Thank you for this great info, Lee. Im 71 years old and have been shooting my own video and stills for my farm and ranch brokerage business for the last 20 years. I currently use a 2019 iMac 27in with Intel chip. It is showing its age with FCPX and Lightroom. After watching your video I ordered a maxed-out Mini Pro for what will likely be my last computer. Also ordered an Apple Studio Display. Thanks again for these great tests. Old dog…new tricks. And it’s not always easy. Thank you. Jim in Oregon
Exactly...it´s very refreshing to see testing in real world usage. Not just those tech reviewers who use almost identical benchmarks. I mean what is the obsession that every reviewer focuses on export times (video editing, coding...). Usualy you don´t export that often, so your primary concern as a user is probably different
If you had a Studio before, I recommend waiting for the next iteration of that… The M4 Pro is fast (I have one!) but if you want to upgrade it, it’s expensive fast and a Studio refresh is just going to be a much better deal. Don’t forget the Max and Ultra have more media engines for shorter export times…
Thanks for the real world test and not posting endless benchmarks. I have used Mac for 30 years for production work, but the last 7 years has been on a Workstation PC, I’d love to use a Mac for work again, this video has me thinking a Mac Studio M4 Max or Ultra (when released) would be perfect! A high end PC uses so much electricity and generates so much heat in the room, in Australia, I need air conditioning to keep the room cool.
The m1 is just so damn good! Currently using a 64gb m1max.. thinking of upgrading tot he highest spec m4max but I could easily wait until the m6 as these m1 machines are just so good.
It was cool finally getting to meet you last week! This was great. Yeah, after seeing some benchmarks keeping my current setup isn't worth it. The M4 Pro Mac Mini is probably the way to go for me.
FINALLY the review I needed! Thank you nicely done! My use case is waaaay less than yours. 4K video editing with Davinci and Lightroom +Photoshop 48MP photos. I waned a used Ultra M1 Ultra or Max..but now i am on the fence on the Mini.
I’m considering the studio M2 Max as well mainly for capture one and affinity photo. The m4pro is tempting but I think heat and fan noise will degrade the lifetime of the unit.
I just picked up the base model...mostly use for video editing. I think it will still be faster than the Mac mini, at least for video work. how is it holding up? what do you shoot with? I am not he Komodo x 6k. do you edit in 4k or 1080? Thanks, anything else you wanna offer up will be appreciated .
I do think part of the export boost of the Ultra is the extra media encoders. They can share the load and results in faster exports. Typically the CPU and GPU have less of an impact of a straight export because of those hardware media encoders. That helps leave the chip for the effects handling during the export. This is an area that often gets forgotten on the Ultra or max chips. They have more media encoders which help exporting.
Exactly. Plus they use the funny expression "switch to." But what that means is, that you are buying new product for full price and you have to figure out what to do whit the old one (perfectly working and functional). Maybe in US is big enough secondary market to sell it or trade in. But in other regions is the situation different. For example here the recommended trade in price for 2022 M1 Mac studio, is like less than 1/4 (!) of it´s original purchasing price. And possibility to sell it to somebody, is hit or miss (the market for Studios is very small) - just to be able to sell it. For good price it would be even different question. So, in that case, "switching" means paying the full price for M4 and throw your M1 to the trash (unless you find other reasonable use case for it, which only some will have). So in that light, the decision could be even much easier.
Well in my situation I’m leasing it so it would just go back to Apple and I would lease the m4 pro Mac mini. I know that’s only for businesses but you could easily sell the Mac Studio pretty easier here in Toronto. I live in Canada not the US but I assume the market is similar
@@LeeZavitz Oh I see. I was not aware that this model is also possible in case of computers (apple only advertises it here in Phones or tablets). And also if here it is even worth exploring (pricewise) Well, the situation is different, when you live in country which has like whole population only two times of Toronto :-) I just randomly googled how many ads for selling Mac studio on biggest second market portal here I´ll find - and found 3 (and 2 of them were in neighborhood country). I assume all owner of Mac studio in really big area could meet in one elevator 🙂
This is the exact mini setup I'm going to get so thank you for this video, it answered all my questions. Time to say goodbye to my 2017 iMac. Cheers, you got a new sub here.
@@NirHason thank you, can’t wait! Upgraded to the 1TB, just in case. But I’ll most likely use external ssds anyway! ☺️ Didn’t bother upgrading the Ethernet ….. the internet in my area is waaaay too slow anyway 🤣😭
I would like to get an M2 studio soon. I am glad about the new releases bc I think this will help push down prices on older models. I am still working on intel macs. PS I am hearing two mac mins would be better priced than 1 loaded mac mini. (Im going to avoid the mini due to heat.)
