A Well-Written Guide on which Chip/RAM combo to get for 14” MBP?

[rhyzome]

I really need to replace my old MBP, but I’m stuck because I don’t know which chip and RAM combo to go with for the 14” model.

Is there a well-written guide somewhere that recommends the different M1 chips based on different activities/requirements, and does the same for RAM?

 

[ugru]

The real MBP 14/16 buying guide

Actually, in thinking about this topic I wanted to make another point... If someone isn't sure how how much power they need, they should consider whether they need a Pro at all. Not 'want' a Pro. That's a personal decision. But usually if someone has higher end needs, they know what they have to...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Sanpete]

Not that I've noticed in any comprehensive way. Lots of threads about it here, though. If you say what you intend to use it for (more specific will get better advice), people will chip in.

 

[rhyzome]

Not that I've noticed in any comprehensive way. Lots of threads about it here, though. If you say what you intend to use it for (more specific will get better advice), people will chip in.

Well, my aged 2014 15” 2.5ghz quad core 16gb ram 1tb was great until the last 2 years or so, when lots of safari tabs really choked it ip. It might have been my large photos library too (300gb, like 60k or more photos).

I occasionally need to batch edit 4-500 photos at a time for quirky tasks: i convert books to pdfs: Photograph every page of the book, change the contrast, exposure, etc so that it is nearly black and white, and OCR/text recognize them in a program like abbyy and then make them into a single PDF with text file. That was also killing my last mbp the last few years.

Mainly it is just that I tend to have lots of apps open at once and very large photo libraries that I want to smoothly scroll through. I occasionally do photo editing (including from RAW files) and theres the possibility of having to do some basic video editing in the near future.

I never should bave kept my old mbp so long, was hoping they’d make this 14 inch mbp fan-less and with even smaller bezels. But unless they release an Air with a notch-style screen soon I think I’ll get some version of the 14” —just not sure which.

I’m thinking possibly 32GB RAM because my old mac had 16 and was always using it up and stalling. But I have no idea about the chips, or if it is really true that you Dont need as much ram because the memory is “unified”

 

[Sanpete]

That's good info for your question. You might want to add which programs you're using (or intend to use), what the file sizes are (per image), and change your thread title to reflect your question better.

I don't do what you're doing, so I can't help much, but I suspect you're right that at least some of what you're doing might benefit from extra RAM, along with extra SSD space, and maybe more GPU cores.

Be aware that the 14" appears to be power-limited so that it doesn't always get the full potential performance of the Max GPU with 32 cores. There's also one with 24 cores that might work just as well for you.

Since there's a shortage of Maxes now, you might want to try the Pro version just to see if it will work for you, as you can probably get it right away.

 

[rhyzome]

That's good info for your question. You might want to add which programs you're using (or intend to use), what the file sizes are (per image), and change your thread title to reflect your question better.

I don't do what you're doing, so I can't help much, but I suspect you're right that at least some of what you're doing might benefit from extra RAM, along with extra SSD space, and maybe more GPU cores.

Be aware that the 14" appears to be power-limited so that it doesn't always get the full potential performance of the Max GPU with 32 cores. There's also one with 24 cores that might work just as well for you.

Since there's a shortage of Maxes now, you might want to try the Pro version just to see if it will work for you, as you can probably get it right away.

Yeah I bet some version of the Pro chip is fine, just not sure which is overkill. Plus after my experience with my last mbp I feel i kept it way too long and that ill be happier upgrading in 3-4 years max rather than as long as ive waited (ive lost count of the years lol). But considering that i dont want to go overboard as id rather just save my pennies for the next one (but still not get leas than will be necessary for everything working smoothly).

Also will use this with an external monitor, right now 4k but i might upgrade to 5k if i can justify that and pick a new one lol, but im pretty sure even the airs will handle that. Just, all this stuff combined, i dunno.

Occasional lightroom, imovie, big photos lib, big music lib almost as big as photos lib, ms word, excel and ppt, safari, chrome firefox, hundreds of tabs, abbyy finereader and preview with like 20 pdfs open. I put lots of pictures in my word files. PDF files can get to 500mb easily, more often 1-250. The photos I start processing can be 10-12mb each for the batch photo editing. Sometimes this happens all at once if my schedules been chaotic and ive had to start and leave tasks on hold.

Then I might want to do sime simple video editing ontop of that, clipping and combining some 4k video.

I want the computer to be capable of handling a day like this, even if it is not typical. I dont want to have to spend 4 hours saving and closing out of all the other projects.

