Mac Studio M4max vs M3 Ultra

I'm confused about the respective merits of the Mac Studio models that have just been released. I work in Resolve using the Edit, Color, Fairlight and Deliver pages. I rarely use Fusion--and mostly for its tracking. (I just edited a feature with one fusion effect in it, for example.)

I do work with Canon RAW footage and will be working with RED footage in the coming year. So I do add a fair bit of noise reduction now and then.

I do work with a lot of 6k and 8k footage (finishing in 4k always, for now).

Any suggestions here?

I like the price of the M4max....

If you need any temporal effects, like NR or Speed Warp, having enough RAM is more important than your GPU.
Which configurations are you looking at?

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking at this for the Studio M4max, though I was wondering about adding more memory. I read conflicting things that suggest more memory ups performance in Resolve and that after a certain point it doesn't help at all.

M4Max config:

Apple M4 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
64GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

The M3Ultra config looks like this:

Apple M3 Ultra chip with 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine
96GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

As for costs: if the added expense of an M3 Ultra only offers marginal gains, that extra money could be spent elsewhere in the project--like on travel to shoot.

Both configurations have a reasonable amount of RAM, and both should work smoothly for DR.
The main advantage of a machine with more GPU cores is faster rendering of demanding effects. If you don’t have to meet tight deadlines regularly, I’d go for the cheaper machine.

Thank you, Uli.

I think the biggest difference is the Ultra has twice the hardware decoders and encoders so if you are using the appropriate codecs work flow will be faster especially for render.

Does this statement apply to exporting AND rendering cache or just exporting?

Whenever you encode to a modern GOP codec, hardware encoders are used.
But I’m not sure DR can really split encoding to two encoders, which is pretty complex to do. But encoding to ProRes is sped up by dual encoders.
The biggest advantage of the Ultra shows for multicam with GOP sources.
But then, I’m pretty sure an M4 Ultra is on the way. WWDC maybe?

I'll follow this thread with interest, as I want to upgrade my Mac Studio Ultra M1, 20C CPU, 48C GPU, 64GB RAM

The two choices are the upper tier M4 Max, vs. the lower tier M3 Ultra

Mac Ultra M4 Max, 16C CPU, 40C GPU

Mac Ultra M3 Ultra, 28C CPU, 60C GPU

As of today, there are not yet any Geekbench results for the M3 Ultra on this webpage:

https://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks/

Luke Miani gives Cinebench 2024 and Geekbench 6 benchmarks for the above two computers.

For my usage, I mostly do motion graphics involving, in one view, many dozens or sometimes even over a hundred separate Shape nodes, or sShape nodes, often motion-animated. Videos are 4K, 25P, H.265, 10 bit color. Videos can potentially be 30-60 minutes long filled with motion graphics.

In a typical complex animation using the M1 Ultra, the CPU is cruising around 10% usage, while the 48 Core GPU can be 100% maxed out. The 64GB RAM is typically 60-80% used up.

The Fusion composition are able to work, albeit slowly. sTexts crammed with a lot of characters are particularly harsh on GPU usage (I need sText so I can zoom in to the text). So I've been using Loader/Saver nodes for the really complex animations.

When it comes to the above two models, in the absence of benchmarks, here is my present thinking:

- the far higher single core speed of the M4 Max would benefit some of Davinci and Fusion's tasks. But I don't know which aspects of my work would benefit from higher single core CPU clock speed, since it appears, from actual use, that most of my work is GPU-dependent.

- the GPU of the M4 Max is better than my current M1 Ultra. Waiting for benchmarks to see how much better.

- I'm awaiting further benchmarks to see whether the M3 Ultra 60C GPU offers significant benefit over the M4 Max 40 C GPU - the M4 cores being newer architecture than the older generation M3 cores.

I'd appreciate comments on which of the two configurations would be best for my main usage mentioned above.

I'm inclined to go to for the M4 Max, higher tier 40 Core GPU, due to being cheaper than the M3 Ultra, and the M4 Max likely being "good enough" for my purposes. Also, I perceive that buying the more expensive Ultra, you take a bigger loss when trying to sell second hand. I think that buying the Max will enable me to upgrade more economically and more regularly than having the Ultra.

Some good benchmark graphs here:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/m4-max-and-m3-ultra-mac-studio-review-a-weird-update-but-it-mostly-works/

It is interesting that on my PC with 4070Ti, split mode is identified in the advanced encoding table but nothing on my Studio Max which does have dual encoders like the 4070Ti.

...- the far higher single core speed of the M4 Max would benefit some of Davinci and Fusion's tasks. But I don't know which aspects of my work would benefit from higher single core CPU clock speed, since it appears, from actual use, that most of my work is GPU-dependent....

Your post is very well reasoned. I have an M1 Ultra and have noticed the same thing. If the items you mostly are waiting on shows the GPU is maxxed out, maybe the M4 Max faster single-core performance won't help much. In very rough terms it appears the top M4 Max GPU performance is very roughly similar to the top M1 Ultra GPU performance.