Excellent presentation… Us video makers editing pros here in Bangkok doing Advertising vids and music videos for Thai superstars and Media companies, yeah, we appreciate your in-depth knowledge and skill sets that we can learn from.. kudos from technos from Bangkok Hub Tech
Superb insight on real world use for Mac Mini pro. I literally purchase m4 pro with 48gb ram and 512gb SSD for my home desk set up. Also for 4K video editing and photos. I previously owned MBP M3 Max as daily to go editing. Damn great to see what this tiny thing capable of rather than bunch of benchmarks number been throwing around which doesn’t reflect on the real world use. Great review! 👍🏽
I also have the m1 ultra with studio display and I just don't see any reason to take a huge loss on this machine then overpay for the M4 ultra when it comes for a few seconds quicker export time plus I'm fine editing with proxies or half res. After seeing this I may not even start thinking of upgrading until the M6 - M7 Ultra comes out
But dead end if internally you can never upgrade the CPU GPU npu SSD memory ports ever. As we see now a proper desktop not limited by battery and portability needs to have some uogradinility or they are basically out oased in a few years by a made level mini. .st least an external GPU and internal memory upgrades should be possible
The M4 Mini Pro is a beast in sheep’s clothing. I also use Resolve for my own work. The new AI features like the magic mask along with key frames for color grading and some other new features made me upgrade from my old M1 MacBook Pro. Also glad you also threw in the Hasselblad raw files since I have the X1DII but use Affinity Photo 2 for my work. Focus stacking is a great way to test. Great video and thanks.
I just replaced my Mac Studio M2 with the Mac M4 Pro Mini. It renders video at about the same speed, even with 14 fewer GPU cores, but it runs a lot cooler. I assume it is the nanometer technology that reduces the heat. The Apple M4 chip uses second-generation 3-nanometer (3 nm) technology. The Apple M2 chip uses second-generation 5-nanometer (5nm) technology.
although i have the base m4 mac mini from my use case the fan barely turns itself on, even when im on an game using its fan its barely noticeable, its a pretty light fan noise so far from my uses, hope this helps!
exactly the video I was looking for other than I use adobe but just to see someone doing actual editing. I was really falling for the hype thinking my M1 ultra was super slow I see now that its not and I don't even think I am gonna upgrade when the new studio comes out I think I will wait for the M5 chip.
Thinking about upgrading from my macbook 16" 2,3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, to the mac mini m4 pro. I guess the editing speeds in Final Cut and Lightroom should be light years faster?
@@AtomicSummer i'd love to see too lol, ive had my mac mini base spec for a few days and so far its been working wonders, wish i went for the pro though!
This is way more relevant to us creators than almost any benchmark. I'm at my wit's end with my current PC (13900k, RTX 3080, 64GB DDR5). It seems like I run into a work-stopping issue about every 6 weeks. I'm thinking real hard about switching to the new mini.
I switched from a nicely specced pc to the m1 ultra studio with the studio display and 64 gb of ram and I have not thought about my old pc until I read your comment lol. it was a game changer for me. I don't even turn my computer off anymore. I used to have to reboot my pc every few hours
A faster single core is useful (meaning M4 at least, doesn't really matter if it is Pro or Max). I believe In the tests we saw one of the cores was fully utilized, meaning we are doing some operations that do not support multi-core processing (which is the most of them). In fact snappy feeling where you open a window/application, switch between them, execute some operation, - those are mostly single-core operations. I believe M4 should feel snappier than M1, but it is hard to see it in the video (similar to what 120 Hz does). I would definitely not buy M2 Ultra today, it is better to wait the release of M4 Ultra.
Yeah the whole system over all feels more snappy, I was also telling a buddy how nice the AirPod switching is and no Bluetooth issues like I have on the m1 ultra
@@LeeZavitz I used to have a ton of bluetooth issues on my m1 ultra, I got a apple mouse and keyboard and I can't even tell you when the last time is I had a bluetooth issue lol
This video was made for me lol. I am a designer that does web and video too and I have a M1 Ultra Studio. I still love this computer and it's never even given me the slightest bit of stress no matter what I put it through. I'm VERY curious to see what improvement the M4 Pro brings. (Having never had anything beyond my M1 Ultra)
@@BassDad-TV Yeah I reckon my M1 Ultra will be good for my needs for many years to come yet. I'll probably only update it when the OS needs a better CPU or my apps start running sluggish.
Question. Doesn't the "Ultra's" have double the video encoders equaling 4 total compared to two on the Pro and Max chips? Wouldn't that help with rendering?
No, it’s 4x the media engine of the M4 Pro. The Max chips have double what the Pro chips have; and the Ultra chips also double what the Max chips have.
I use my M2 Mac Studio MAX for music production/editing. Even with 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM, it still struggles with some plugins and samples using Digital Performer 11 and UVI Falcon (audio unit plugin). I think an M4 Pro Mac Mini with 14 core chip, 1TB SSD, and 64GB RAM would out perform it. My concerns are not all my plugins are compatible with Mac OS 15 and the machine doesn't have an SD card reader. I see some users have already managed to manufacture solutions for that stupidly located power button. Hopedully, Apple won't make the same mistake with the M4 Mac Studio.
M1 Ultra rendered faster as it has more hardware decoders/encoders in the crystal. As I can see GPU in M4 mini Pro is as fast as M1 Max. But the CPU is faster in M4 mini
I too am waiting, though as someone else said on a different video, it would be nice if us studio users were given a reward for the wait, maybe a new chip first or even more RAMM, TB ports on the front of the Base instead of USBC, more bandwidth on the USB A, something that says thanks for hanging in there graphics core users.
Please can you export one of those Hassleblad files from Photoshop including all the layers to the internal storage and tell me how long it takes and the final file size
The Mac mini handled almost everything. If you don't work and do what it does, the Mac mini can meet all your needs. I can't imagine how powerful the Mac Studio 4M Ultra will be.
ciao Lee, can you do a test on Lightroom?Try to use the tool for remove stuff, the healing brush...i want to understand if you do a lot of correction, lightroom slow down...thanks in advance!!
