Apple Mac Studio (M4 Max) Review – More Performance, As Usual

Unboxing & Walkaround

Unboxing the new Mac Studio is one half getting the new product out of the box, and another half appreciating Apple’s packaging prowess; in any case, it’s a pretty straightforward process if you can spot where the arrows go.

Compared to the last Mac Studio we unboxed, there are some omissions here. There are now less papers, and more importantly, the sticker is no longer present – this is part of the effort that began last year to keep plastics to a minimum. So, the full list goes:

– Braided power cord (Type G socket)
– User guide
– Regulatory notices
– Apple Mac Studio (M4 Max) main unit

Note that with the given items from this box you won’t be able to get Mac Studio up and running immediately, as you’ll still need to bring your own monitor, peripherals, and the associated cables. In our case, Apple provided all the necessary hardware for us (including Studio Display, Magic Trackpad, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Mouse) to conduct this review.

The design of the Mac Studio remain unchanged since the last time we reviewed one, which means you have a pair of user-facing USB-C ports and an SD card slot, while the rest of the I/O stays in the rear end. Internally, the Thunderbolt ports are now upgraded to support the new Thunderbolt 5 standard, which provides faster throughputs (up to 120Gbps). Down bottom, you’ll find a Kensington lock slot along with the circular feet surrounded by perforations responsible for pulling fresh air to cool down the internals.

Specifications

Apple Mac Studio (M4 Max)

*Note: Base specifications listed for M4 Max & M3 Ultra models available on product specification page – the table below lists the specifications as seen in our unit.

System-on-a-Chip (SoC)	Apple Silicon M4 Max CPU: 16-core (12P+4E) GPU: 40-core (5120 ALUs) NPU: 16-core (38 TOPS)
RAM	128GB LPDDR5X-8533 unified memory 546GB/s bandwidth
Storage	4TB proprietary PCIe SSD
Display Outputs	Max. 5 external displays in following configurations: – 4x 6K60 over Thunderbolt + 1x 4K144 over HDMI, or – 2x 6K60 over Thunderbolt + 1x 8K60 or 4K240 over HDMI
Audio	Onboard speakers 3.5mm headphone jack with high-impedance headphones support
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3
I/O	Front: 2x USB-C (10Gbps) UHS-II SDXC card slot Rear: 4x Thunderbolt 5 (120Gbps, DisplayPort Alt Mode, USB4/USB3 protocol support) 1x 10GbE LAN 2x USB-A (5Gbps) 1x HDMI 1x 3.5mm combo jack
Operating System	macOS Sequoia 15.4
Dimensions	197 x 197 x 95 mm
Weight	2.74kg

Performance

SSD

Starting with the macOS equivalent of disk speed tests, we can see the propriety SSD used by this Mac Studio runs on the PCIe 4.0 protocol, more than enough to handle all the video file formats as listed by the Blackmagic application. It is slightly faster than the one we tested on the M2 Max Mac Studio, although as far as general responsiveness is concerned, there’s no observable difference between the two.

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024	Score
GPU	16094
CPU Multi-core	2085
CPU Single-core	190

Some context for these scores: the M4 Max’s GPU performance is around the same performance as an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, whereas the CPU multi-core performance is on the same ballpark of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (M4’s single-core performance is far and ahead beyond anything PC has to offer, however). Both being top-tier hardware in recent years, and all of these performance is done through a chip that consumes no more than 80W (reportedly), and produces very little fan noise on the machine while doing so.

Geekbench 6

We also compared the Geekbench 6’s numbers against some of the previous Apple machines for comparison. The M4 Max is 79% faster in multi-core performance against the M2 Max, and 23% faster than the M3 Max found in the MacBook Pro. For single-core metrics, the lead is 52% and 28% respectively. We also tested the GPU performance on this benchmarking tool with the results shown above.

Novabench

In the case of Novabench 5 though, we observe a fairly miniscule jump from M3 Max to M4 Max; meanwhile, comparing M2 Max to M4 Max shows a big jump, particularly in the CPU department (as we’ve just seen in GB6’s results). Oddly, despite the M4 Max in our case having 10 more GPU cores over the M3 Max, the uplift is much smaller than we’d expect with 25% increase in cores.

V-Ray & Blender

3D Rendering Benchmarks	Score (CPU)	Score (GPU)
V-Ray	33437 (vsamples)	1899 (vpaths)
Blender 4.4.0 – Monster	237	2514
Blender 4.4.0 – Junkshop	152	1365
Blender 4.4.0 – Classroom	104	1340

Above is the results tested on 3D rendering applications like V-Ray and Blender for reference. Since both benchmarks have open database, we also looked at how it fares against other chips – V-Ray’s score is only comparable to RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, likely due to the limitation of the software using CUDA (which greatly favors NVIDIA GPUs); as for Blender, it aligns with our observation earlier on with Cinebench GPU test, matching performance with RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 4070 desktop GPU.

Geekbench AI

For the last synthetic test we look at Geekbench AI, and here’s the takeaway: the NPU (Apple calls it Neural Engine) is much better in terms of half-precision and quantized score, whereas M4 Max’s GPU performs better on single-precision score.

Gaming

For this occasion, Apple provided us with a copy of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to see how well the new M4 Max chip fare in gaming, since it’s fairly well-established by now that Apple’s M-series silicon has fairly potent GPUs to handle complex creative workloads. So how was it? Allow me to start by saying that it’s a mixed bag, and here’s why.

