Mac Studio With M1 Ultra Makes a Lot More Sense In Hindsight
Let’s take a look together at why that is
I’m not going to lie to you myself I was initially very sceptical of Mac Studio for its price. I didn’t see its added value enough to make it make sense for me to recommend it to anyone, and then I had an epiphany when I looked at how much of a difference it can make in terms of money saved on energy.
That changed my perspective, and I began to see use cases where such a device would make more than a little sense. In today’s article, we’ll take another look at the Mac Studio and again from a completely different perspective. This time I’ll address why I think this machine makes much more sense in hindsight.
The passage of time
Mac Studio had a release date of March 18. Since then, developers have had time to react with their applications to their existence because, if you remember as well as I do, at least after its release, applications were not properly optimized for this new hardware.
M1 Max had been around for a while on the MacBook Pro, so the cheaper version of Mac Studio with M1 Max didn’t have as many app issues after launch, but the more powerful version with M1 Ultra proved ineffective.
Initially, a lot of reviewers thought it was a hardware issue. It wasn’t until the YouTube channel Max Tech shined a light on the problem that they correctly identified a problem in the software, where there was poor data redistribution against the new architecture. In other words, the processor and graphics card from the M1 Ultra was processing data in blocks instead of continuously.
The funniest part was that Apple, which demonstrated the performance of the new hardware in, for example, FinalCut Pro X, had a different build than was available in the AppStore, so no one who purchased the M1 Ultra could take advantage of its full performance. The first application I noticed where the full power of the M1 Ultra was available as DaVinci Resolve.
Who is M1 Ultra suitable for?
The M1 Ultra “chiplet” represents the best, most powerful, most economical, most efficient, and I could go on and on about what Apple has introduced so far. Since it’s the best stuff on offer, it’s clear that Apple will pay handsomely for it too.
So who is such a device suitable for?
This is a device for professional use, or it may be suitable even when you have, for example, a YouTube channel and you edit a very large number of videos if you need virtualization. You use applications that need a lot of processing or graphics power. You have a budget, and you want the best for yourself.
How would I justify buying the M1 Ultra?
First and foremost, I would be interested in the return on my investment since I am a freelancer and all the HW and SW comes out of my pocket. Therefore, I need to have everything I purchase for my business thought out regarding the return on my investment. A proper desk and chair are essential. I also need to invest money in my personal development to have something to offer my customers and thus raise my value in the market.
I try to choose software that has perpetual licenses. I buy hardware, assuming I will use it for 2 — 4 years. For my purposes, a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra in a basic configuration would suffice from a GPU perspective. Still, I would get a version with expanded unified memory to 128GB and expand the drive to 2TB. So my chosen configuration would come out to $5,199.00. Since it would be a work machine for daily use, I would think about an extended warranty or Apple Care+.
Right at the time of purchase, Apple offers to purchase AppleCare+ for an additional $169.00 for three years, which would be the insurance option I would add. And I’m going to assume that I plan to use this machine for 3 years and then either upgrade or, if everything continues to work, which I’d be surprised if it doesn’t, I’ll merrily keep using this machine at no additional cost. So the purchase of the Mac Studio would total $5,368.00.
Impact on business
Let’s look at the impact such a purchase has on your business.
Mac Studio with M1 Ultra
If I purchase such hardware for my business. My costs associated with it will be $5,368.00. In terms of my business, it will be a 3-year investment, which is 36 months, and that is 1095 days.
$5,368.00 / 3 years = ~$1,789.33/year
$5,368.00 / 36 months = ~$149.11/month
$5,368.00 / 1095 days = ~$4.9/day
The total amount may scare you initially, but if we spread this burden over the days we expect to use the machine, it is not so terrible. So now I come to the fact that I will need to earn less than $5 per day to make such a machine worth buying. It will be $5, so I will reduce the daily rate. At the same time, it will be $5 more that I will need to earn if I want to have the same standard of living.
So the question is, is that a lot?
In the Czech Republic, $5 alone won’t buy you much, so putting it aside daily as a “repayment” of my investment in better hardware than my local competition will theoretically make me able to handle more orders, as I will be able to process my outputs faster, doesn’t seem like much to me. In addition, if this machine brings me, new clients, then I can also consider that what I pay for the machine itself will be returned in the first few months I have it, and then I will just use a great machine that will generate more profits.
Mac Mini M1
For example, when I got the Mac Mini with the M1, I got it in a better configuration (16GB of unified memory and a 512GB drive) with an extended warranty and a 1TB external drive. Thanks to the extended warranty, I have coverage on this machine for 4 years. In total, I paid 40,778 CZK for everything, which at the time of purchase was equivalent to $1,940.42. If I do the same calculation, we can see how I have burdened my daily rate with this purchase.
$1,940.42 / 4 years = ~$485.11/year
$1,940.42 / 48 months = ~$40.43/month
$1,940.42 / 1460 days = ~$1.33/day
I paid $1,940.42 for the mac mini. Still, thanks to this purchase, I got a new project 3 months after buying it purely for M1 architecture, which brought me more than $5k in the first month, so if I should think about it from a Business perspective, then this investment more than paid off as buying this machine brought me a total of $28k so far, if I didn’t have this machine then I would probably lose these projects.
But as it was in the first 3 months… well, I had some work on macOS, and it would have covered approximately ~$500/month, so either way, the entire Mac Mini purely from the income associated with development on macOS would have paid for itself in 4 months.
Yes, this is a distorted idea since I have to pay income tax, value-added tax, social security, and health insurance. Rent, housing, electricity, water, food… But in the context of putting into context how to think about Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, given that I have other income than pure development for macOS, it will be enough for me that there is an assumption that the equipment will pay for itself very quickly.
At the outset, I came up with the question, why does Mac Studio with M1 Ultra make even more sense?
At least, it is a device on which I could get more work done in less time. At the same time, the Mac Mini sometimes runs out of breath, i.e. I have to let it do its thing and work on another machine. This would not happen with the M1 Ultra, which would have enough processing and graphics power to do it, e.g. demanding compiling and leaving me enough space to continue working uninterrupted without having to wait for something to finish or pending between multiple machines.
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