I don’t really mind it but it’s also why I’m staying with the m1 ultra. It’s nothing like the old days where I use to have to wait 25-30mins to export a 8min video lol
Lee what about editing in Lightroom? Is it snappy? Does it lag? Can you flick through each image in develop mode without delays? Can you editing apply brushes, mask, jump to the next image without any lag?
@@LeeZavitz fair enough. I find what I described to be the most stressful test in real world apart from denoise. I am using windows top spec AMD and this piece of crap lags like crazy and time for me is crucial. Every 10sec in general of lag in each image adds up if you have 1000 images. It's a lot of time! Also the exporting.
Zero noise. If I heard the fans crank up I would have mentioned it. I will say it runs hot to the touch but I think it’s because the power supply is in the top
@@LeeZavitz You’re the first one I’m reading that used the m4 pro chip for exporting heavy footage and the fan didn’t kicked in loudly. That is interesting! Regarding the fact that it’s hot to touch, I don’t really mind about because I’m not going to touch it too often haha. Thanks again for the great video!
@@LeeZavitz I have the Lumix s5IIX and have been thinking about b-raw in it I shoot pro res now but idk if I wanna switch to DP. B-Raw looks sweet though.
What about the heat of the m4pro during this exercise? There are reports popping up from users that say temperatures can reach 95 degrees which I think is not a good thing for electronics. What about Fan noise?
It is impressive that a mac mini can do what a M1 Mac Studio Ultra minus the GPU could do in just 2 years in a smaller footprint. Though it makes sense there's no reason to upgrade yet.
I'm on a MacBook M1 Air, and considering having a more powerful desktop for Davinci and 6K BRAW files editing/grading. Now i can find a barely used Studio M2 max 12/30GPU 32GB RAM for €300 less than a New M4 pro 12/16. What u guys think about compare those two? Thanks in advance!
I am set on getting the M4 Pro Mac Mini with the higher processor and 1TB SSD, but I am torn between selecting 24 GB RAM or 64 GB RAM. I plan to use this machine primarily for Final Cut Pro for 4K video editing and Photoshop. Do you think I need to upgrade the RAM, or would 24 GB suffice for my needs and save me $600?
Yes and no. 24gb is a solid amount when it comes to apple silicon and how it manages ram. You just won’t have a lot of headroom if you want to have large photoshop files or multiple apps open at once.
Double the gpu cores and double the media engine. I don’t think it’s 4x is it? That does really offload a lot from the cpu which I think is why the cpu on both machines is hardly doing anything. Apple designed the perfect soc for video editing
could you test a little bit Temporal Noise Reduction (4-5 frames) on the 4:2:2 footage you had there? In the future i would like to get one of those to do just video editing. I'm on a bonkers 6k computer at the moment but i would like to change it up a bit
Honestly, an M1 Ultra is still a cracked chip. If I had one I'd wait until M5 This is basically Apple Silicon rn, the M4 Generation is a good upgrade from people with an M1/Pro/Max, M2/Pro, or M3. m1 m1p m2 m1m m2p m3 m1u m2m m3p m4 m2u m3m m4p m4m Basically if you have an M1 Ultra, M2 Max/Ultra, or M3 Pro/Max, waiting for M5 would be a better choice
I usually edit footage between 1 minute to 10 minutes, cuts, basic color correction and some animated titles. I really don't think it's too much. Is it worth investing in the M4 pro or would it be ok for a while in the M4 basic? saving that 800$ for the future would be a good idea? P.S. I come from windows with AMD Ryzen 5 2600X and 32 of RAM, 1070 ti 8 gb will the productivity be noticeable?
great vid Lee, would love to see what you think of a MacBook Pro M4 upgrade compared to M1 . ive still got my basic M1 Macbook pro 14" & it is still amazing compared to any previous intel MacBook Pro ive had
M1 Pro MacBook Pro was still good for when I use it traveling but there’s some projects I was working on that kills it fast. Since I don’t use it a lot it was fine. But I just sold it and ordered a base m4 pro. But I upped the ssd 1tb because I found the 512gb to be an issue some times
Great Video Man. How did you run 2 different Macs off of the same external drive? I have a Mac Studio and just bought a Mac Book Pro and would love to put everything on an external drive and switch between the 2 macs
I bought a new m1 ultra for like $2400 a couple of months ago... ouch... but I'm glad to hear that it isn't much of a clear difference in video editing. I do love the small form factor but yeah fuck me. doesn't seem like a good idea to sell it and get a m4 pro. I would be losing money in which seems like a sidegrade. fuck I love how small it is.
