I’m currently on a 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU M2 Max Mac Studio and it works fine. 60 fps most of the time on a 5k monitor.
I saw the 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU M4 Max Mac Studio launched today and I’m thinking about getting it. Think it’ll be a decent upgrade?
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I was wondering if I wanted the Mini or Studio because I’m looking to upgrade my 2017 27" iMac, but now I’m thinking it probably doesn’t matter.
The Studio has better multiple monitor support and has more USB & Thunderbolt ports as well as the built-in SD card reader. But for a single monitor setup I would think the M4 Pro mini would run WoW decently enough.
Since I have something plugged into almost every port on my M1 Studio (except one of the front ones), and I want dual 4K monitors at better than 60 Hz, I’m sticking with the Studio. Got my preorder in for an M4 Max this morning, should be arriving sometime next week.
(Edit: Looks like the M4 Pro mini can do two 4K displays at better than 60 Hz. Not sorry I went for the Studio, but nice to see the Mini is more capable than I thought.)
Ordered mine yesterday. A bit more pricey than I expected. It should be worth it considering I’m upgrading from an M1 Mac Mini. It should suit my needs for quite a few years.
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I have the same setup, except I have the 30 core GPU Max. I was wanting to upgrade to a Studio M4 Ultra, but sadly it’s the M3 Ultra for now. I think I’m going to just hold out for the M5 Ultra since the only thing I’m really suffering with right now is the 500G SSD.
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Same here. I was going to splurge for the M4 Ultra, but I’m not going to put that kind of money into last gen chips.
I’ve heard Wow is a CPU focused game, would it really benefit from the Ultra double chip compared to the more advanced cores in the M4 Max?
It honestly may not. It definitely helps to have a good CPU for WoW, but I’ve noticed running at 5K definitely gets challenging when it comes to graphics settings.
Ordered a M4 Max Studio to replace my M1 Max MBP.
Expected to arrive on the 18th.
Kinda excited!
can someone update on how the new studio runs? Curious if we get butter 60fps with max settings.
I don’t think anyone has received the new Studios yet. I got my order in early Wednesday morning & it isn’t scheduled to arrive for a few more days; according to Apple it hasn’t shipped yet (it’s been “preparing to ship” all weekend). And in-store pickup apparently doesn’t start until Wednesday either.
Mine is scheduled for Wed 3/19. I added a few upgrades, so it’s taking longer. I haven’t owned a really nice Mac in many years. I’ve always had to settle for a 2nd or 3rd choice.
highly doubt going from M2 studio to M4 would make a big enough difference to be worth it. running at 120 FPS on 4K monitor right now on M2, very smooth and no problems.
Apple finally updated the shipping status on my order this morning - it left the factory on Saturday & is in Kentucky now, so it looks like it should get here tomorrow after all. Weird that it took over 2 days to tell me it shipped.
Reviews are apparently no longer embargoed, I’ve seen a bunch popping up this morning (also for the new Air and iPhone 16e). Looks like it will be a pretty nice upgrade from my M1 as expected.
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Not sure what your setting are, but my M2 Max is not running 120fps in the crowded areas or raids. I did recently went from 1440p to 4K OLED and 4K gave me a lot of stuttering as fps dropped below 48fps below the VRR zone. But even on 1440p 120 fps was only in open world or places without water (have that on good settings).
Now I got my M4 Max today, and this is WoW, I didn’t expect that big of a jump but like Dornogal crowed is 100fps with no FSR and everything on high and 10/10/10. Raids are wow also now and I am using Elvui. On my M2 Max I was using 80 FSR but when mounting up frames dropped below 48 so very noticable.
My new machine is a M4 Max Studio 64GB/1TB max cpu/gpu cores. I love it already and again silent 
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UPS dropped mine off about half an hour ago. Now I’m just waiting for Migration Assistant to finish doing its thing (gonna take a couple hours since I have roughly 1TB to move over).
Thank you! This is what I was waiting for. I’m currently running an M1 Studio as my work machine (plus off-hours gaming), and my AppleCare+ juuusttttt ran out. I was trying to decide if the M4 Max would be enough for work and WoW, and it looks like it is.
Finally got everything moved over & logged into the game.
I have the M4 Max with the upgraded CPU (16 CPU/40 GPU) and 48 GB memory. Running at 4K with every setting cranked up to max (including water) and 100% render scale and so far I can’t get the frame rate to drop below the upper 40s, and I’m only seeing that in places like certain parts of Ardenweald that have lots of visual effects… The main plaza in Donogal where everybody hangs out is around 60-65 fps right now though it isn’t super busy at the moment. Just flying around Isle of Dorn I’m getting mid 70s.
Going to try a delve & see what it’s like with some combat & AOE.
You’ll definitely see cpu gains are biggest gains for wow. in that effect i could even see an M4 Max beating an M3 Ultra in raid setting for example, cause it’s cpu perforamnce that matters more than gpu there.
yet outside of raid and away from crowds the M3 ultra will stop M4 max.
not having an M4 ultra hurt studio a lot i feel cause like I said cpu gains do matter a lot for poorly optimized games like WoW and it’s ancient engine.
I’m gonna be a stubborn holdout and wait for M5 Max and then reassess. if it’s good enough on it’s own i’ll get a new MBP as soon as it’s launched. if not I’ll reassess at M5 ultra if it happens. but ultimately it depends on what apple announces and rumor mills. but M5 is supposed to be next sizable leap with multi layered Socs that can allow more wiggle room to get more in there.
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My tip, turn compute to lowest setting. any place it’s used heavily like ardeneweald is really bad on even best of machines.
and actually consider using FSR 1.0 but with a render scale of like 85-90% just to squeze some extra frames with minimal artifact. since you are using 4k that is. obviously 1440p or lower render scale at 100 more ideal.
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I personally set everything on high, water on good and compute on low. Some stuff can be set to Ultra but I hardly see the differences or for me not worth the fps penalty.
Distance etc on 10/10/10. And not using FSR, not needed with this M4 Max. I did on my M2 Max on 4K (80%), but this machine is just crazy fast. It is indeed also the cpu boost, where some of my cores where on 80% which is the point where things can slow down in that core, now that is way lower.
In Raids I am using lower settings, Quazi a high ranked player made a good youtube video about it and that is running fine.
Anyways this M4 Max with a PG27UCDM is just awesome, and great machine for work.