One of the main reasons that Apple gave at the announcement of Apple Silicon was its frustration with Intel not providing timely updates on its CPUs. And now, four years on, we appear (according to rumour at least, but the clock is definitely ticking) to be in a very similar situation - with Apple being the one to drag its feet. That’s not to say that Apple Silicon isn’t a vast improvement on the Intel offerings that it replaces, but timing issues are beginning to become apparent. It’s making purchasing a Mac much more of a gamble.
What timing issues?!
Is there another system out there that outperforms an M2 Studio? If so, then Apple might have a problem.
If not, then you simply buy the best you can afford at the time you need the system.
Your impatience doesn't drive Apple's product plans.
There is always that someone who is waiting for something better/faster/smaller and never buys anything.
Decades ago, I worked in an electronics store and we had a nice older gentleman as a regular customer. He had the means to buy nice stuff as evidenced by his purchases over the years. Yet, he only purchased inexpensive TVs and eschewed the better performing models. He kept saying he was going to wait for one of those "TVs you can hang on a wall". Well, he passed away a few years before the first plasma sets were introduced, never mind became mainstream. I know he would have been one of the first customers for a plasma.
There definitely are systems that outperform the M2 Ultra, here’s an example:
One of the main reasons that Apple gave at the announcement of Apple Silicon was its frustration with Intel not providing timely updates on its CPUs. And now, four years on, we appear (according to rumour at least, but the clock is definitely ticking) to be in a very similar situation - with Apple being the one to drag its feet. That’s not to say that Apple Silicon isn’t a vast improvement on the Intel offerings that it replaces, but timing issues are beginning to become apparent. It’s making purchasing a Mac much more of a gamble.
What timing issues?!
Is there another system out there that outperforms an M2 Studio? If so, then Apple might have a problem.
If not, then you simply buy the best you can afford at the time you need the system.
Your impatience doesn't drive Apple's product plans.
There is always that someone who is waiting for something better/faster/smaller and never buys anything.
Decades ago, I worked in an electronics store and we had a nice older gentleman as a regular customer. He had the means to buy nice stuff as evidenced by his purchases over the years. Yet, he only purchased inexpensive TVs and eschewed the better performing models. He kept saying he was going to wait for one of those "TVs you can hang on a wall". Well, he passed away a few years before the first plasma sets were introduced, never mind became mainstream. I know he would have been one of the first customers for a plasma.
It’s not impatience - it’s frustration and the inability to afford a Mac Studio. I am still using a mid-2010 27” i7 32GB RAM iMac (running Ventura via OCLP) and its UI is annoyingly slow until you’re actually in an app. The display itself is as nice as it ever was, even if the GPU can’t use METAL.
The distinct probability now of no M3 Pro Mac mini (which I had previously made the decision to wait for) and possibly no M4 mini until late 2025/early 2026 will blow my waiting period out even further. So it’d be back to waiting even longer.
My next cutoff is still the end of March 2025, after which I’m not sure what I’ll do (and I’ve said that before, too). Maybe just keep going on the old iMac until it croaks or Apple pulls the Intel Rosetta sub-system from macOS (that’s coming, sooner rather than later from what I read), whichever comes first.
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https://system76.com/desktops/thelio-major
They are very expensive, but these Linux workstations can be configured with CPUs and GPUs that are much faster than an M2 Ultra.
The distinct probability now of no M3 Pro Mac mini (which I had previously made the decision to wait for) and possibly no M4 mini until
late 2025/early 2026 will blow my waiting period out even further. So it’d be back to waiting even longer.