I’m not sure. I like VESA mounted monitors because it cleans up space on the desk. but I went with the regular stands because they were in stock at the time I got them haha
@@LeeZavitz Makes sense, yeah i'm thinking i'd like to free up the space under my screens but that means i need to budget for a decent stand as well.. plus i still need some USBA for my audio interface etc, so will need a dock too.... its adding up!! :D
The fans have been silent. If I heard them crank on I would have mentioned it. Even while rendering I never heard them come on. You can feel some airflow under it at the back though. It also felt hot to the touch. But I think it’s cuz the power supply is in the top
Pretty much exactly the same. It’s only when it comes to heavier effects you have to bring timeline resolution to half. And obviously m1 ultra will export it twice as fast. But I mostly care about timeline performance
Both silent, but I will say the Mac mini feels hot when doing work. I think it’s because the power supply is in the top and the whole case gets pretty hot
@@paradoxicalcat7173 i know that, but if the base model handle this same task fine , why buy a pro__? its not like your gonna earn €€ as a youtube on low level by having render time 3 min instead of ex 5 or 10 min.
Thank you for this great info, Lee. Im 71 years old and have been shooting my own video and stills for my farm and ranch brokerage business for the last 20 years. I currently use a 2019 iMac 27in with Intel chip. It is showing its age with FCPX and Lightroom. After watching your video I ordered a maxed-out Mini Pro for what will likely be my last computer. Also ordered an Apple Studio Display. Thanks again for these great tests. Old dog…new tricks. And it’s not always easy. Thank you. Jim in Oregon
It's finally nice to see a video that actually shows editing IRL with the M4. Highly considering upgrading!
Exactly...it´s very refreshing to see testing in real world usage. Not just those tech reviewers who use almost identical benchmarks. I mean what is the obsession that every reviewer focuses on export times (video editing, coding...). Usualy you don´t export that often, so your primary concern as a user is probably different
Great real-world test video and not one useless benchmark in sight 👍 Cheers, Dave.
That was a legit review and comparison mate. Well done. One of the better vids around showing alot of real world edits and speeds etc 🤙
If you had a Studio before, I recommend waiting for the next iteration of that… The M4 Pro is fast (I have one!) but if you want to upgrade it, it’s expensive fast and a Studio refresh is just going to be a much better deal.
Don’t forget the Max and Ultra have more media engines for shorter export times…
Yeah I’m gonna wait for the m4 max studio. I don’t think I’ll need the m4 ultra
I sold my M1 Ultra in late August, anticipating a refresh this fall. I’m glad I made that decision.
Will you be waiting for the M4 Mac Studio, which will almost certainly be higher spec for a similar price to a fully specced out M4 Pro Mac Mini?
@@xray2785 ye ill decide after mac studios comes out
great decision! Think I will do the same while it still holds some good value
@@xray2785 I ended up going all in on the MacBook Pro since I edit on the go and wanted to combine licenses, storage, etc.
How much did you sell it for? I’m thinking of doing the same.
Thanks for the real world test and not posting endless benchmarks. I have used Mac for 30 years for production work, but the last 7 years has been on a Workstation PC, I’d love to use a Mac for work again, this video has me thinking a Mac Studio M4 Max or Ultra (when released) would be perfect! A high end PC uses so much electricity and generates so much heat in the room, in Australia, I need air conditioning to keep the room cool.
The m1 is just so damn good! Currently using a 64gb m1max.. thinking of upgrading tot he highest spec m4max but I could easily wait until the m6 as these m1 machines are just so good.
Well I had 16 gb so I upgraded to the m3 max 128 gb. Future proofed.
@@psysword Yeah 16gb is defo gonna restrain you in 2024 :) Congrats on the upgrade mate.
I'm still rocking a 16" M1 Max MBP with 64GB. I'll only upgrade if the new 120 Hz displays require upgrading.
EXACTLY the review I was looking for, real world usage on DR. Thanks! I’ll be waiting for the Studio Max.
Best review so far on youtube with actual projects. Great job.
It was cool finally getting to meet you last week! This was great. Yeah, after seeing some benchmarks keeping my current setup isn't worth it. The M4 Pro Mac Mini is probably the way to go for me.
FINALLY the review I needed! Thank you nicely done! My use case is waaaay less than yours. 4K video editing with Davinci and Lightroom +Photoshop 48MP photos. I waned a used Ultra M1 Ultra or Max..but now i am on the fence on the Mini.
I have an M2 Max it’s silent, cool and fast. Above all it’s stable. I can easily wait 26/27/28 till upgrading.
yeah to many people fall for marketing and use anything to justify spending on slight upgrades 😅
I’m considering the studio M2 Max as well mainly for capture one and affinity photo. The m4pro is tempting but I think heat and fan noise will degrade the lifetime of the unit.
I just picked up the base model...mostly use for video editing. I think it will still be faster than the Mac mini, at least for video work. how is it holding up? what do you shoot with? I am not he Komodo x 6k. do you edit in 4k or 1080? Thanks, anything else you wanna offer up will be appreciated .
I have the exact same Mac Studio M1 Ultra. So happy with it and can wait for the M4 Ultra for sure. Great video comparison.
I do think part of the export boost of the Ultra is the extra media encoders. They can share the load and results in faster exports. Typically the CPU and GPU have less of an impact of a straight export because of those hardware media encoders. That helps leave the chip for the effects handling during the export.
This is an area that often gets forgotten on the Ultra or max chips. They have more media encoders which help exporting.
Yeah it’s probably a big reason why the cpu isn’t working as hard. Apple created the best soc for video editing
@ one thing is for sure. The M4 Ultra is going to be absolutely insane. Borderline even unnecessary power for most.
This was the best comparison video i've seen. Thank you! I will be keeping my M1 Ultra Studio!
