But you are forgetting you can get the older model on sale, or like me, by a refurb from apple and save lots. My last 2014 MBP was a refurb and had 0 problems. My new laptop is a 13MBP M1. And I love it. I went for 512 and 8 GB because I never used more than 8 on my old one. Never get above 6. But then I don’t run chrome, and don’t have a million tabs open
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
14 inch MacBook Pro - is it overkill?
- Thread starter Misheemee
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I do not think that is required. I watch RAM use closely with third party software and I have used a 16GB M1 mini for a while, with many programs running concurrently, including photo editing, and it swapped memory zero times. Those who recommend more RAM are living in the pre-Apple silicon reality of RAM use. 32GB x86 << 16GB M1. (my 2014 5K iMac was starting to maximize its RAM usage near the end: 32GB whereas my M1 16GB didn’t come close)
The thing is, by most people's standards anything with an M1 will be overkill. These computers are just on another level.
With your use case, I can certainly not blame you for going with the 14" MBP if you can afford one. It sounds like it has all the features you want and it's your money, so get one if you so desire!
I can say, the M1 Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is a very capable machine as well (typing on mine right now actually!) but we are getting close to a possible reveal of the new M2 Air so maybe it's best to see what happens with that first and then make your decision.
With your use case, I can certainly not blame you for going with the 14" MBP if you can afford one. It sounds like it has all the features you want and it's your money, so get one if you so desire!
I can say, the M1 Air with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD is a very capable machine as well (typing on mine right now actually!) but we are getting close to a possible reveal of the new M2 Air so maybe it's best to see what happens with that first and then make your decision.
If you can afford the cost, who cares if it's overkill for now, things may change and you might need it! Plus the better screen is more than enough to justify it.
Personally, I can't recommend the M1 MBA, there's no active cooling and the screen is really sub-par for laptops these days. That's what I bought and I very much regret buying it. It might work well for a lot of people, but not for me. (I'm a heavy user, so I hit thermal throttling WAY too quick and it's just slow after that.) I should have waited for the 14" MBP.
Personally, I can't recommend the M1 MBA, there's no active cooling and the screen is really sub-par for laptops these days. That's what I bought and I very much regret buying it. It might work well for a lot of people, but not for me. (I'm a heavy user, so I hit thermal throttling WAY too quick and it's just slow after that.) I should have waited for the 14" MBP.
lol... no.
I've got a M1 Max on order with 32gb of Ram... but I'm using a M1 Pro 10/16/16 16gb 1TB for now.
I use Capture 1 Pro, Photoshop, FCPx, Motion 5 with Nodes 3 motion graphics... often with atleast 3 of these running at one time with a web browser and email. Plus a 27 Eizo monitor and a 27" Wacom Cintiq. I have used very little swap memory and the fans have yet to come on at all in the last 2 weeks.
When the max arrives I'll be using the two for a week or so to see if I need to stretch to the 32gbs... probably will but, if you're not a power app user, 8-16 would be enough and 16 would give you good headroom.
I find it amazing that people are even suggesting 32gb for standard everyday use. Hell, I've been running a 13" i7 Macbook with 8gb of ram for the last 3 years and apart from Motion 5 with Nodes 3, and does a really good job.
Edit... If anything, go for a 1TB SSD just for the uplift in terms of speed performance and the increased amount of TBW's it will take.
Internaut
macrumors 65816
It is certainly overkill for me, but I hope it will be my main PC for the next five or so years.
That is right, Apple is so nuts with its RAM and SSD prices, once you spec up the Air you are getting within $500 of the MBP. At that price the MBP becomes worth considering just for the screen, the more ports, and the ability to connect to more monitors.
Personally I would go for the MBP. People love to say the power is overkill for standard office work, but if you start using big/complex excel sheets, it certainly ramps up the fans on my MBP.
As for waiting for March 8 - the expected form factor for that release is supposed to be the base model MBP with touchbar…….eewwwww touchbar run away is my thoughys on that. If you aren’t in a rush though, I guess no reason not to wait.
As for the iPad Pro, I have never found a need to have both the iPad and the Macbook. I can see an iPad being useful for reading a book while traveling or in bed or something, but you certainly don’t need an iPad Pro for that. The base iPad is more than enough. I would look into selling the iPad Pro.
