Apple Mac Studio 2023 review - The M2 Max also impresses in a desktop device

Nothing has changed about the Mac Studio's design - which means you will continue to receive a relatively compact desktop computer with a high-quality aluminum case. The corners are rounded and the compact cube is quite heavy, weighing almost 2.8 kg (the M2 Ultra even weighs 3.6 kg) - which, as a result, gives the device a high-quality feel. Its footprint is identical to the Mac Mini but the Mac Studio is, of course, much taller. The computer should fit under most monitors on your desk. The power supply is already integrated into the device and the power cable is nice and long, measuring more than 180 cm.

Its build is, as expected, excellent and the compact cube is also extremely stable. The Mac continues to have no maintenance options, which is a massive disadvantage on a desktop computer. The base model's 32 GB RAM is okay but its internal SSD capacity can only be expanded via external drives after purchasing. 

The Mac Studio offers a whole range of connectivity options including four modern USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. Depending on the chosen configuration, both of the USB-C ports on the front support either USB 3.2 Gen.2 (M2 Max) or USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4 (M2 Ultra). The connectivity options on the front eliminate a point of critique we had about the Mac Mini, as you can now quickly and easily connect accessories. The Mac Studio with the M2 Max supports a maximum of five external displays; models with the M2 Ultra even support up to eight monitors.

The SD card reader on the front almost completely takes in SD cards and could achieve good transfer rates in our test using our reference card (Angelbird AV Pro V60) - about on the same average as the current MacBook Pro 16 M2 Max. We measured peaks of over 200 MB/s.

Apple has fitted the Mac Studio with a standard 10-Gbit/s Ethernet connection. Furthermore, the computer uses the current WLAN module from the current MacBook Pro 16, which, apart from the modern WiFi 6E standard, also supports Bluetooth 5.3. In combination with our reference router from Asus, we measured high and stable transfer rates. We also never had any issues with wireless connection in our test.

The processor part of the M2 Max is the same as the smaller M2 Pro - just its bigger cache can offer slight advantages in certain uses. It has 12 CPU cores in total which are split into three clusters. The efficiency core cluster consists of four cores which can reach a maximum of 2.4 GHz and both performance clusters have four cores each which can reach a maximum of 3.7 GHz. Similar to other Apple products, its maximum TDP is 36 watts and the results we measured are practically the same as on the MacBook Pro 16 M2 Max and the MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro. Our Cinebench R15 multi loop showed that its performance remained completely stable. Its advantage over the old Mac Studio with the M1 Max is 8 % (single-core) and 20 % in multi-core uses, which, aside from the higher clock, is also thanks to both of the additional E-cores. 

The competition from AMD and Intel offer better CPU performance in total but they also use a bit more power. We are talking about mobile processors which are also used in mini PCs. True desktop PCs are, of course, on a completely different performance level but in turn, they also have higher TDP values.

The Mac's system performance is great in everyday use and inputs are implemented immediately. Even complex programs such as DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Photoshop (for which the ARM chips were optimized) run extremely fast and smoothly on the current Apple products. Older apps for Intel Macs can be emulated thanks to Rosetta 2, which also works just fine. Its performance is a little less here than when running native apps.

The base model of the Mac Studio uses the M2 Max SoC with the weaker 30-core GPU but it still offers considerable performance growth compared to the old M1 Max GPU with 24 cores. In the synthetic tests, the new 30-core GPU only came around 30 % ahead of the old 24-core model and was about on par with the old 32-core version. The optional 38 core version is about 20 % faster still. 

We have to continue to rely on emulated games for the gaming benchmarks, as they offer an integrated benchmark. For native games such as Resident Evil Village (which runs completely smoothly in 1080p and with maximum details), we still don't have any way to record the FPS numbers to then evaluate. The results from the emulated games allow us to compare between the Macs but they aren't representative of the computer's full performance when running native games. During the gaming benchmarks, the 30-core version of the M2 Max was able to do better than the old 32-core GPU from the M1 Max and came considerably closer to the current top-of-the-range model with 36 GPU cores.

The Mac Studio uses two fans which transport warm air out of the case. These fans can pretty much never be heard, as even under full CPU/GPU load, we only measured a quiet whirring (25 dB(A)), so just above the ambient noise levels. You can only hear this whirring in an extremely quiet room. When running Resident Evil Village at maximum details, we actually only measured 24 dB(A) and when exporting our YouTube review video, the Mac Studio remained silent. We didn't note any other electrical noises.

Of course, surface temperatures aren't all too important on a desktop computer compared to a laptop but even so, the Mac Studio has nothing to worry about. In everyday use, the case practically remained unchanged and even after our one-hour stress test, we measured a maximum of 38 °C on the top and 42 °C at the fan outlet. These are totally unproblematic temperatures.

The same as on the Mac Mini, Apple has installed one speaker into the Mac Studio, which doesn't even sound too bad. If you don't have any high expectations regarding the sound, then this speaker will be fully sufficient - although, the Mac Studio doesn't stand a chance compared to good laptop sound systems. We would always recommend connecting external speakers.

In our consumption measurements, the new Mac Studio has become a little more frugal in idle mode, but its stand-by consumption of 1.5 watts is a bit high. Even when switched off, the computer still uses 0.63 watts. Under load, you can expect the device to consume 85-90 watts when gaming and about 110 watts in extreme scenarios.