Upgrading to new Mac Studio for Video Editing – Need Advice

[Lokesh292371512mjy]

I’m planning to upgrade from a MacBook Air M1 (16GB) to a Mac Studio, but I’m overwhelmed by the options.

I mainly work with video editing and motion graphics in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. My projects involve:

• Editing 4K footage
• Applying multiple effects
• Working with complex motion graphics

I want a system that can handle these tasks smoothly without lag. Which Mac Studio configuration would be the best choice for my workflow? Should I prioritize CPU, GPU, or RAM for the best performance in Adobe apps?

Would appreciate any advice from those with experience!

[nishu_kush]

Moving the post to the Video Hardware community.

Thanks,
Nishu

[Peru Bob]

@Warren Heaton

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

@Lokesh292371512mjy 

Coming from an M1, you’re going to notice a good performance improvement when upgrading to anything.

When it comes to prioritizing CPU, GPU, and RAM, you’ll notice that those choices are not independent when you go to order your Mac Studio or any Apple Silicon-based Mac or iPad.

The amount of RAM you choose determines which chip family you can select, as well as which storage capacity is available. Specific to the Mac Studio, if you choose 32GB of RAM, that’s only available with the 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU M4 Max. Switching to 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB of RAM means upgrading to the 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU M4 Max. Choosing 96GB or 256GB of RAM requires at least the 28-core CPU, 60-core GPU M3 Ultra.

As far as choosing a Mac Studio goes, you could go with a new M3 Ultra Mac Studio, the recently replaced M2 Ultra Mac Studio, or the older M1 Ultra Mac Studio. They’re all going to perform well. That said, I’m not sure there’s been a better base high-end Mac than the Mac Studio M3 Ultra in a very long time. If you happen to be in the United States, Costco sells it online for $3,799, with 90 days to return it if it’s not performing as expected.

When it comes to editing 4K footage and working with complex motion graphics, there are improvements that can be made regardless of hardware. In Premiere Pro, consider using a video format that can serve as its own Preview file, like ProRes, for smoother editing and faster rendering/exporting. For complex motion graphics, consider pre-rendering full-resolution Comp Proxies on the After Effects side (if you’re not already doing so) and using Render and Replace on the Premiere Pro side.

I think you’ll appreciate the detail that ArtIsRight goes into when it comes to Apple desktop performance and making the right upgrade choice:

Ultimate Mac Studio M4 Max, M3 Ultra, Mac Mini M4 Pro, Pro Photo/Video Tests!

[DrTc]

Currently with a mbp 16 M1 Max 32,  struggling with some braw multilayer keying and window within window sequences, I'm seriously looking into the Mac Studio M4 Max 16 core 64GB RAM 1 TB  to get the benefits of the newest gen chips without really breaking the bank with the M3 ultra configs that get scary fast.

[Warren Heaton]

I think you'll see a good performance increase.