I dont think anything I do is highly hnusual, except perhaps the book digitization, just more how I tend to do it all at once lol

 

[nquinn]

I went a little crazy and kind of regret it. These machines are insanely fast, but I suppose you could also argue that it means you could keep them longer.

I'd mostly worry about how much storage you need.

If you will travel with it a lot: 14", M1 Pro, 16gb ram, 1tb or 2tb SSD
If it mostly stays at home: 16", M1 Pro, 16gb ram, 1tb or 2tb SSD.

When to upgrade chip/ram:

Pro -> 24-core Max: Only if you use the very specific video editing software that can take advantage of it, or if you want to game (unlikely). Prob not worth it. On a 14" definitely don't bother with 32 core max.

16->32gb: This one could possibly be justified if you keep a machine for 5 years or do any heavy editing. The new ram is SO FAST though that it's less of a big deal. I splurged on it though.

 

[ctjack]

Well, my aged 2014 15” 2.5ghz quad core 16gb ram 1tb was great until the last 2 years or so, when lots of safari tabs really choked it ip. It might have been my large photos library too (300gb, like 60k or more photos).

It can get very difficult to understand what limits your old computer and why it is lagging a lot. For some it is a slow hdd which could be remedied by the regular cheap ssd. For some it is a low RAM, while others are choked by CPU.
OCR heavily relies on CPU. I bet that your computer chokes because:
1) Your CPU is old enough at this point.
2) If your ssd was almost full, then that is the reason number 2. I mean if it was full for 80% or more, then it leads to the major slowdowns.
3) Given your use case, you were not limited by RAM.

I feel i kept it way too long and that ill be happier upgrading in 3-4 years max rather than as long as ive waited

Well lets face the reality. Your old 2014 MBP 15 is only twice slower than M1 Air both in single core and multicore performance. MBP 14 is 2 times faster in single, 3 times in multi. MBP 16 is 2 times faster in single, 4 times in multi according to geekbench 5.
What I am trying to say here is that in 7 years we got only +100% to the speed which is crazy right? I mean it is low and slow.
But I am 13 incher from 2012 coming to M1 Air - this thing is 3 times faster in single, and 5 times in multicore.
As a 15 inch owner, you didn't lose much by not upgrading all these years. If you were a 13 inch holder, then that would be another story.

I occasionally need to batch edit 4-500 photos at a time for quirky tasks: i convert books to pdfs: Photograph every page of the book, change the contrast, exposure, etc so that it is nearly black and white, and OCR/text recognize them in a program like abbyy and then make them into a single PDF with text file. That was also killing my last mbp the last few years.

I got the base M1 Air with 512gb. Recently i batch processed 1500 pages book, because I had pdf of it, but it wasn't searching for words in the document - it needed to be OCR'ed. So i did convert my pdf book into 1500 single TIFFs and then OCR'ed them all with 8GB of ram on m1 Air. It didn't take any longer than 15-30 minutes. Overall my laptop didn't even break a sweat.

Occasional lightroom, imovie, big photos lib, big music lib almost as big as photos lib, ms word, excel and ppt, safari, chrome firefox, hundreds of tabs, abbyy finereader and preview with like 20 pdfs open. I put lots of pictures in my word files. PDF files can get to 500mb easily, more often 1-250. The photos I start processing can be 10-12mb each for the batch photo editing. Sometimes this happens all at once if my schedules been chaotic and ive had to start and leave tasks on hold.

Then I might want to do sime simple video editing ontop of that, clipping and combining some 4k video.

Only 4k video with 3 heavy luts or layers of color grading will choke it. That is the point when you want to take a look at mbp 14/16.

If you ask me, from technical standpoint, M1 Air with 16GB of RAM and whatever SSD size you want from Apple refurbished will come even cheaper than the base MBP 14 and will handle everything you listed. Now that is a technical standpoint only. If you want (as a feeling, but not need) it(mbp 14), then you don't need this analysis and can buy the one you want, because even Air would be enough for your use case and MBP 14 is faster than Air.

 

[Sanpete]

What stands out to me is the hundreds of browser tabs. I haven't seen any reports about how well that works with the usual amount of RAM on the new machines. Other than that, though, what you're doing seems what I've seen people here talk about doing with 16GB. And maybe as ctjack suggests the Air would work for the processing, might be worth a look at least.

Probably want to get at least 1TB for the storage, maybe 2 if you want to keep both your libraries onboard and there's a chance the file sizes will go up. (They're fairly small files now.)