I have the same question, thanks for answering will keep my Studio Ultra with 128 GB ram for a while longer it seems
Exactly. Plus they use the funny expression "switch to." But what that means is, that you are buying new product for full price and you have to figure out what to do whit the old one (perfectly working and functional). Maybe in US is big enough secondary market to sell it or trade in.
But in other regions is the situation different. For example here the recommended trade in price for 2022 M1 Mac studio, is like less than 1/4 (!) of it´s original purchasing price. And possibility to sell it to somebody, is hit or miss (the market for Studios is very small) - just to be able to sell it. For good price it would be even different question.
So, in that case, "switching" means paying the full price for M4 and throw your M1 to the trash (unless you find other reasonable use case for it, which only some will have). So in that light, the decision could be even much easier.
Well in my situation I’m leasing it so it would just go back to Apple and I would lease the m4 pro Mac mini. I know that’s only for businesses but you could easily sell the Mac Studio pretty easier here in Toronto. I live in Canada not the US but I assume the market is similar
@@LeeZavitz Oh I see. I was not aware that this model is also possible in case of computers (apple only advertises it here in Phones or tablets). And also if here it is even worth exploring (pricewise)
Well, the situation is different, when you live in country which has like whole population only two times of Toronto :-) I just randomly googled how many ads for selling Mac studio on biggest second market portal here I´ll find - and found 3 (and 2 of them were in neighborhood country). I assume all owner of Mac studio in really big area could meet in one elevator 🙂
you should remove all cached files on the ultra to do a fair comparison.
This is the exact mini setup I'm going to get so thank you for this video, it answered all my questions. Time to say goodbye to my 2017 iMac. Cheers, you got a new sub here.
Oh dang. This will be a massive upgrade coming from the iMac. Are you going to get a studio display as well?
@@LeeZavitz Nah, unfortunately the mini eats my budget, but maybe going for Dell ultrasharp u2723qe
Just ordered the Mini M4 Pro with upgraded cores and 48gb Ram! …… arrives Monday!! 🙌🙌
Congrats! How much storage and did you upgrade to the 10 gig Eth?
let’s gooo
@@NirHason thank you, can’t wait! Upgraded to the 1TB, just in case. But I’ll most likely use external ssds anyway! ☺️
Didn’t bother upgrading the Ethernet ….. the internet in my area is waaaay too slow anyway 🤣😭
i have Mac Studio M2 Ultra. very powerfull. i love it :)
I would like to get an M2 studio soon. I am glad about the new releases bc I think this will help push down prices on older models. I am still working on intel macs. PS I am hearing two mac mins would be better priced than 1 loaded mac mini. (Im going to avoid the mini due to heat.)
People are still asking for high prices for older Apple M silicone.
those chuckles are a true mark of technology working/impressing.
lol
@@LeeZavitz i pre-ordered base m4 and base m4 pro, you are tempting me to unbox the pro lol
Excellent presentation… Us video makers editing pros here in Bangkok doing Advertising vids and music videos for Thai superstars and Media companies, yeah, we appreciate your in-depth knowledge and skill sets that we can learn from.. kudos from technos from Bangkok Hub Tech
Thank you for this video. Convinced the hell out of me and Im coming from a maxed out iMac 27 from 2019.
That’s the exact spec Mac Mini I bought a week ago, thanks for the video!
Superb insight on real world use for Mac Mini pro. I literally purchase m4 pro with 48gb ram and 512gb SSD for my home desk set up. Also for 4K video editing and photos. I previously owned MBP M3 Max as daily to go editing. Damn great to see what this tiny thing capable of rather than bunch of benchmarks number been throwing around which doesn’t reflect on the real world use. Great review! 👍🏽
Very informative video Lee. Thank you!
Thanks for watching
This was helpful. I'll stick with my M1 Studio Ultra.
That’s my plan for now. I do think that when the m4 studio comes out I’ll probably just go m4 max and not ultra
I also have the m1 ultra with studio display and I just don't see any reason to take a huge loss on this machine then overpay for the M4 ultra when it comes for a few seconds quicker export time plus I'm fine editing with proxies or half res. After seeing this I may not even start thinking of upgrading until the M6 - M7 Ultra comes out
M4 ultra is gonna be a BEAST..
M4 max is a beast so imagine a system with 2 of them in it 👀
But dead end if internally you can never upgrade the CPU GPU npu SSD memory ports ever.
As we see now a proper desktop not limited by battery and portability needs to have some uogradinility or they are basically out oased in a few years by a made level mini.
.st least an external GPU and internal memory upgrades should be possible
The M4 Mini Pro is a beast in sheep’s clothing. I also use Resolve for my own work. The new AI features like the magic mask along with key frames for color grading and some other new features made me upgrade from my old M1 MacBook Pro.
Also glad you also threw in the Hasselblad raw files since I have the X1DII but use Affinity Photo 2 for my work. Focus stacking is a great way to test. Great video and thanks.
Great vid; you answered a few questions for me 🙂🙂
Just wait for the M4 Studio.
Yep
Exactly right
It’ll probably only have the m4 ultra
That thing will nuke people’s brains out
Rumour mill suggests it I’ll be god chip instead of two max chips and that this may be the year of the m4 extreme… which would be two ultras 😳
I just replaced my Mac Studio M2 with the Mac M4 Pro Mini. It renders video at about the same speed, even with 14 fewer GPU cores, but it runs a lot cooler. I assume it is the nanometer technology that reduces the heat.