As for 32GB of RAM, if the upgrade cost for you is $400 on that I would say pass on the upgraded RAM and just upgrade your MBP 20% sooner. BUT if you are the kind of person that hates upgrading devices, or who gets very attached to their specific device and likes to keep using it for a long time, 32GB might be worth considering. It would certainly keep the laptop snapping while multitasking on a billion different things at once for longer. I am still not sure I would recommend it, but at the same time I wouldn’t say it would be a bad decision (if that makes any sense).
Personally I would go for the MBP. People love to say the power is overkill for standard office work, but if you start using big/complex excel sheets, it certainly ramps up the fans on my MBP.
As for waiting for March 8 - the expected form factor for that release is supposed to be the base model MBP with touchbar…….eewwwww touchbar run away is my thoughys on that. If you aren’t in a rush though, I guess no reason not to wait.
As for the iPad Pro, I have never found a need to have both the iPad and the Macbook. I can see an iPad being useful for reading a book while traveling or in bed or something, but you certainly don’t need an iPad Pro for that. The base iPad is more than enough. I would look into selling the iPad Pro.
As for 32GB of RAM, if the upgrade cost for you is $400 on that I would say pass on the upgraded RAM and just upgrade your MBP 20% sooner. BUT if you are the kind of person that hates upgrading devices, or who gets very attached to their specific device and likes to keep using it for a long time, 32GB might be worth considering. It would certainly keep the laptop snapping while multitasking on a billion different things at once for longer. I am still not sure I would recommend it, but at the same time I wouldn’t say it would be a bad decision (if that makes any sense).
Last edited:
I bought the Air M1 base model on sale at Costco for $799 on sale during the holiday season. 95% of the time, it is in clamshell mode. I ended up buying an LG 4K 27 inch Ultrafine display which I am very happy with. I have never seen as of yet memory warning. I even tried to get one with You Tube TV, YouTube, multiple MacRumor pages open, racing game open, Music app, pages, chrome, Messenger, Mail, Twitter and I forget what else. I never have that much open. Sure it did go into the yellow and used 1.1G of Swap file but it worked.
Having said that, I would have bought the 16G Air if it was on sale for $999 which it never is. I could not justify the $400 price difference of $1199 so I bought the $799 Air on sale. If you do not mind spending the $1999 go for the MacBook Pro. You will be happy no doubt unless if is too big to be portable to you which seems to be an issue for many.
Having said that, I would have bought the 16G Air if it was on sale for $999 which it never is. I could not justify the $400 price difference of $1199 so I bought the $799 Air on sale. If you do not mind spending the $1999 go for the MacBook Pro. You will be happy no doubt unless if is too big to be portable to you which seems to be an issue for many.
If you just want 16GB then you really don’t need the M1 Pro unless you want a slightly larger screen
Much like everyone else is saying, there are so many factors here:
Yes, it's overkill for MOST people. But it's also a really really really nice computer and a genuine Pro machine with headroom to spare. You may not find that important now, but depending on how long you tend to hang on to notebooks, that could give you a lot of runway before your next upgrade.
HOWEVER
I do some minor graphic design, photo editing, video editing, and audio editing--not enough to call myself a pro at it, but enough where I can occasionally put a notebook in the red if it doesn't have the power. I have been doing all those tasks on an M1 Macbook Air for the last year, and it's never chugged or even gotten any hotter than lukewarm to the touch. Same goes for the games I've tried too. It's just a miraculous machine.
If I were in your situation, especially if I were getting some kind of deal on a discount, I think I would definitely go for it, but I would NOT suggest getting rid of the iPad. I have tried going iPad-less 3 different times in my Apple-using career and regretted it every time. You can try it, but I think you'll see what I mean eventually. It's just a different kind of machine that fills some very specific needs, and I definitely miss it when I don't have one.
Yes, it's overkill for MOST people. But it's also a really really really nice computer and a genuine Pro machine with headroom to spare. You may not find that important now, but depending on how long you tend to hang on to notebooks, that could give you a lot of runway before your next upgrade.