Based on that and the Ultra's 2x media engines, I'd be tempted to get an 80 core M3 Ultra. At least it would be faster at the things I'm usually waiting on -- TSNR, Neat Video, Depth Map, Magic Mask, Face Refinement, bulk transcoding, deflicker, etc.

However if the M3 Ultra GPU was 2x faster than M1 Ultra, and if some of your M1 Ultra tasks run at 5 fps, 2x faster is "only" 10 fps. That won't make them smooth. But it will do the work 2x faster.

But if the choice is between M4 Max 16C/40C vs M3 Ultra 28C/60C, that's a lot harder. You do have double the encoders. But how much faster will 60 M3 Ultra GPU cores be vs 40 M4 Max GPU cores (which are individually somewhat more efficient)?

That M3 Ultra config has 28 CPU cores, but multi-core CPU scalability tends to tail off quicker than GPU core scalability due to Amdahl's Law. Much software is so poorly multithreaded that the M4 high single-core CPU performance (and even imperfect multithreaded scalability up to the single-digit core range) might be useful.

@Roger
I'm not a big Windows fan, but IMHO for your kind of complex work with Fusion a beefy PC might be the better choice.

@Roger
I'm not a big Windows fan, but IMHO for your kind of complex work with Fusion a beefy PC might be the better choice.

In a typical complex animation using the M1 Ultra, the CPU is cruising around 10% usage, while the 48 Core GPU can be 100% maxed out. The 64GB RAM is typically 60-80% used up.

Uli, I recently became aware that, when I said my usage saw the 64GB RAM used up typically around 60-80%, that that is actually the RAM being maxed out- because Fusion's preference settings put a ceiling of 75% as the maximum amount of RAM that can be used. i.e. I would never see 90-100% of RAM used up, due to Fusion setting a ceiling on the amount of RAM usable for Fusion in its preference settings.

Hence, when upgrading to probably the M4 Max 40C GPU, the above now makes we wonder if 64GB is adequate for my purposes, and whether I should 'jump off the cliff' and pay the extra USD$800 for 128GB RAM. (That would be a lot of cash wasted if I really won't need the extra RAM).

p/s regarding Windows, I can't go back to the dark side. Also, I value quiet-performance, the pleasantries of macOS, and better re-sale value in a couple of years time, than pure raw power, as long as Mac is close enough for my needs.

Even on my now older system there is a big difference between PC and Mac for the Fusion things I do ( moving graphics and scrolling titles with different fonts ). My M1 Studio Max has 24GPU cores and 32G RAM. The PC has old 1920 12core Threadripper ( so old ) NVIDIA 4070Ti 12G VRAM. For these fusion effects the PC is 4 to 5 times faster than the Mac. From the tests I have seen the M4 Studio Max is around 2.6 times faster than my M1 Studio Max. So would still be slower than my old PC.

I like the quiet too so edit on my M1 Studio Max but often render on the PC. Nice to have both.

I think if Fusion plays an important role for you, having both is a good solution.

This conversation has been very helpful. I'm glad to know others have similar questions. I'm still a touch confused.

Would another way to ask the question be this:

What benefits from:

More GPU Cores?

More CPU Cores (and processor speed)?

Memory (not called "RAM" any longer, I guess)?

For me, these are the issues of greatest concern in no order. So which benefit from more GPU cores, CPU cores or Memory?

1: Realtime playback at 4k with full res RAW. I finish in 4k and usually shoot a mix of 4k xf-avc and Canon Raw in 6 and 8k and prefer to work without proxies.
2: Rendering and caching speed, both for "render in place" and timeline caching. I generally cache in ProresLT.
3: Noise reduction.
4: Time to open long timelines
5: Fairlight audio rendering/bouncing, etc. of tracks
6: exporting final files and versions of cuts

My guess is that it's a mixed bag--an M3Ultra will help in once case, an M4max in another...

I do no heavy effects work and use fusion on very rare occasions.

May help:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03 ... tly-works/

Concensus seems to be leaning to the M4 assuming a healthy spec for RAM & GPU cores.

Question for Mac Studio:

M4Max, unbinned 40C GPU -- increased 128GB memory

M3 Ultra, binned, 60C GPU -- standard 96GB memory

My use scenario: heavy Fusion 2D motion graphics

It's a question of where to allocate money: adding more memory to the M4Max, or more GPU with slightly more memory by getting the M3 Ultra base model.

Hi,
I'm taking advantage of this thread to ask you a question about the purchase of my future Mac studio.
I bought a Mac Studio Ultra 128go in 2022 and would like to upgrade to the new version. I mainly need it to work on Avid media composer, Adobe premiere Adobe Afterfect and davinci resolve. For davinci resolve we mainly use it to conform rushes (Sony Alpha 7s, RED, Djy drone etc...) and create mxd proxies for avid media composer. When I read this video with a lot of comparative table on exports at the end of the video I wonder if it's not worth buying an M2 ultra that I can find cheaper on the refurb to move to the M4 max or M3 ultra ... I'm full of doubt
thanks in advance for your help and advice
Vivien