 

[internetrando]

This is my guide:

Figure out what you can/are willing to spend. If able, upgrade the SSD to at least twice the size of what you are currently using on your machine. Yes, external storage is cheap and plentiful, but I hate carrying around extra drives if I do not have to.

Anything else goes to RAM first (get 32GB if you can afford it), and then anything else goes to the processor. These new machines are blazing fast, and any combination will be a considerable upgrade for you.

If you need an idea of what these things are capable of, there are plenty of YouTube videos out there that can show you. I expect these machines to be usable for many years in any configuration.

 

[rhyzome]

It can get very difficult to understand what limits your old computer and why it is lagging a lot. For some it is a slow hdd which could be remedied by the regular cheap ssd. For some it is a low RAM, while others are choked by CPU.
OCR heavily relies on CPU. I bet that your computer chokes because:
1) Your CPU is old enough at this point.
2) If your ssd was almost full, then that is the reason number 2. I mean if it was full for 80% or more, then it leads to the major slowdowns.
3) Given your use case, you were not limited by RAM.

Well lets face the reality. Your old 2014 MBP 15 is only twice slower than M1 Air both in single core and multicore performance. MBP 14 is 2 times faster in single, 3 times in multi. MBP 16 is 2 times faster in single, 4 times in multi according to geekbench 5.
What I am trying to say here is that in 7 years we got only +100% to the speed which is crazy right? I mean it is low and slow.
But I am 13 incher from 2012 coming to M1 Air - this thing is 3 times faster in single, and 5 times in multicore.
As a 15 inch owner, you didn't lose much by not upgrading all these years. If you were a 13 inch holder, then that would be another story.

I got the base M1 Air with 512gb. Recently i batch processed 1500 pages book, because I had pdf of it, but it wasn't searching for words in the document - it needed to be OCR'ed. So i did convert my pdf book into 1500 single TIFFs and then OCR'ed them all with 8GB of ram on m1 Air. It didn't take any longer than 15-30 minutes. Overall my laptop didn't even break a sweat.


Only 4k video with 3 heavy luts or layers of color grading will choke it. That is the point when you want to take a look at mbp 14/16.

If you ask me, from technical standpoint, M1 Air with 16GB of RAM and whatever SSD size you want from Apple refurbished will come even cheaper than the base MBP 14 and will handle everything you listed. Now that is a technical standpoint only. If you want (as a feeling, but not need) it(mbp 14), then you don't need this analysis and can buy the one you want, because even Air would be enough for your use case and MBP 14 is faster than Air.

What program did you use for OCRing the book? Perhaps im using bad software

Yeah, honestly I’d probably like a MBA overall better than the 14 as I’m a little disappointed they made the 14” bulkier. I also hate the fans in my 15” and was hoping this line of MBPs would ditch the fans.

However, the new screen is the big reason I’m attracted to it, I really like the notch design. While I like the portability of the Airs and the fact theyre fanless, I just can’t see myself buying a mobile Apple device (including a laptop) with a screen with squared corners at the top. I know it is stupid but I like the new design and I know I’ll be extra pissed if I buy the Air now and then Apple’s next Air has the notch design. Of course, that one, or maybe a 13.5” MBP, is probably ideal…but the offerings seem limited when Apple seems to be transitioning form factors.

I guess my gripe is I cant get past the fact that the intel form factor is used to run an m1 air; The 14” gives me the impression it was redesigned from the ground up (including form factor) to work ideally with m1 chips, and thats what I expect from apple. Not for them to just throw the new chip in the old device and hope for the best.

(But this is pure speculation)

 

[rhyzome]

I went a little crazy and kind of regret it. These machines are insanely fast, but I suppose you could also argue that it means you could keep them longer.

I'd mostly worry about how much storage you need.

If you will travel with it a lot: 14", M1 Pro, 16gb ram, 1tb or 2tb SSD
If it mostly stays at home: 16", M1 Pro, 16gb ram, 1tb or 2tb SSD.

When to upgrade chip/ram:

Pro -> 24-core Max: Only if you use the very specific video editing software that can take advantage of it, or if you want to game (unlikely). Prob not worth it. On a 14" definitely don't bother with 32 core max.

16->32gb: This one could possibly be justified if you keep a machine for 5 years or do any heavy editing. The new ram is SO FAST though that it's less of a big deal. I splurged on it though.

Ah thanks this clears a lot up. What would you have to say about which M1Pro chip to get.

