Better option for Photoshop - Mac Mini M2Pro or Mac Studio M2Max

Hey @sleepydwarf - thanks also for your feedback. Personnally, if I chose the Mac Studio M2 Max (12/16-core), I would go for the 64GB so it's future-proof. But if the budget is to high for you, 32Gb would be far enough for Photoshop, and 512GB might be enough if you buy an external hard drive ("cheaper" than going for the 1TB internal SSD). But to be honest, if you don't work as a pro, I am pretty sure the Mac Mini M2 Pro (32GB) would be fast enough. If you are planning to do some 3D work, it might be different. As I said, I work every day on Photoshop (freelance concept artist), and some of the files are pretty big (well over 250GB), with lots of layers, and lots of other images opened on my old Mac Pro (late 2013) (3.5 GHz 6-core, 16 GB ram, 250GB SSD) and it is still doing the job fine. I have a OWC Thunderbay 4 (4 disks with thunderbold connexion) for my Data and backup (Time Machine is setup on 1 of those disks) then I run a small external portable SSD with Super Duper! as extra safety. I am still hesitating to buy a new computer as it works fine and it's very stable, it's just that the Mac Pro (late 2013) can't be updated to the latest OS so I am wondering if it might be a good time to upgrade my set up.

The base MacStudio with 32 GB of RAM will definitely out perform the Mini Pro. It has twice the memory bandwidth (400GB/s vs. 200GB/s), higher performance CPU, nearly twice the GPU cores, more IO capability, an order of magnitude of heat management, etc.

And if you boost the RAM of the Mini Pro and get the better pro chip, you're at or beyond the price of a base MacStudio and not really have a better performing machine.

Looking to buy a new computer myself (Mini M2 Pro or Studio M2 Max) as my Mac Pro (Late 2013) needs updating so I thought it good to explore the purchase of a new Mac. And I am alos hesitating between the Mini M2 Pro or Studio M2 Max. But as a professional using Photoshop every day, to be fair, even my old Mac Pro (late 2013) is still doing a great job. My SSD is only 250GB so I have an external OWC Thunderbay with 4 disks (data and backup). I keep my working files on the internal SSD (once finished I move them to the external disk), with my primary scratch disk being an SSD in the Thunderbay (I also have a small external SSD and the internal SSD set in the list of scratch disks in Photoshop preferences). No problem of speed and stability. Of course, you might be working with bigger files than I do but to be honest, the are quite big, with lots of layers.

I checked with IT if I buy a new computer and here are the 2 models they have advised : Mac Mini M2Pro 32GB (ram) or better the Mac Studio M2 Max 64GB (ram). They told me that for the Studio M2 Max you need 64Gb to really see a significant improvement in speed compared to the Mini.

Personnally, as written above, I don't see any problem in saving most of my data externally (although I like to have my working file on the internal SSD).

Good luck.

My philosophy has been, "When in doubt, by the most powerful machine you can afford".

As for cores, many of Adobe functions leverage the GPU more than the CPU for a lot of its operations and the higher the performance of the GPU the better.

sleepydwarf wrote:

Or is it really overkill and I would be able to get away with spending $1000 (AUD) less and getting the 32GB Mac Mini 1 TB SSD with the base M2 Pro chip.

The 'base' Mac mini does not have a M2 Pro chip – just a M2 chip. It also has half as many USB-C (TB4) ports as the M2 Pro Mac mini and the M2 Max Mac Studio.

sleepydwarf wrote:

I didn't express that very well - I'm looking at the M2 Pro 10 core CPU 16 Core GPU (vs M2 Max Studio) - not specced up to 12C CPU/19C GPU. I interpreted is as being the "base" M2 Pro (but not the "base" Mac Mini) - wasn't sure how else to describe it.

OK – just wanted to check.