HOWEVER
I do some minor graphic design, photo editing, video editing, and audio editing--not enough to call myself a pro at it, but enough where I can occasionally put a notebook in the red if it doesn't have the power. I have been doing all those tasks on an M1 Macbook Air for the last year, and it's never chugged or even gotten any hotter than lukewarm to the touch. Same goes for the games I've tried too. It's just a miraculous machine.
If I were in your situation, especially if I were getting some kind of deal on a discount, I think I would definitely go for it, but I would NOT suggest getting rid of the iPad. I have tried going iPad-less 3 different times in my Apple-using career and regretted it every time. You can try it, but I think you'll see what I mean eventually. It's just a different kind of machine that fills some very specific needs, and I definitely miss it when I don't have one.
We can't tell you because we're not you. I think 32g RAM would be overkill for what you describe, but when you ask if you need it... you're going to get replies based what others feel is needed and that's based on their experience and suppositions. There are people here who would probably make 32gig the baseline which is silly. Likewise, several people have talked above about screen brightness but if thats not important to you... ?♂️ .
Bottom line - yes the MBP is overkill for what you describe. I mean, you're using a *2009* iMac.
BUT... if you can get a deep enough discount that the price between the baseline 14" Pro and a 16/512 Air is not that much, get the 14". Even if you don't NEED it, you won't spend time and energy wondering about whether you should have bought the MBP.
To quantify this... if the MBP was ~$1000 between the Pro and the Air as you'd spec each, I'd get the Air. If the difference was ~$300 I'd get the Pro. If it's in the $5-600 range, that's up to you and how important that money is in your life.
Bottom line - yes the MBP is overkill for what you describe. I mean, you're using a *2009* iMac.
BUT... if you can get a deep enough discount that the price between the baseline 14" Pro and a 16/512 Air is not that much, get the 14". Even if you don't NEED it, you won't spend time and energy wondering about whether you should have bought the MBP.
To quantify this... if the MBP was ~$1000 between the Pro and the Air as you'd spec each, I'd get the Air. If the difference was ~$300 I'd get the Pro. If it's in the $5-600 range, that's up to you and how important that money is in your life.
Last edited:
What do you mean on an other level. It highly depends if the software is ARM native or not.
Some stuff actually runs faster on an Intel MBP.
I think most of us assume that most software is or will soon be AS native (soon meaning in 2022). Specialized stuff might take longer but that's by definition, a special case. Benchmark-wise, even my Air M1 beats i9s, though, with battery life that is exceptional and virtually no significant heat output.
If you don't mind about the extra cost get the 14" MacBook Pro. It's an amazing laptop and has a fantastic display, which you will take advantage every single day. You might not need the extra processing power, but everything else you will use, no matter what you are planning to do with the laptop.
It is more power then you need for running office, that being said there are more reasons to buy a MacBook Pro then just the power it comes with. You have battery life and an amazing screen on top of a really powerful CPU. A nice screen is fantastic no matter what you do on your computer, and battery life and being able to possible go all work day on a single charge might be worth something to you, or not. I would say any new Mac is over kill for running Office and web browsing. As for trading in the iPad Pro, if it were me I would keep both. I do have an iPad Pro and a 13" MacBook Pro soon to be replaced by a 14" M1 Max as well as a 27" iMac that is my work machine. For me the iPad is a daily web browsing casual use machine, I like the form fact, battery life, screen and how simply it runs. I never pull out my MacBook Pro just to browse the web.
Rule of thumb: Figure out exactly what you need right now, then purchase a spec or two higher.
It seems that you have already done just that. Although a 14" MBP M1Pro w/16gb of RAM may seem like "overkill" right now, what about 5 years down the road? 10 years?
Since it looks like you maintain your machines for a decade or longer, it pays to future-proof yourself.
Go for the 14" MBP M1pro, but I would get at least the 32gb of ram. (Personally, I went with the 16" M1max with 32 gb of ram and have not regretted it one bit. It may be "overkill" right now, but one does not know what the future holds).
Get the best you can afford and enjoy the hell out of it...
Cheers!
Actually its the 13" MBA that is a hamster. Because it doesn't have even one fan it will throttle (clock down) when pushed with multiple app or games and the SoC heats up close to 100C. The M1 13" MBP with one fan is better at preventing that (runs cooler), and the 24" dual fan iMac runs way cooler when pushing the M1 with many applications shows no throttling.
