Can an M2 Max roll credits at 1080p60?

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Level 1

12 points

Can an M2 Max roll credits at 1080p60?

Can an M2 Max roll credits at 1080p60? 2023 Mac Studio, the less expensive one.

I understand that's a tremendous bitrate, and thought the computer was fast enough, since it has an internal SSD, a card reader connected to the PCIe bus, and most importantly, a hardware encoder for ProRes, H.264, and H.265.

Even with this setup, I am having issues with iMovie 10.4.4 stuttering the motion at the start of a roll, and I suspect it's because I can't save the data fast enough. It rolls smooth for a few seconds, jumps like crazy-- half the screen or more-- and then rolls correctly again for the rest of the roll.

With the hardware encoders, the computer "should" be able to generate the data, but where do I need to be saving it? The internal SSD? A blank memory card? A hard drive connected with Ethernet? I've tried all of the above, and have similar problems.

Do I need to generate that at 1080p30? iMovie doesn't seem to want to make a project 30 fps native on a CPU this fast.

Mac Studio, macOS 26.5

Posted on Jun 21, 2026 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Im1ofaKind Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 21, 2026 10:10 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I got it to work, in ProRes which I was sure would not work, on a hard drive with similar performance characteristics to the posted graph, the 22nd(!) time I rendered the project. If you're curious how:

With the project file on the internal SSD, I had only iMovie and Finder open. I deleted the render files, and saved an H.264 version that I deleted, just to create new render files. Then I saved the output in ProRes, about 3 GB for a 3 minute video which I feel is ridiculous, to a NAS hooked up with 2.5GB ethernet that I guess had a strong enough buffer. This gave better results than doing everything on the SSD.

A popular streaming service stabilized it, and compressed it to about 25MB of H.264, and it's the full quality. I can't tell the difference, except when it plays back smoothly from the streaming service, in a way that my local file doesn't. I'm pleased.

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Answer 2

Jun 21, 2026 6:13 PM in response to Im1ofaKind

if you want to investigate, a really good tool is Black Magic [Disk] Speed Test, a free utility.

Here is some sample output from an old slow drive:

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2026 1:59 PM in response to Im1ofaKind

<< the computer "should" be able to generate the data, but where do I need to be saving it? >>

Many drives are not fast enough to fetch data for the display at the rates required to support full-motion video.

Typically, the only source fast enough is the internal SSD drive.

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Answer 4

Im1ofaKind Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 21, 2026 2:32 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Typically, the only source fast enough is the internal SSD drive.

The only thing fast enough is the SSD? For ProRes, I'm sure of that, but what about H.264? That math is not mathing for me.

VLC claims I've got an average bitrate of 6740; isn't that... 6.74 MB/sec? A DVD player's fast enough. I've tried it in various places, including the internal SSD, and a memory card claiming "100" MB/sec.

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