The Apple M4 chip uses second-generation 3-nanometer (3 nm) technology.
The Apple M2 chip uses second-generation 5-nanometer (5nm) technology.
How bad is the fan noise? 🙏🏻
although i have the base m4 mac mini from my use case the fan barely turns itself on, even when im on an game using its fan its barely noticeable, its a pretty light fan noise so far from my uses, hope this helps!
cheers mate. that's the kind of video i was waiting for. :)
exactly the video I was looking for other than I use adobe but just to see someone doing actual editing. I was really falling for the hype thinking my M1 ultra was super slow I see now that its not and I don't even think I am gonna upgrade when the new studio comes out I think I will wait for the M5 chip.
Great review of the machine capabilities. Thanks
Thinking about upgrading from my macbook 16" 2,3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4, to the mac mini m4 pro. I guess the editing speeds in Final Cut and Lightroom should be light years faster?
Please record yourself when you Export/Render it, i wanted to see your expression knowing how big the gap was.
@@PemburuJandazs estimated delivery date 6th of december.. you´ll have to wait a couple of days ;D
@@AtomicSummer i'd love to see too lol, ive had my mac mini base spec for a few days and so far its been working wonders, wish i went for the pro though!
@ i can wait.
@@somecringeuwu3928 the price Gap is insane thooo
Memory and memory nandwidth
M1 ultra had a major bandwidth bug.
Thank you for this video .. looks like the perfect upgrade for my old MacBook Pro ..
great review!
This is way more relevant to us creators than almost any benchmark. I'm at my wit's end with my current PC (13900k, RTX 3080, 64GB DDR5). It seems like I run into a work-stopping issue about every 6 weeks. I'm thinking real hard about switching to the new mini.
I switched from a nicely specced pc to the m1 ultra studio with the studio display and 64 gb of ram and I have not thought about my old pc until I read your comment lol. it was a game changer for me. I don't even turn my computer off anymore. I used to have to reboot my pc every few hours
@@BassDad-TV I knew I wasn't the only one. Now I'm just wondering if I can wait for an M4 Studio.
@Lee Zavitz Thank you so much - finally I found a UA-camr showing me real-time playback and real-time render speeds happening!
Yeah benchmark bar graphs don’t tell the whole story.
@@LeeZavitz Exactly :)
Great comparison as I was really intrigued how the M4 pro would stack up against the m1's 🙏
Awesome test!
def want to see 2 x m4 pro 64b cluster via tb5 vs mac studio m2 max 64gb as they are more similar priced. who wins the render race there.
Can you cluster two mac mini's to divide workload between them?
A faster single core is useful (meaning M4 at least, doesn't really matter if it is Pro or Max). I believe In the tests we saw one of the cores was fully utilized, meaning we are doing some operations that do not support multi-core processing (which is the most of them). In fact snappy feeling where you open a window/application, switch between them, execute some operation, - those are mostly single-core operations. I believe M4 should feel snappier than M1, but it is hard to see it in the video (similar to what 120 Hz does). I would definitely not buy M2 Ultra today, it is better to wait the release of M4 Ultra.
Yeah the whole system over all feels more snappy, I was also telling a buddy how nice the AirPod switching is and no Bluetooth issues like I have on the m1 ultra
@@LeeZavitz I used to have a ton of bluetooth issues on my m1 ultra, I got a apple mouse and keyboard and I can't even tell you when the last time is I had a bluetooth issue lol
Many thanks!
This video is I expected!
This video was made for me lol. I am a designer that does web and video too and I have a M1 Ultra Studio. I still love this computer and it's never even given me the slightest bit of stress no matter what I put it through. I'm VERY curious to see what improvement the M4 Pro brings. (Having never had anything beyond my M1 Ultra)
sounds like me, im gonna stick with my M1 ultra a while longer though
@@BassDad-TV Yeah I reckon my M1 Ultra will be good for my needs for many years to come yet. I'll probably only update it when the OS needs a better CPU or my apps start running sluggish.
thank you for real world testing!!!
Question. Doesn't the "Ultra's" have double the video encoders equaling 4 total compared to two on the Pro and Max chips? Wouldn't that help with rendering?
Double the neural engines as well, but on the M1 ultra they aren’t used :(
No, it’s 4x the media engine of the M4 Pro. The Max chips have double what the Pro chips have; and the Ultra chips also double what the Max chips have.
How about the fans? M4mini have good airflow like M Studio?
I use my M2 Mac Studio MAX for music production/editing. Even with 512GB SSD and 32GB RAM, it still struggles with some plugins and samples using Digital Performer 11 and UVI Falcon (audio unit plugin). I think an M4 Pro Mac Mini with 14 core chip, 1TB SSD, and 64GB RAM would out perform it. My concerns are not all my plugins are compatible with Mac OS 15 and the machine doesn't have an SD card reader. I see some users have already managed to manufacture solutions for that stupidly located power button. Hopedully, Apple won't make the same mistake with the M4 Mac Studio.
M1 Ultra rendered faster as it has more hardware decoders/encoders in the crystal. As I can see GPU in M4 mini Pro is as fast as M1 Max.