I definitely don’t need the Max, that I’m sure about. However, who should get the different M1 Pro configurations? (Theyre very confusing, differenr numbers if cous, gpus, neural engines, and no track record)

 

[ctjack]

What program did you use for OCRing the book? Perhaps im using bad software

Was a fan of Abbyy in 2008 when they started as a first company to do OCRs. But currently have free subscription with Adobe Acrobat Pro through the workplace, so just using whatever I have, not sure if it is faster than competitors.

However, the new screen is the big reason I’m attracted to it,

Well then you need to buy MBP 14 in 1tb or 2tb if you want it. Probably buying apple refurbished (6-9 months after release) will save you additional -15%.

If money is no object, then go for 10/16 CPU and 32gb of RAM.
You could also go for base 8/14/16.
Or some middle ground: 10/16/16.
8/14/32GB is also a valid choice.

 

[rhyzome]

Was a fan of Abbyy in 2008 when they started as a first company to do OCRs. But currently have free subscription with Adobe Acrobat Pro through the workplace, so just using whatever I have, not sure if it is faster than competitors.

Well then you need to buy MBP 14 in 1tb or 2tb if you want it. Probably buying apple refurbished (6-9 months after release) will save you additional -15%.

If money is no object, then go for 10/16 CPU and 32gb of RAM.
You could also go for base 8/14/16.
Or some middle ground: 10/16/16.
8/14/32GB is also a valid choice.

Yeah what I don’t understand is what you get from 8/14 vs 10/16? Where will I (or others?) see the benefits of that upgrade? The chips are the part I understand the least

 

[ctjack]

The chips are the part I understand the least

Let's say objectively it is +20% performance to the multi-core. I am not sure where you can benefit from it.
For me, the reason would be using Virtual Machines on my laptop and only in conjuction with 32GB of ram to make sense.
Well we all know that in the next upgrade, base model will be much better than the M1 Max, so that +20% difference will be left in the dust. I mean the difference that seems to matter now(+20%), will be not really relevant in 2 years.
I think that extra +15% to the price of 8/14(+$300) is not worth the +20% increase in performance.

I never thought that paying 1 to 1 ratio is a good move: paying 50% more to get 50% performance increase is not my palate, because in 1 year, those money will get you +100%.

 

[rhyzome]

Let's say objectively it is +20% performance to the multi-core. I am not sure where you can benefit from it.
For me, the reason would be using Virtual Machines on my laptop and only in conjuction with 32GB of ram to make sense.
Well we all know that in the next upgrade, base model will be much better than the M1 Max, so that +20% difference will be left in the dust. I mean the difference that seems to matter now(+20%), will be not really relevant in 2 years.
I think that extra +15% to the price of 8/14(+$300) is not worth the +20% increase in performance.

I never thought that paying 1 to 1 ratio is a good move: paying 50% more to get 50% performance increase is not my palate, because in 1 year, those money will get you +100%.

Good points—makes me pretty confident it is not worth buying extra cores lol.

if I went the 8/14 route and bumped ram to 32gb, would I still see benefits? What sorts of situations generally would it have benefits? (Or is there a bottleneck?)

 

[ctjack]

if I went the 8/14 route and bumped ram to 32gb, would I still see benefits? What sorts of situations generally would it have benefits? (Or is there a bottleneck?)

I could write strings of text about the difference and usage. But looking at your description of work, there is nothing that stands out to me as needing 32GB of RAM. But that doesn't mean that you will not see a benefit of 32GB of RAM.

I will put it easier:
1) If you are going to keep it 2 years, then go for 16GB.
2) Going to keep it 3-5 years? Then go for 32GB of RAM.

 

[Sanpete]

Do you really use hundreds of tabs? If so, you may want to ask around to see if anyone else is doing that and how it affects memory usage. A typical page can easily take over 100MB of memory, and some (such as MacRumors) can account for over 1GB sometimes. 100 at 100MB would be 10GB. Typically a lot of pages would end up going into cache on your SSD if you have that many, which would likely result in slight delays when you click on a tab. But this is guesswork, as I don't recall hearing of someone using 100s.

I don't think memory usage is going up quite as fast as some imply.

 

[Sunshower]

For what it's worth I had 16GB RAM on my previous 2015 MacBook Pro and now have the same on my 8-Core M1 Pro and the difference in RAM usage is really noticeable. This does not slow down with multi-tasking and tab usage. The optimisation and CPU gains will really factor into this too.

M1 Pro, 16-Core GPU with 16GB RAM and either 1-2TB SSD depending on your budget should be a really nice configuration. 10-Core CPU if you have the budget and want to really future proof your purchase for another 7 years. To be honest the 8/14/16/512 model I have is a dream and will be fast for years.

