Scrolling through the video was not an issue. That said, yesterday I did render on a 6 minute UHD 4.2.0 that had numerous masks (not Magic Mask). I think it handles UHD 4.2.0 quite well and in general no spin up of the fans on a 6 minute render. But those users should wait until Apple reveals its Mac Pro with Apple silicon to see how the company will address the GPU demands made by professionals in the field. I am using 16' M1 Max, 32 Core, 64 GB with Davinci Resolve. Professionals whose workflows rely heavily on GPU performance will find that the M1 Ultra with either the 48- or 64-core GPU will offer more brute force than the M1 Max.

There is one workflow situation where you might be better off not investing anything just yet. If you do need to do heavier photo work, however, the higher RAM limits of the Ultra can come in handy. Again, recognize what your workflow demands, and then pick accordingly. If you’re a photo editor, the almost identical single-core performance of both models will mean you’re better off with the cheaper version in terms of value. If you’re heavy into ProRes and video codecs such as H.265, having double the accelerators found in the Ultra will give you great performance gains. Blackmagic today released a new update to its popular video editing software DaVinci Resolve, which is available for multiple platforms including macOS. The multi-core gains speak for themselves–the Ultra is the best of the M1 series. The Mac Studio M1 Ultra can sometimes double the performance of the M1 Max version, depending on your use case.

Davinci resolve m1 max