesn't overheat or become noisy. I think the Ultra will handle everything I throw at it with ease. 

- I really like that my whole desk top computer is smaller than my code book. I take it to almost every customer's home when I do the 3D walk through with them. 

- I'm ok without the modification freedoms on my Mac (vs a PC). At this point in my life, I'm not yearning to modify my car either.

 

[DHerb2014]

Thanks Shayne. I agree on the ecosystem. For example, I take a lot of photos and vids when doing an as-built or site visit to ensure every detail is captured. When returning to office, I use AirDrop and transfer the small/large files to MBP laptop. With my PC, it's cumbersome, as you have to use flash drive and transfer from iPhone to PC, etc. 

Windows 11 and MS making a mandatory upgrade, made my decision easy. I've used a PC since 1989, DOS, and first iteration of Windows 3.0, etc. Clunky OS at best, and I don't want CoPilot watching every move, as it sounds too much like Big Brother. I don't want to gravitate toward Linux, as Chief doesn't have that option, plus I don't know enough about that OS. 

 

The M5 Ultra looks like a safe upgrade for the next 5-years or longer. Going with the base system, 96 GB memory and with 2TB SSD. I use Twinmotion a lot, and will keep the PC handy just for that task, as Parallels won't work friendly with TM 2026. It's expensive at $6K but great tools for our line of work are needed and will save time. 

[ValleyGuy]

8 hours ago, DHerb2014 said:

It's expensive at $6K but great tools for our line of work are needed and will save time. 

 

I kind of look at the price of these things as fairly inexpensive, if you look at from the perspective of buying tools in any of the trades that build what we design.

This $6,000 tool has a resale value of at least $2,000 in 5 years, so $4,000 / 60 months = about $66 / month. With the exchange on the dollar, that's about 1/2 tank of gas in my CAR here in Canada! I miss my truck but I don't miss it's thirst for fuel to drag all that concrete equipment around.

[Benny_G]

Happy to join your discussion. I am thinking too about investing into a Mac Mini M6 or Mac Studio M5 and abound my MacBook Pro. I had some discussions regarding the improvement of the rendering speed in CA with some IT cracks I know, and I visited the local Apple store in Zurich (Switzerland). Unfortunately nobody could give me an answer since CA ist not that widely known in Europe.

 

What I realize when I do renderings for marketing purpose with data-heavy pictures (sometimes 300 MB and more), my MacBook Pro needs very long to perform the physically based rendering (ray trace) rendering. It usually shows 0 pics per second. Any idea how much the speed could improve by utilizing a Mac mini M6 or a Mac studio M5 machine? Helpful insights and  comment are highly appreciated. 

 

Benny

 

Benny Gasser

Mobile: +41/79 749 36 49, benny.gasser@gasser-architects.ch

Chief Architect X18, MacBook Pro M1 Max, 1 TB, 64 GB RAM