Configuring a laptop is like baking a cake, you need the right balance of ingredients. There's no point in really over-speccing one aspect versus the others unless you really know you need to - a mistake I have made previously. Sure, some people have very specific use cases where having lots of RAM or a very strong GPU or CPU is the most important thing to them - but it seems to me you have a variety of needs - so balancing things seems a smart move. Just my opinion.

 

[rhyzome]

For what it's worth I had 16GB RAM on my previous 2015 MacBook Pro and now have the same on my 8-Core M1 Pro and the difference in RAM usage is really noticeable. This does not slow down with multi-tasking and tab usage. The optimisation and CPU gains will really factor into this too.

M1 Pro, 16-Core GPU with 16GB RAM and either 1-2TB SSD depending on your budget should be a really nice configuration. 10-Core CPU if you have the budget and want to really future proof your purchase for another 7 years. To be honest the 8/14/16/512 model I have is a dream and will be fast for years.

Configuring a laptop is like baking a cake, you need the right balance of ingredients. There's no point in really over-speccing one aspect versus the others unless you really know you need to - a mistake I have made previously. Sure, some people have very specific use cases where having lots of RAM or a very strong GPU or CPU is the most important thing to them - but it seems to me you have a variety of needs - so balancing things seems a smart move. Just my opinion.

Any ideas on why to go with 10 cores instead of 8, and 16 GPUs instead of 14? What are some examples of tasks for which the morw powerful configurarions make a difference?

I notice the 16 inch uses the 10/16/16 as its basic config. Which makes me think it might be a good upgrade…OTOH maybe the 16inch’s fan system is more equipped to handle that chipset, and the 14’s is not? I don’t want to configure the 14 to have its fans run more frequently than they should because I put a souped up chip in…tho im not sure if thats how it works anyway

 

[ctjack]

I notice the 16 inch uses the 10/16/16 as its basic config. Which makes me think it might be a good upgrade…

There is only 2 reasons behind that:
1) 16 inch is more expensive, so you need to offer at least something. If it had 8/14, then the price could be $2200, which puts 14 in danger in terms of sales.
2) 16 inch has much higher resolution than 14, so those +2 gpu cores help to drive that screen with no lags. +2 cpu cores comes as a bonus.

 

[rhyzome]

There is only 2 reasons behind that:
1) 16 inch is more expensive, so you need to offer at least something. If it had 8/14, then the price could be $2200, which puts 14 in danger in terms of sales.
2) 16 inch has much higher resolution than 14, so those +2 gpu cores help to drive that screen with no lags. +2 cpu cores comes as a bonus.

Ah makes sense. If I plan to use the 14” frequently with a 4k or 5k monitor, should I get more graphics cores?

 

[Sunshower]

Any ideas on why to go with 10 cores instead of 8, and 16 GPUs instead of 14? What are some examples of tasks for which the morw powerful configurarions make a difference?

I notice the 16 inch uses the 10/16/16 as its basic config. Which makes me think it might be a good upgrade…OTOH maybe the 16inch’s fan system is more equipped to handle that chipset, and the 14’s is not? I don’t want to configure the 14 to have its fans run more frequently than they should because I put a souped up chip in…tho im not sure if thats how it works anyway

Personally I don't think the 10-Core will be noticeably different for many years to come, especially considering your workload, and mine. The fan speed is higher based on reviews as it needs to cool the chip. I do however think 10-Core might provide some extra longevity, as the CPU can become a bottleneck for full-system performance down the line. Videos on YouTube show the 14 vs 16-Core GPU difference as minor, and if you really want a boost in graphics you need to shell out for the Max chip - I don't think this is really necessary for anyone's work unless they are doing very intensive stuff.

My 8/14/16 configuration is ice cold all the time (I do music production/photo work and usual computer stuff) - I think the 14-inch chassis is best suited to this configuration too - the battery-temp-performance all come together well. I think the 14-inch can handle the 10/16/16 too, but it seems beyond that you do start taking more noticeable battery and temperature hits as a result (this is based on a plethora of YouTube vids showing diminishing returns). Reviews seem to say the 10/16/16 16-inch is the best for battery life, temps etc, but it's quite a hefty machine. The 14-inch is well balanced in terms of size and weight, if a tad chunky.

 

[ctjack]

Ah makes sense. If I plan to use the 14” frequently with a 4k or 5k monitor, should I get more graphics cores?

Nope, it didn't make difference when testing even if you used 2 external 4k displays and 1 internal of a laptop.
Please check out Artisright channel on YT - he made a video of a heavy work while having 2 external displays at the same time.