MacBook Pro or Mac Studio?

[RenegadfeMonste]

Later this year I'm considering upgrading to a new Mac.

I currently have a 2020 13" M1 MBP with 16GB of Memory and 1TB SSD. I bought this on launch day of the M1 as my iMac had just died and entry level M1 MacBook Pro's were all that were available if I wanted to switch to Apple Silicone at the time.

Here are the two main reasons why I'm looking to upgrade.

First, my M1 MacBook Pro only supports 1 external display. I have two 27" displays on my desk and would like to utilize both of them like I can with my I7 2019 Work Provided 15" MBP

Second is my hobbies include playing around with Generative AI like Stable Diffusion. My M1 MBP takes significantly longer to render images than a coworker M2 Pro MBP with 32 GB of memory and I find that the Automatic Web UI is almost unusable on my M1 Mac. It often crashes with out of memory errors when attempting to do anything with Sable Diffusion XL 1.0.

At first I was thinking along the lines of getting a M3 Pro or Max MBP to replace my current MBP. But a coworker of mine pointed out that I already have a nice mobile laptop. That I should get the Mac Studio as a desktop as I would get more bang for my buck.

In my case would it make the most sense to get a Mac Studio as a desktop to use at my desk and then keep the M1 MBP for the go?

 

[leifp]

That sounds correct to me.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Why not look at AMD/nvidia desktop Instead of Studio To go along with your MBP. How much RAM do you have in M1 MBP. I run larger custom models than what Stable diffusion uses on M1 Max, and it works slower than my 4090 but has plenty of 64 GB unified memory. I also have an AMD/Nvidia 4090 workstation, any model which needs more than 24 GB GPU RAM, I Use my M1 Max MBP. I like the ability to upgrade my workstation, it was 3090 when I first built it. Upgraded to 4090 later. I use M1 Max, when I am traveling and gets the work done.

 

[leifp]

Depending on your budget and your total goals (stick to macOS or move to another OS, work on the Studio or just play on it, etc) a modular WinPC can make a nice addition. I have one, but it’s a gaming rig. The only other thing I do on it is watch YT videos on occasion (it’s hooked up to a 42” OLED 138Hz monitor). If I can make it work well on macOS, I use macOS.

 

[picpicmac]

Second is my hobbies include playing around with Generative AI like Stable Diffusion.

Many will suggest building a Windows PC to host an Nvidia 4090. That is expensive, though (the 4090 part.)

Right now the Apple Refurb store has a base Studio M2 Ultra for $3,399. 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD. If I wanted to do what you wrote (and I sort of do) I'd buy that Mac Studio.

 

[TechnoMonk]

Many will suggest building a Windows PC to host an Nvidia 4090. That is expensive, though (the 4090 part.)

Right now the Apple Refurb store has a base Studio M2 Ultra for $3,399. 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD. If I wanted to do what you wrote (and I sort of do) I'd buy that Mac Studio.

It’s really not, I built a AMD thread ripper/Nvidia 3090 with 128 GB High end RAM, and 2 GB NVME for 3600. And 2 years later sold my 3090 for 800 bucks and paid 1600 for new 4090. If it was Mac Studio, I wouldn’t be able to update my GPU. When it comes to MBP, I wouldn’t consider a windows laptop, but ability to upgrade is big factor for me when it comes to workstation.

 

[RenegadfeMonste]

Strongly considering the Mac Studio route at this point in time, but holding off for the M3 Ultra.

 

[danwells]

How well do you know Windows? PC Hardware? If you know both well, the extra costs of keeping a Windows desktop box going may not be huge (you do need to pay for subscription-based security, but that's only $50-$100/yr).

If you don't, there is considerable extra hassle and potentially cost in having two OSs hanging around, and Windows is certainly more configurable, but it also doesn't Just Work as well as a Mac does. It's pretty easy to rack up a tech support bill in the many hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of dollars messing with Windows - there's no Genius Bar. If you've been using Windows for decades and know how to troubleshoot, this may be a non-issue.

Judging from the M3 Max, the M3 Ultra is going to be a BEAST, and it's going to be a remarkably easy one to live with. It's tiny, quiet and consumes under 400 watts running full out. It's probably going to be a $5000-$6000 machine (and up if you add options), but a big Windows workstation like people here are talking about won't be any cheaper.

Threadrippers used to be reasonably priced, but no longer. The least expensive 7000 series Threadripper is $1499 for the CPU alone, and you can pay up to $10,000. A motherboard starts at $600, and that 4090 everybody loves is $2000 and up. You're not going to get away under $1000 for case, power supply, storage and RAM, and you should probably count on twice that for even a decent midrange configuration. That machine will consume the best part of a kilowatt under load (the CPU and GPU are 350 watts or more EACH), live in a big tower case and the fans will scream like a banshee.

The M3 Ultra will easily offer more CPU power than any Threadripper except for the MOST powerful, and it'll outrun those on tasks that don't parallelize perfectly (it will have 24 performance cores, while the biggest Threadrippers have as many as 96 cores that are individually less powerful - if your task uses 64 or 96 cores, the Threadripper will be more powerful, but if it's imperfectly parallel, the Mac will win). The GPU should be pretty competitive with a single 4090 (but not with several of them), depending on the specific task.