This is why the M1 got a lot of accolades because its not a bad ARM SoC for doing most things. Its weakness really is the 16 GB RAM limit which caused a few programs that do everything in RAM then have to use slower SSD swap if running a very long video editing as one example (most of time its a non issue). As I commented in a another post the M1 Pro SSD/Ram access is about the same speed even using swap. Yes run out of RAM, swap is as fast. But that is not a excuse to suggest you only need 8GB RAM.
Just something that is ignored in this discussion of 13 MBA versus a 14" base model MBP which has a 2 fan cooling system for its 8/14 M1 Pro SoC.
Unfortunately not, which is why I’m shopping for this! I tend to leave everything open that I’m in the midst of working on, or that is important that needs to be actioned ?
The air specked out to the specs you mentioned are being taken into consideration - but specking them up drives the price up, and it’s now a 2 year old machine. Like the 2020 13”MBP, it’s a lot of money for now “older tech” (again, not discounting it, just taking the spend or value into consideration after specking it) with a newer model around the corner. If i was after the base model air specs, it would be a no brainer as the MBA is serious value for money
I definitely don’t think I’d regret it ? I’d absolutely LOVE using it, and generally do overspend due to overkill - but enjoy the hell out everything I buy which makes the spend worth it
I bought the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 as I always go for the largest screen (I used to have a 2008 MacBook Pro 17 and upgraded to the 2014 MacBook Pro 15 in 2014. Everything about this laptop is great - speakers, display, battery life, fast charging. I don't need the power of the CPU and GPU though. The CPU and GPU in the M1 is enough for me. I just wanted 32 GB of RAM, big screen and three USB-C ports instead of two. The low-end 14 is a good compromise. My son has one from work and he's impressed with it. Apple just needs something kind of in-between the M1 and M1 Pro/Max systems. I think that they will eventually fill out the line.
My ideal machine would be a 16 inch MacBook Air with one USB-C on either side, Magsafe, 32 GB RAM. It's a unicorn though.
I also have a 2009 27 inch iMac.
My ideal machine would be a 16 inch MacBook Air with one USB-C on either side, Magsafe, 32 GB RAM. It's a unicorn though.
I also have a 2009 27 inch iMac.
My 2009 IMac is a refurb - I have no issues with refurbs. I’m in Australia, and the price differences aren’t as significant on refurb machines. I’ve been looking for a 14” refurb - but they’re not available atm. There is a $75 difference on the refurb 13”MBP VS new here
I got a bonus at work, so can spend without detriment on this one ☺️ This is just more so IF i can buy anything else with my bonus or not ?
Thank you for the info about the M1 MBA
Great info and feedback, thank you!
Comments like this drive me insane ??
I have a 2009 iMac in the house - the kids use it for Netflix and Minecraft, I don’t use it unless I’m downloading something large as there’s no way I’d be able to use it for work. It was moreso a point to illustrate that I hold onto my machines.
This is exactly where I’m sitting and why I’m here asking for advice - there’s $500 between the two, I got a bonus from work which covers the cost but it’s whether I spend on it or not. The other consideration is a 2 yo machine vs a 4 month old machine relating to a $500 difference.
I acknowledge your point, but M1 Pro chip in MBP 14 is mostly an M1 chip with more cores, ports, and faster memory, plus hardware acceleration for video/image features like ProRes. Far be it from me to disparage any of that, but MBP 14 will also be "older tech" as soon as M2 MBA comes out.
To be candid I own a 16" M1 Max MBP and a 24" M1 iMac (8/8/16/TB). I'm a bit of a user that pushes what you can do with them be its applications, games, or VM environments. The 16" for $200 more then the 14" base is heavier, but the screen is that much larger and the larger speakers have noticeably better bass. At the same time its fans are larger also, and typically don't even kick at all because it never gets hot. It also comes with a M1 Pro that is 8/16 unlike the base model 14". Something to think about.
I think the MBA is nice what it offers but its also from Nov 2020, but the new MBPs late Oct are spectacular. There is something for everyone and you certainly can appropriately select a laptop that will last you a few years. Its just really a decision of practicality against your current and future intentions as well as your budget. Just don't buy something quickly and not be happy later is what we are all after. A trip to the store to play with them all is important.