But the CPU is faster in M4 mini
I too am waiting, though as someone else said on a different video, it would be nice if us studio users were given a reward for the wait, maybe a new chip first or even more RAMM, TB ports on the front of the Base instead of USBC, more bandwidth on the USB A, something that says thanks for hanging in there graphics core users.
Please can you export one of those Hassleblad files from Photoshop including all the layers
to the internal storage and tell me how long it takes and the final file size
We were In exactly the same situation as you and made the exact same decision for the same reasons.
The Mac mini handled almost everything. If you don't work and do what it does, the Mac mini can meet all your needs. I can't imagine how powerful the Mac Studio 4M Ultra will be.
ciao Lee, can you do a test on Lightroom?Try to use the tool for remove stuff, the healing brush...i want to understand if you do a lot of correction, lightroom slow down...thanks in advance!!
It rips in Lightroom. I just wanted to show things I knew would be harder for it. Lightroom is a breeze on it
'I spent all this money on my m1 Ultra... so yea, I would still choose the Ultra - " 😂
does actually feel "snappier" than the m1 ultra though? I have an m1 ultra and don't notice anything not being fast as possible.
I don’t mind the extra “2min” when exporting. For me that is, spending triple the amount for 2min here or there isn’t worth it.
I don’t really mind it but it’s also why I’m staying with the m1 ultra. It’s nothing like the old days where I use to have to wait 25-30mins to export a 8min video lol
And what about the fan noises difference?
Basically never heard the fan kick in on the Mac mini so I don’t know. And if it was on it was not audible at all
Lee what about editing in Lightroom? Is it snappy? Does it lag? Can you flick through each image in develop mode without delays? Can you editing apply brushes, mask, jump to the next image without any lag?
Lightroom is nothing to it. That’s why I didn’t show it. I only wanted to show stuff that really would really tax it and make it work hard
@@LeeZavitz fair enough. I find what I described to be the most stressful test in real world apart from denoise. I am using windows top spec AMD and this piece of crap lags like crazy and time for me is crucial. Every 10sec in general of lag in each image adds up if you have 1000 images. It's a lot of time! Also the exporting.
Great review, thank you for making this! Can you please elaborate on how noisy the mini was while exporting, it’s annoying?
Zero noise. If I heard the fans crank up I would have mentioned it. I will say it runs hot to the touch but I think it’s because the power supply is in the top
@@LeeZavitz You’re the first one I’m reading that used the m4 pro chip for exporting heavy footage and the fan didn’t kicked in loudly. That is interesting! Regarding the fact that it’s hot to touch, I don’t really mind about because I’m not going to touch it too often haha. Thanks again for the great video!
Wow!!!! That Mac mini handled that Red Raw Project like a champ!
When you shoot with your Red, do you shoot in LQ, MQ, or HQ?
MQ for that type of stuff. I don’t have the Red Komodo anymore but I did just get a BM Pyxis. So I’ll have some Braw to try out on it as well
@@LeeZavitz Oh nice!!!!! Will you be making any reviews for the Pyxis?
@@LeeZavitz I have the Lumix s5IIX and have been thinking about b-raw in it I shoot pro res now but idk if I wanna switch to DP. B-Raw looks sweet though.
What about the heat of the m4pro during this exercise? There are reports popping up from users that say temperatures can reach 95 degrees which I think is not a good thing for electronics.
What about Fan noise?
zero fan noise, but the unit itself was hot to the touch. The power supply is in the top so it makes sense it was hot on the top.
@ thanks for info. Assuming this heat is only during extreme testing conditions. Right?
@@LeeZavitzI will be using the m4pro for capture one mainly.
I ordered the version with 64gb and 1Tb to make it future proof for at least 10 years. 😊
Great review...
It is impressive that a mac mini can do what a M1 Mac Studio Ultra minus the GPU could do in just 2 years in a smaller footprint. Though it makes sense there's no reason to upgrade yet.
I'm on a MacBook M1 Air, and considering having a more powerful desktop for Davinci and 6K BRAW files editing/grading. Now i can find a barely used Studio M2 max 12/30GPU 32GB RAM for €300 less than a New M4 pro 12/16. What u guys think about compare those two? Thanks in advance!
I am set on getting the M4 Pro Mac Mini with the higher processor and 1TB SSD, but I am torn between selecting 24 GB RAM or 64 GB RAM. I plan to use this machine primarily for Final Cut Pro for 4K video editing and Photoshop. Do you think I need to upgrade the RAM, or would 24 GB suffice for my needs and save me $600?
Yes and no. 24gb is a solid amount when it comes to apple silicon and how it manages ram. You just won’t have a lot of headroom if you want to have large photoshop files or multiple apps open at once.
Last year I upgraded to the M2 Max Studio. I’m jealous but will wait another year.
8:43 That’s the media engines, which is four times that of M4 Pro.
Double the gpu cores and double the media engine. I don’t think it’s 4x is it? That does really offload a lot from the cpu which I think is why the cpu on both machines is hardly doing anything. Apple designed the perfect soc for video editing
could you test a little bit Temporal Noise Reduction (4-5 frames) on the 4:2:2 footage you had there?
