New Mac Studio (M1 Max)

[mac57]

Hi All, it has been many years since I posted here, with my deep involvement in Mac Forums ending in mid 2008 when I was hit with a crushing divorce. That is all long since behind me now and my fascination with Macs has come roaring back. My major focus has been vintage Macs (I author the "Quadras, Cubes and G5s" vintage Mac blog) and my somewhat unruly collection of the same.

Until just yesterday, my "daily driver" has been a 2008 Mac Pro, a truly fine machine. However, 14 years after its glory days, it struggles mightily when visiting many web sites and when opening many HTML-heavy emails. I finally decided the time was right to treat myself to a new Mac and yesterday I took delivery of a new Mac Studio, spec'd with the M1 Max SOC, 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage.

It has been many years since I drove a "state of the art" Mac, and I am looking very forward to diving into this new machine and learning all that it can do. One thing I can say right away... macOS sure looks different these days!

Since this is a hardware oriented forum, I will also mention to any other Mac Studio fans that the square dimensions of the Mac Studio perfectly match those of the famous G4 Cube (I have one in my collection and checked!). Both are 7 3/4 inches square! I am certain that this is no mistake!

Anyway, as I learn Mac Studio specific tips and tricks, I will share them here, and if you have any that you would like to share, I would love to see them!

It is good to be back!

 

[pigoo3]

Hello mac57. Great to see ya...and a big welcome back to Mac-Forums!

Congrats on the new Mac Studio!!! I'm still tryin to scrape together the dough to get one (I'll keep working on it...maybe it will all come together).

I also have two 2008 Mac Pro's that I can see from where I'm sitting...also a 2010 Mac Pro...and most recently I purchased a 2012 Mac Pro (great deal for $150 bucks)!

I also have a Mac Cube in my collection (very cool little computer)...except the external Mac Cube power supply is humongous!

Yes the Mac Studio does remind me of the Mac Cube!

Nick

 

[Rod]

Welcome back Mac57, wow, your new purchase must be a bit like trading in your Ford Falcon for a Toyota Camry. Still a car but that's where the similarity ends.
I have to admit a little jealousy but I still prefer the portability of my new 14" M1 MBP. Compared to the 9 other apple devices we own it's the one that is a pure pleasure to use every day.

 

[Groovetube]

I bet it’s a beast. I have the 16 M1max 32 and it’s ridiculously fast

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I have the same Mac Studio, except with the 500 GB storage since I have enough external storage and didn't want to pay extra for that.

That's quite an upgrade for you and even for me jumping from a 6-core Mac Mini. This thing is absolutely amazing.

Enjoy!

 

[mac57]

Thanks all. It is good to be back and I am loving this new machine. It is SO fast! I am STILL fighting to increase the default font size to something that is not microscopically small, but that is a problem I think I am close to beating. The long forgotten Tinkertool (TinkerTool: Description) appears to be able to adjust most of the fonts. I will let everyone know once I have. ...ahem... tinkered with it!

 

[pigoo3]

I am STILL fighting to increase the default font size to something that is not microscopically small, but that is a problem I think I am close to beating.

Are you talking on the display attached to your Mac Studio?

If so...what display do you have...is it a 4k display?

If a 4k display...if text is too small...could be the resolution setting for the display. Those 4k displays have a humongous native resolution...which can definitely make text very small.

Nick

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...I am STILL fighting to increase the default font size to something that is not microscopically small...

Check out:

BetterDisplay/Pro (free/$15)
https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDummy
(This utility gives you more resolution choices than normal, so that hopefully you can find the perfect one. Compatible with Apple Silicon.)

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Check out:

BetterDisplay/Pro (free/$15)
GitHub - waydabber/BetterDisplay: Unlock your displays on your Mac! Smooth scaling, HiDPI unlock, XDR/HDR extra brightness upscale, DDC, brightness and dimming, dummy displays, PIP and lots more!
(This utility gives you more resolution choices than normal, so that hopefully you can find the perfect one. Compatible with Apple Silicon.)

Another good alternative (not free but is cheap at $7) is Displays. It has a lot of handy features, not the least of which is a quick selection of one's choice of display resolutions (you can filter the list to show only what you desire). BetterDisplay's slider to do something similar is pretty nifty though. And as a side note... the BetterDisplay developer also has another app, MonitorControl, that is a GREAT piece of software for users with 3rd party displays. It lets you control your display with the Mac keyboard controls as if it was a native display.

 

[mac57]

GREAT! Thanks Randy and Lifeisabeach! I will try out all three of these and see how I fare. Thanks again!

 

[mac57]

Wow! That is all, just wow! Better Display is amazing. Thanks Randy! When I try just changing the resolution of my display to something lower and non-native, the result is observably inferior... fuzzy, lacking the sharpness of the native resolution and frankly just unpleasant to look at. When I tried Better Display, created a dummy that matched my display and then mirrored the dummy onto my display, suddenly I could continuously scale my display to any arbitrary size I wanted and it simply scaled as requested, remaining crisp and clear the whole way - just amazing!

Thus I am cautious - this feels like magic! Call me a cynic, but nothing in life is free. How is Better Display accomplishing this magic? It must exact a heavy performance penalty or some other sort of penalty on the machine. Does anyone know? I went to the developer website, but there is no additional documentation I could find. There is a link to a discussion group of some sort, but I hate to join that just to ask "negative" questions.

I would be interested in any experience anyone might have to offer. Thanks!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

...Thus I am cautious - this feels like magic! Call me a cynic, but nothing in life is free. How is Better Display accomplishing this magic? It must exact a heavy performance penalty or some other sort of penalty on the machine...

You've lowered the resolution your display is running at, if anything your Mac's performance will probably be better. Have a look at:

This M1 Mac display hack is a must for 1440p monitors

I think that you can safely allow yourself to be happy! But I know how you feel. There are a couple of little programs for the Mac that are so wonderful that I use them all the time, yet they are reasonably priced, and I'm constantly amazed by them. For instance SpamSieve, aText, CyberDuck, and EasyFind.

 

[mac57]

Just to close this topic, I was so impressed with BetterDisplay that I paid the incredibly reasonable $15 registration fee and got the "Pro" version of it. Using it, I changed the resolution slider to 90% and my "tiny fonts" problem is completely resolved. I cannot recommend this program enough for people with 1440p monitors (2560x1440 resolution). For the record, I have no commercial association with the author/company behind BetterDisplay. I am just a very satisfied customer.

I will note that BetterDisplay does NOT lower the resolution of the monitor - it simply scales the output that is displayed on the monitor at its native resolution. My monitors both continue to report that they are being driven at 2460x1440. This is how mac OS itself does Retina Display apparently, and hence the result is completely seamless: clear, crisp... everything you want, just at a size you can live with. My hat is off to the author of this program, and to Randy B Singer for pointing it out to me - thanks Randy!

 

[pigoo3]

Thanks for the real-world experience info on the BetterDisplay App.

Not sure if it was mentioned in the thread...but have you tried displaying aaa available resolutions already builtin within the macOS Display Control Panel (within System Preferences)?

If not...here's how to do it:

Change your Mac display’s resolution

On your Mac, make text and objects appear larger or smaller on your screen by changing your display’s resolution.

support.apple.com

Nick