![]() (Spoiler: most of us don’t need it, but there are those for whom it’s an essential tool.) If you need the Mac Pro, you know you need it. Paired with Apple’s $5,000 Pro Display XDR, this is the ultimate workstation for high-value digital creation. You don’t buy a Mac Pro just for the speed, but also for the ability to add copious amounts of RAM (up to a ludicrous 1.5 TB), tons of storage (up to 8 TB), potentially use it with high-speed networking cards, and much more, something you cannot do with the more limited Mac Studio. The Mac Pro with Apple’s Pro Display XDR. In fact, it’s worth wondering at this point whether we’ll even see another Mac Pro, or if the Mac Studio will be its replacement. If you absolutely have to have a fast Intel Mac specifically, then you’ll still want this, but Apple’s new Mac Studio, released in March 2022, is the way to go if you’re a pro. While Apple had promised to transition all its Macs to its own M-series processors in two years, they missed that goal with the Mac Pro. Their Intel Xeon W processors, while fast and boasting many cores, are years-old relics from spring 2019. However, the Mac Pro is now long in the teeth. At $5,999 and up, this was the Rolls Royce of the desktop Mac, and you can configure it to a staggering cost – over $50,000 – if you want it to be lightning-fast, with lots of RAM and SSD storage. You have options at all prices, and in just about all possible form factors.īefore March 2022, I used to say, if money is no object and you need a workhorse, don’t waste too much time. With all of Apple’s product line (except for the behind-schedule Mac Pro) now updated to the company’s own processors, you shouldn’t worry about getting a Mac with an antiquated Intel processor (unless you really need one see below). Perhaps as soon as this year, Apple may announce next-gen M3 processors, and Apple will keep iterating in this direction going forward. There are still two Macs running M1 processors: the less expensive MacBook Air, which is still a bargain at $999, and the Mac Studio, which is due for a refresh soon. They also have more performance cores, and can handle more memory, up to 96 GB. These latest processors have 12-core CPUs and up to 38 GPU cores. And in January 2023, the expected bump to the M2 processor arrived, with the M2 Pro and M2 Max processors. In June 2022, Apple announced the first Macs with the next-generation M2 processor. This processor is made up of two M1 Max processors, using a die-to-die interconnect, providing parallel processing. They come with 8 or 10 cores, plus additional graphic cores, and allow you to add more memory than the first M1 Macs.Īnd in March, 2022, Apple brought out the M1 Ultra, in its then-new Mac Studio. With two models, 14″ and 16″, these are real pro laptops. The second round of M1 Macs – using what Apple calls the M1 Pro and M1 Max processors – focused on the MacBook Pro. Much of the work we do uses just a single core, but demanding tasks use multiple cores working simultaneously. The first M1 models featured a processor with eight cores think of a core as a mini-processor. The speed and power consumption promised was unexpected, and this was borne out in benchmarks and real-world usage. Apple’s initial presentation of these new computers was so stunning that Mac users couldn’t believe what they were seeing. In mid-2022, Apple had transitioned all their Macs but one to these in-house chips. ![]() The biggest change in recent years regarding the choice of new Macs is the release of Macs running Apple’s M series processors, which started in late 2020. In this article, I’m going to help you choose which Mac you need according to your use case. But you might want to use a laptop on your desk as well, connected to an external display. If you want a laptop, you have a choice of two models, with three different screen sizes, and a variety of features and processors. You may need a desktop Mac, and you currently have four options for that type of computer. For some people, it’s a simple choice, but for others, deciding which is the right Mac can be more complex. Apple + Recommended How to choose the right Mac for your use case in 2023Īpple’s Mac product line has changed a lot in the past couple of years, and if you’re looking for a new Mac, you have a number of options to consider.
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