In the future i would like to get one of those to do just video editing. I'm on a bonkers 6k computer at the moment but i would like to change it up a bit
Honestly, an M1 Ultra is still a cracked chip. If I had one I'd wait until M5
This is basically Apple Silicon rn, the M4 Generation is a good upgrade from people with an M1/Pro/Max, M2/Pro, or M3.
m1
m1p m2
m1m m2p m3
m1u m2m m3p m4
m2u m3m m4p
m4m
Basically if you have an M1 Ultra, M2 Max/Ultra, or M3 Pro/Max, waiting for M5 would be a better choice
completely agree
This saves me a lot of money. I am happy with my M1 Ultra Studio 64GB RAM 20/48 Cores 4TB SSD.
The single core related tasked are slower but anything that needs more gpu power the m1 ultra is still better
I think am ditching my MP 2012 for the macmini
that’s a huge upgrade
Congrats on such a fantastic run for your Mac Pro! More than served its tour of duty. Those things were incredible.
me 2! man the 2012 pros are a helluva machine
Bro Lee... Which one should I get MacBook M4 pro 16 or 14 inch for photo editing....
If you never plug into an external monitor get the 16” if you do use a monitor the 14” is way better for travel imo
I usually edit footage between 1 minute to 10 minutes, cuts, basic color correction and some animated titles. I really don't think it's too much. Is it worth investing in the M4 pro or would it be ok for a while in the M4 basic? saving that 800$ for the future would be a good idea?
P.S. I come from windows with AMD Ryzen 5 2600X and 32 of RAM, 1070 ti 8 gb will the productivity be noticeable?
Have you tried it with the current version of capture one?
great vid Lee, would love to see what you think of a MacBook Pro M4 upgrade compared to M1 .
ive still got my basic M1 Macbook pro 14" & it is still amazing compared to any previous intel MacBook Pro ive had
M1 Pro MacBook Pro was still good for when I use it traveling but there’s some projects I was working on that kills it fast. Since I don’t use it a lot it was fine. But I just sold it and ordered a base m4 pro. But I upped the ssd 1tb because I found the 512gb to be an issue some times
Great Video Man. How did you run 2 different Macs off of the same external drive?
I have a Mac Studio and just bought a Mac Book Pro and would love to put everything on an external drive and switch between the 2 macs
I wasn’t. I just plug and unplug the drive
I have a 2019 iMac 27” and I’m trying to figure out if I should upgrade…
It’s a huge upgrade over any Intel Mac. Even the M1 was haha
@ yeah, I got this last one in march of 2020 just before lockdowns started in earnest…
the new mac mini is so fucking sick
It rips
The power button is not "on the bottom" if thr mini is set on its side, just sayin. Thats how I set mine up. Ensures good cooling airflow as well
I bought a new m1 ultra for like $2400 a couple of months ago... ouch... but I'm glad to hear that it isn't much of a clear difference in video editing. I do love the small form factor but yeah fuck me. doesn't seem like a good idea to sell it and get a m4 pro. I would be losing money in which seems like a sidegrade. fuck I love how small it is.
If you are going to max out the mini M4 pro you might as well wait for the new Studio which will have cooling to make most of the chips.
if you were buying your mac studio displays again, would you still go for the stand or the VESA mount having had them a while?
I’m not sure. I like VESA mounted monitors because it cleans up space on the desk. but I went with the regular stands because they were in stock at the time I got them haha
@@LeeZavitz Makes sense, yeah i'm thinking i'd like to free up the space under my screens but that means i need to budget for a decent stand as well.. plus i still need some USBA for my audio interface etc, so will need a dock too.... its adding up!! :D
How about the thermals? Why nobody is talking about it?
The fans have been silent. If I heard them crank on I would have mentioned it. Even while rendering I never heard them come on. You can feel some airflow under it at the back though. It also felt hot to the touch. But I think it’s cuz the power supply is in the top
The only thing I wanted to know, see was 8k RAW editing compared.
Pretty much exactly the same. It’s only when it comes to heavier effects you have to bring timeline resolution to half. And obviously m1 ultra will export it twice as fast. But I mostly care about timeline performance
How is the fan noise of M4 Pro mini compared to the M1 Ultra Studio?
Both silent, but I will say the Mac mini feels hot when doing work. I think it’s because the power supply is in the top and the whole case gets pretty hot
What specs are you going to do for the MacBook Pro?
Just the base m4 pro 14” but with 1tb ssd
@@LeeZavitz get 16 inch for better cooling
@@LeeZavitz Why not go with the higher powered GPU and more Ram? Honest question. I also edit large file formats.
A bit more of a realistic test ...nice one...
what brand is the red 90 degree thunderbolt on the m1 studio? need this for my ipad beneath the studio display
Very nice. ❤
Veryy nice i just want to see how its work with video editing
Buy two, send your Resolve renders off to the second machine and just keep on editing on the main one 😎
It have 12-Core CPU 16-Core GPU, but its crazy performant gem
the base model can do the same, why need a pro at all for those tasks?
GPU cores. M4 = 10, M4 Pro = 20.
@@paradoxicalcat7173 i know that, but if the base model handle this same task fine , why buy a pro__? its not like your gonna earn €€ as a youtube on low level by having render time 3 min instead of ex 5 or 10 min.
A 2018 Mac can also do the same albeit that it will take 100 times longer
@@rebs4jezus theres reason , and then theres stupid.