The all-new Mac Studio is now Apple’s most powerful desktop computer, surpassing even the high-end Mac Pro. The Mac Studio also starts at $1,999, substantially less than the $5,999 starting price of the Mac Pro.
So why is the more expensive Mac Pro still in the lineup and should you buy it over the new Mac Studio? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two desktop Macs is best for you.
Contents
Comparing the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro
The Mac Studio and the Mac Pro share some essential features, including a silver aluminum design and up to 8TB of SSD storage. Apple lists these four same features of the two devices:
Similarities
Although these Macs share some features, the two machines are separated by a huge number of differences, including completely different chipsets, memory capacities, selections of ports, and external display capabilities.
Differences
What About the Rumored Apple Silicon Mac Pro?
At its “Peek Performance” event, Apple explicitly teased the launch of a new Mac Pro with Apple silicon, making it clear that the Mac Studio is is not a replacement for the Mac Pro. Apple senior vice president of Hardware Engineering John Ternus went as far as to confirm that there is a Mac Pro coming “another day” to clear up any confusion about the continuance of the Mac Pro product line, and rumors suggest that a new Mac Pro is still expected to be announced in 2022.
The high-end Mac Studio is equipped with the M1 Ultra chip which features a 20-core CPU and up to 64-core GPU. The new Mac Pro is expected to feature an even more powerful chip with 40 CPU cores and up to 128 graphics cores.
The Mac Pro is expected to be announced at some point in 2022, and it could be introduced as early as June, perhaps at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple could preview the machine at the event and then release it later this fall, giving developers some time to prepare software for it.
Final Thoughts
There are two main reasons to buy the Mac Pro over the Mac Studio. The first is for its Intel chip, since some high-level professional applications perform better on native Intel systems despite Rosetta 2.
The second reason is modularity. The Mac Pro features eight PCI Express expansion slots that be used to customize the machine’s hardware for specific needs, such as by adding more storage or graphics cards. The Mac Pro’s modularity also means that it is easier to change and upgrade components over time. The Mac Studio, on the other hand, is a fully integrated machine with no modularity or opportunity to add or change components.
The Mac Pro is also more versatile when it comes to ports, which users can also add via PCI Express slots, and there is support for more external displays.
If these factors are unimportant to you, it will be better to get the Mac Studio. The Mac Studio’s M1 Ultra chip outperforms the 28-core Xeon Mac Pro with the highest-end graphics card, meaning that the Mac Studio is a more powerful machine overall and should be faster for many workflows. Considering that its base model is $4,000 cheaper than the Mac Pro, the Mac Studio the best option for users who do not absolutely need the Mac Pro’s specific advantages.
