If you're seriously looking at anything other than the base Mini Pro, then you need to wait for the new Mac Studio.
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Buying Advice - M4 Pro - 12 core or 14 core
- Thread starter kshitijshah
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Agreed. The base model Mac mini is plenty for nearly everybody's use case, sure add more storage (or hang an SSD off the back and save a boat load of money) if you need it - but more compute or RAM is lost on pretty much everyone. Those who need it know they need it and don't ask on MacRumors forums.
Yep, I recommended this channel not long ago to @Chuckeee and I’m glad to see he has a new video on the M4 family. Really eager to see his first hand-on real life tests with the different configurations.
My guess is either spring or near summer, before WWDC 2025, but of course this is a wild guess, I have no idea.
What seems likely however, is that next M4 MBA will be released next spring and that’s going to be a great machine.
Keep an eye on the buyer's guide here, my guess is within 6 months. At the latest, WWDC.
Great guy! TLDR of his videos is that any M specced machine is a beast with 32GB of RAM. All the below numbers gave him 1-5 second slowdown on his huge panorama stitch and brush application.
So if you are the person to stitch 6-40 Nikon D800 images each at 48MP and use brush on that thing - you will appreciate 32GB of RAM. Also if you have gygabytes of layers in photoshop as well.
The point is, with the old M2 Pro Mini, although the top “stock” model is a lot less than the Studio if you upgrade that to the full CPU/GPU and upgrade the RAM* then it ends up costing the same $1999 as the base Mac Studio, but still only has the M2 Pro vs. the Studios M2 Max.
The cost of the M4 pro with upgraded CPU and RAM is also $1999 although the new RAM configuration does get you 48GB vs. the likely 36GB of the base M4 Max.
Despite what I said above, that’s kinda irrelevant at the moment since theres no M4 Max Studio to buy yet and we don’t know if/when it will appear, what the base price will be or where the design geniuses at Apple will move the power button to. If you’re not going to wait for a new M4 Studio then, today, the M4 Pro Mini is going to clean the M2 Max Studio’s clock in most respects.
Since the M3, the Max is a proportionately more powerful than the Pro and, ISTR that the M3 Max MBP already got a $100 price bump vs. The M3 Pro - we never got any M3 Minis or Studios to compare so that price bump hasn’t got to the Mini/Studio range yet.
Until the new studio does come out, there’s no need to consider the M2 Studio unless you have to get an urgent like-for-like replacement and/or would rather put up with an M2 Max than get stuck with Apple’s “worse is the new better” design improvements.
M1 Air 8/8/16 w/16 gb of ram. I do photography. Modest micro-four thirds files. The M1 handled it with aplomb. Then came AI. Today I batch processed 26 files thru Pure Raw. 15 minutes. I didn’t forsee AI. Nor did I foresee considering moving back to full frame. I just finished a weeks rental with a 61 MP camera I was evaluating. It brought the Air to its knees. Those unanticipated changes can quickly make a money saving decision a trade-in.
I’m waiting for more data but I suspect I’ll order a pretty near maxed out Pro. And those T'bolt 5 ports are what will save me from Apple's egregious ssd pricing. OWC has compatible drives on pre-order.
I’m waiting for more data but I suspect I’ll order a pretty near maxed out Pro. And those T'bolt 5 ports are what will save me from Apple's egregious ssd pricing. OWC has compatible drives on pre-order.
Found this spreadsheet, which implies that gpu matters the most followed by cpu/ram.
DxO DeepPRIME Processing Times
M1 air is a great machine as a standalone device and never feels slow until one finds the edge like in your case.
Running 4-8 tabs of youtube 4K - Air m1 8/8 stutters while driving that in 4k 27 external.
The same load and m1 pro mbp 8/14 doesn’t break a sweat.
Also mbp of the same gen is faster when having 4k screen connected for work versus m1 air.
At the same time, windows with intel cpu, dedicated graphics, 144hz fast response screen was noticeably faster than m1 air but lacking in noise, heat, battery life and portability in my day to day tasks while connected to 4k and 1080p screens.
