Probably the most important thing to understand about the M4 Mac Studio is that you don’t need it for video editing. ANY Apple silicon system easily edits any single camera project you care to undertake at any frame size or frame rate.
The gating factor is no longer the computer, but the size and speed of your storage.
Apple M4 Mac mini
So, if you are looking for an economical editing system, I highly recommend the M4 Pro Mac mini, or any M4 MacBook Pro, or the M4 iMac.
NOTE: If you are looking for my advice on how to configure these threee M4 Macs for video editing, read this article.
All that being said, there are still a variety of reasons to consider the Mac Studio for video:
- You are working with video frame sizes 12K or larger
- You are doing extensive multicam editing, for example, more that 20 streams.
- You are doing multicam editing using 8K video or larger; however, my conscience forces me to say that proxies were invented to simplify working with large frame size media.
- You need the fastest possible rendering and exporting however, this will also require very fast SSD storage.
- Video editing is nice, but you really need this for massive still image editing, 3D projects, running AI LLM models locally, medical research, or, well, anything requiring maximum horsepower.
- You can afford the bragging rights of owning a blindingly fast system (I kinda fall into this camp).
As the owner of both an M2 Max Mac Studio and an M4 Pro Mac mini, there isn’t anything that I can imagine that I can’t do with these systems. However, there are advantages to this latest computer:
- Thunderbolt 5 essentially doubles your data throughput, which also increases the maximum number of multicam streams to the limit supported by your NLE
- You can multicam edit all currently available frame size multicam clips
- You can drive more monitors with it
- The M4 Max version is essentially as fast as a Mac Pro
- The M3 Ultra version is currently the fastest Mac system on the planet
- And, besides, it’s just wickedly cool to have a machine that’s so fast, it has the answers before you finish asking your question
Apple M4 Mac Studio\
So, what do I recommend for configuring your system? First, some general thoughts:
- Adding more GPUs provides better performance than adding more CPUs. NLEs are increasingly off-loading rendering to the GPU.
- You don’t need more than 64 GB of RAM for any video edit. Actually, you don’t need more than 48 GB. (You may want more for other computing tasks, but video editing won’t take advantage of more RAM.)
- You don’t need more than 2 TB of internal storage. Why? Because media editing requires massive external storage, which is cheaper than Apple’s prices.
- You really, really don’t need the Ultra for video editing.
All that being said, if you have the money, buy whatever you want. Or, if you are watching your pennies, don’t get the Mac Studio, get the M4 Pro Mac mini. However, assuming you want a system for editing video, have money to spend, want a system optimized for speed, and yet still watch your pennies, here’s what I suggest.
BIG NOTE: The recent imposition of Trump’s tariffs will most likely change these prices. Check Apple’s website for accurate pricing information.
“ECONOMY” CONFIGURATION
Apple M4 Max chip
14-core CPU
32-cor GPU
36 GB RAM
1 TB SSD storage
$2,199.00 (US)
NOTE: If you can afford it, get the 2 TB upgrade. The extra room for work files is worth it.
RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION
Apple M4 Max chip
16-core CPU
40-core GPU
64 GB RAM
2 TB SSD storage
$3,299.00 (US)
NOTE: This is essentially the system I purchased (except using an M2 Max, not M4 Max) but with more GPU cores. Final Cut, Premiere and Resolve increasingly use GPUS for rendering, however none of them fully saturate all CPUs or GPUs during render or export.
SUMMARY
As always, hardware is faster than software. All our NLEs are unable to fully take advantage of all this horsepower. Still, to maximize speeds, you also need to have very fast Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5 SSDs as your main online storage system. (You can use HDDs for longer-term storage and archiving, where speeds are not as critical.)
NOTE: In my most recent performance tests using an M4 Pro Mac mini, no NLE rendered and exported data faster than 1.5 GB/second. While fast, this doesn’t touch the blinding speed of Thunderbolt 3/4 (3 GB/s) or Thunderbolt 5 (6 GB/second). Still, it is generally true that the faster your storage, the faster the performance of your editing system – up to a point.
Keep in mind, also, that the fastest system won’t help you think faster, it will simply execute the tasks you give it faster. Creativity is still constrained by the speed of our imagination. No flashy new hardware will make trimming clips any faster.
14 Responses to Thoughts on Configuring an M4 Mac Studio for Video Editing
I think there’s other reasons for getting a Mac Studio over a Mac Mini, if budget permits. Which is not to say that a Mac Mini is bad. The number of extra ports and the omission of usb-a ports and a SD-card reader on Mac mini are annoying (and yes can be overcome) . The Mac Studio Ultra has thunderbolt ports on the front too. The export times for long projects are significantly shorter on the StudioUltra I believe (just got the M3 Ultra so will test and report). Is the heat dissipation better on a Mac Studio too? We went for 1TB internal SSD as think that is the sweet spot of convenience against price in our use case.