On paper, the GPU onboard M4 Max is no slouch – at least based on the Cinebench GPU scores, it sits the ballpark of RTX 4080 Laptop GPUs, or RTX 4070 in the context of desktop equivalents. We looked at what the aforementioned cards would sit in AC Shadow’s system requirements, and both cards are generally targeting 1440p 60FPS; based on the test results we’ve collected below, the M4 Max can only do roughly half of that (it does align with the numbers listed by Ubisoft, though).

While upscaling certainly helps, the game’s default settings took the upscaling a bit to the extreme side by using the most performance-biased preset by setting the input resolution as low as 25% (although you could go as low as 10%). Achieving 60FPS on this machine will be, frankly speaking, difficult – unless you’re willing to trade a lot of graphical fidelity for smoothness. Since Apple’s Metal API is not yet supporting frame generation technologies like the “Big Three” over at the PC side, resolution upscaling is the only way to provide noticeable framerate uplifts.

We’re not entirely sure what’s the reason behind the performance discrepancies, as Ubisoft stated that this game is “natively ported” to macOS; exactly how much x86-to-ARM or DirectX-to-Metal translations contributed to the performance loss is unclear. In any case, below is the full list of settings we used and the resulting framerates:

Display Resolution / Graphics Quality	MetalFX Upscaling Preset	Average FPS	1% Low FPS
5120 x 2880 (Native) Ultra High	Native AA	13	10
5120 x 2880 (Native) Ultra High	Custom 38% (Approx. 1920 x 1080)	21	16
5120 x 2880 (Native) High	Custom 38% (Approx. 1920 x 1080)	27	20
5120 x 2880 (Native) Low	Custom 38% (Approx. 1920 x 1080)	31	22
5120 x 2880 (Native) High	Performance (w/ Dynamic Resolution) Min. 25% (1280 x 720) Max. 50% (2560 x 1440)	32	26
2560 x 1440 High	Native AA	38	29
2560 x 1440 Low	Native AA	44	29
2560 x 1440 High	Performance (w/ Dynamic Resolution) Min. 25% (640 x 360) Max. 50% (1280 x 720)	52	36
2560 x 1440 Low	Performance (w/ Dynamic Resolution) Min. 25% (640 x 360) Max. 50% (1280 x 720)	64	50
1920 x 1080 High	Native AA	47	29
1920 x 1080 Low	Native AA	55	38
1920 x 1080 High	Performance (w/ Dynamic Resolution) Min. 25% (480 x 270) Max. 50% (960 x 540)	56	42
1920 x 1080 Low	Performance (w/ Dynamic Resolution) Min. 25% (480 x 270) Max. 50% (960 x 540)	69	56

The Good

Unsurprisingly, with the Mac Studio retaining the same design coupled with standard upgrades, all the good things it’s known for before is once again the M4 Max Mac Studio’s strengths. That means you get the impressive power efficiency and low noise operation as before, and the same compact footprint capable of sitting below a monitor with the clean aesthetics that Apple products are long known for.

Besides that, M4 Max does bring big upgrades for performance – now with 128GB memory capacity to work with, the machine can handle workstation-level projects, along with Thunderbolt 5 support that greatly boosts the I/O bandwidth on compatible accessories (such as NAS devices). Besides the large RAM capacity, the upgrades on CPU and GPU gives it plenty of performance to work with.

The Bad

Equally, with the same design also carry over some of the downsides. Like before, you are not upgrading anything once you have this machine with you – what you selected on the store page is what you’ll get until you got to the next upgrade cycle. On that subject, RAM and SSD options are still extremely expensive compared to market pricing, while the RAM pricing can be somewhat justified due to its highly integrated nature, the SSD pricing is simply inexcusable with its price several times higher than a standard M.2 equivalent.

Oddly, Wi-Fi 7 is not present on Apple’s latest chip so you’re only getting Wi-Fi 6E connectivity in this case; and if you’re looking for the Mac Studio with most multi-core grunt, the M3 Ultra version – launched alongside M4 Max – is likely the better choice (at a small cost of single-core performance due to it being a generation older), leaving the M4 Max sitting in a slightly sub-optimal spot in terms of value. Finally, as much as M4 Max GPU is capable, gaming on a Mac is still a hit-or-miss, and performance is not always guaranteed.

Verdict

Now, if you’re considering a Mac Studio by this point, work is likely the biggest reason behind your upcoming purchase. At its most bare-bones form, the M4 Max Mac Studio starts at RM8,999, but you only get a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB unified RAM and 512GB SSD storage; our configuration here with the 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 128GB RAM and 4TB SSD will set you back for RM20,474, with the RAM and SSD upgrades bearing the brunt of the cost.

Apple has always put massive upcharges for RAM and SSD-related upgrades, and it’s no different this time; with none of these components upgradable, be sure to choose them carefully. (I also highly recommend saving that SSD cost for a dedicated NAS instead.) That said, if you really want to go ham on the multi-core performance, there is the M3 Ultra option that gives the most firepower available to you. Just try not to max out all the storage and RAM options because they account for half of the configuration’s insane RM60,000+ price.

Our special thanks to Apple Malaysia for providing the Mac Studio (M4 Max) for this review.