So we have benchmarks now.
Going from the binned to unbinned m4 pro gets you:
3693 to 3789 single core performance
20346 to 22437 multicore performance
96475 to 112033 gpu performance
Going from the binned to unbinned m4 pro gets you:
3693 to 3789 single core performance
20346 to 22437 multicore performance
96475 to 112033 gpu performance
If I recall correctly M1 Studio Max memory bandwidth is 400 while the M4 Pro Minid is 273. I do no know the overall impact of the lower number.
The increased memory bandwidth on the Max and the Ultra is mainly for the extra GPU cores those chips have.
I used the same machine while traveling with Z7ii and Z9 files without issue, but didn’t use AI editing. Something else to think about is that M1 Air brings over $400 in trade in and is about 4 years old at this point. It also has the weakness of no fan and thermal throttling was a bigger issue than actual lack of power. Considering the base M4 performance, it would probably be sufficient and with trade in it seems to make more sense to replace every 3-4 years than pay double upfront for future proofing. As others have mentioned, it doesn’t seem to make sense to buy a maxed out pro as the Studio becomes a better buy.
I personally wouldn’t get the upgrade to the 14/20 unless you really need the extra GPU power.
After viewing the benchmarks of both the binned and unbinned chips, I wouldn’t pay the extra 230€ just to get a bit more CPU performance (from 20.000 to 22.000 points in GB6).
After viewing the benchmarks of both the binned and unbinned chips, I wouldn’t pay the extra 230€ just to get a bit more CPU performance (from 20.000 to 22.000 points in GB6).
Unless you have deep pockets, the 12 core pro will do. I will be ordering the 12 core, 48GB Ram and 1TB drive. Sucks I only get around $350 for my M1 so will keep that and put it in my camper. But, still waiting on reviews from folks who actually have it in hand and run some good stress testing. So far, sounds like the fans do ramp up on heavy loads but thats coming from paid reviewers. Sure would be nice for apple to knock $100 off for black friday.
Since measurements aren't done in a controlled environment the scores vary by ~15%. Two 14-core M4Pro results show single-core speed of 3372 and 3829(14%).
The multicore CPU performance difference is within the margin of error of random Geekbench testing and I'd be very surprised if the binned and unbinned M4Pros have any difference in single-core performance. GPU benchmarks do look worse, but only marginally worse.
A more controlled/professional test would be nice, but these numbers are good enough for me to feel good about 12-core.
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I think this is inline with previous ones. Upper base scores higher for the exact equivalent of extra cores. So +20-25% for extra money - this was kind of always not best value since next generation would offer +50-100% in base anyways. Unless you know you need those 2 extra performance cores and 4 gpu ones.
I use Topaz Photo AI, Giga, and Video AI...I would personally go for the 12 core with 48gb every time. I also use Affnity Photo and Luminar Neo. They all benefit from the RAM.
So, I got my base M4 pro and here are my thoughts, with AI, the RAM use is a LOT more, with a lot of browser windows open and AI running, I was close to using the full 24gb of RAM. I am going to return and repurchase with 64gb. If you boot from an external NVME drive (almost as fast as internal, and faster than base m4 mini) you LOSE Apple Intelligence. It's not available, at all. I am wondering if I am going to regret not going for the unbinned chip but the cost was already £2k with a discount. My experience (music making/mixing/mastering) with a BEAST of a windows machine running 16 cores, 32 threads @ 4500mhz was music wants clock speed, not core count per-se and I'm not really editing videos. Am i going to regret not spending the additional £200 for the extra 2 cores?
Thanks for sharing your experience. I use an M1 Studio Max outfitted with a terabyte drive and 64 gigs of RAM. I see RAM eaten up like there is no tomorrow and continue to insist (okay whine) that Safari and the OS should do better to manage memory. Since it does not, we have to go with an expensive bandaid approach - more RAM. Thus the 64 gigs of RAM works for me.
My question to you - have you done any heavy duty work that revs up the fans? How audible is the fan and how often does it seem to kick in?