Chris:
You make good points. Keep in mind that only the Ultra chip provides Thunderboth 5 to the front ports. given that no NLE I’ve measured renders or exports media faster than about 1.5-1.7 GB/s, there’s no big speed benefit to spending more money for an Ultra chip.
That is not to say other computing functions. won’t benefit, but video editing does not.It WILL make a difference in file transfers and other OS tasks. It’s a trade off. Spend the money if you have it, but don’t worry about it if you don’t.
As for the mini, I agree, it has fewer ports and no SD card reader. On the other hand, if money is tight, the Mac mini is an amazingly powerful machine.
Larry
The Ultra chip is actually an M3, also in the latest Mac Studio. The M4 apparently doesn’t have the connection lanes for bonding two chips together, as is done with the Ultra versions of the M-chips.
As someone who has used Mac Pros & other “tower” configurations for yeas, I appreciate the fact that Apple is able to bundle so much into a small package. But I’m so used to having a machine with a multitude of ports & one that can also house everything I need internally, figuring out external alternatives to all that just makes my head ache. So much extra clutter…
Been waiting for this write-up! Altho audio production is my main gig & video secondary, I prefer a little extra “oomph” in my computers as I invariable get drawn into trying out heftier apps as they come along to see if they benefit my workflow. I know there’s no real way to future-proof a computer these days, but I always err toward having a little too much than “just enough”. Thank you,Larry!
I currently edit with Resolve on a 2021 24″ M1 iMac and use an OWC Thunderbolt drive for my media. I work with H.264 media (I know that’s not ideal but it is what it is). I work with timelines that go up to 30 minutes and use compositing filters and lots of audio filters. Opening the timeline takes at least 20 to 30 seconds. I’m going to upgrade to either an M4 Max Studio or M3 Ultra Studio with maximum CPU/GPU. For RAM I’ll be choosing at least 128GB. I don’t do much multi-cam editing. Can you recommend which computer will work better for me? Thanks, Larry.
Paul:
If you’ve got the money, spend it. But, that being said:
* The Ultra is way overkill for the work you are doing
* You don’t need more than 64 GB of RAM, for the work you are doing
* The DURATION of a project is never important, what matters are the number of layers and effects
* If it take 20-30 seconds to open the timeline, something is slowing your system.
Before you buy, contact Apple support. This may be a settings issue.
Larry
Paul:
Oh!
The problem may be your storage. If you are in a hard drive that will be the cause of your problems.
Larry
Thanks for the quick reply, Larry. I’m using a OWC 1.0TB Envoy Pro FX Thunderbolt 3 + SSD drive for my media.
Interesting that you say to contact Apple regarding slowness of timeline opening. Where would I even tell them to look?
Also, in case Apple can’t provide the solution is there someone you know who I could hire to troubleshoot the issue with me? I’m not sure if Blackmagic provides that kind of support.
Paul:
My apologies, I forgot you were editing on Resolve, not FCP. Unless the SSD is REALLY full, you should not see a slowdown.
Yes, Blackmagic provides support for Resolve. Get contact information from the Resolve website.
Larry
Hello, Larry! I’m just going to buy a sigma FP camera and shoot with it in cinema DNG 4K. Do you think a Mac studio M4 Max will be enough for me to smoothly play cinema DNG, for editing and color correction cinema DNG.
How long will it be possible to work on cinema DNG in Mac Studio M4 Max? So that it doesn’t overheat
Nurlan:
Smile… if you can’t edit Cinema DNG using an M4 Max Mac Studio, you can’t edit Cinema DNG with anything. It will have the speed you need.
However, before buying the camera, make sure the software you plan to use supports Cinema DNG, that you have color accurate monitors, and that your storage is fast enough to support the frame size, frame rate and codec you plan to use.
Larry
Hello, Larry! I have read your observations on the Mac Studio « economy » and « recommended » configurations. I do a lot of personal, but hefty editing with FCP (multiple layers, filters, several plugins for effects, music and so on. For security reasons I maintained the timeline below an 1 hour, saved it as one video sequence and start another timeline project. Some of the videos are 3 hours in length. At present it is done in HD format. Why? My legacy late 2013 MacBook Pro is on its knees and can no longer be upgraded. Forget 4K or 3D.
Even if I have done exquisite videos, it’s time to enjoy life, speed and a lot less frustration!
I am in the process to buy the Mac Studio with the following configuration:
-> M4 Max chip
-> 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
-> 36GB unified memory
-> 1TB of storage
I need to know if I should get 48GB of unified memory? 4K and 3D to be used but not on a large scale. What about core CPU and core GPU configuration for the above described needs?
Look forward to your valuable input.
Regards, Christian
Christian:
For the work you are doing, the M4 Max with 36 GB of RAM will be stunning. If you want to spend more, get 2 TB of internal storage before you increase RAM.
You can buy more RAM if you want, but it is absolutely not necessary.
Larry