Configuring new 16 inch macbook pro for purchase

[mrstudiomucci]

Hi!

I'm considering buying a new 16 inch macbook pro.

However, I'm having problems deciding on what configuration suits me best. (For example, which processor, how much ram, graphics, etc.)

Does anyone know of any resources that can help me decide what is best for me? I'd like more information than the apple store provides, but I'm having a hard time locating info.

Any thoughts and opinions on this computer are also welcome!

Thank you!!

 

[satcomer]

Depends! How many tabs do you using have open? If it is more than three then get at least 16g of RAM installed! If you don’t do that then 8 gig will do!

 

[mrstudiomucci]

Depends! How many tabs do you using have open? If it is more than three then get at least 16g of RAM installed! If you don’t do that then 8 gig will do!

What's a tab? I don't think my Apple II does tabs.

 

[satcomer]

What's a tab? I don't think my Apple II does tabs.

Are you kidding me? I was trying to tell you something!

 

[mrstudiomucci]

Are you kidding me? I was trying to tell you something!

The only Tab I know is the soda.

 

[Quackers]

I think he means how many Safari tabs do you have open at any one time.

 

[mrstudiomucci]

Got it! Thank you!

 

[hallux]

get at least 16g of RAM installed! If you don’t do that then 8 gig will do!

The 16" comes with 16 GB standard...

 

[mrstudiomucci]

This article was the sort of thing I was looking for. Dropping it here for anyone interested. The google search that helped me was "best mac for ...", may it help you too!

How to choose the best Mac for video editing

Which Mac should you buy to edit video: Mac Pro, iMac Pro, iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Pro or something else? We look at the best Apple hardware and software for the job

www.macworld.co.uk

 

[ght56]

How will you use the system? The upgrades on the 16-inch can make it an entirely different machine, but they are also pricy and may or may not be beneficial for you. I assume the Apple II part was a joke...what system do you currently use and how well does it currently work for you?

 

[mrstudiomucci]

How will you use the system? The upgrades on the 16-inch can make it an entirely different machine, but they are also pricy and may or may not be beneficial for you. I assume the Apple II part was a joke...what system do you currently use and how well does it currently work for you?

I'll be using it to edit videos, photos and to make stop motion animations. I currently use a late 2013 macbook pro and I run Catalina. Editing videos is difficult, impossible if they are too long and animations are also difficult to impossible.

Thank you for your kind and sincere reply.

 

[ght56]

I'll be using it to edit videos, photos and to make stop motion animations. I currently use a late 2013 macbook pro and I run Catalina. Editing videos is difficult, impossible if they are too long and animations are also difficult to impossible.

Thank you for your kind and sincere reply.

The spec I have is a 2.3 Ghz i9, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB storage, and the 5600M GPU and I absolutely love it. I originally had a different spec and I returned it for this one. You can now find this spec available as a refurb as well for a few bucks less and it looks like Apple pricing in the US on the 16 inch MBP has been discounted. It was not a cheap system, but I absolutely love it.


For the CPU I would personally say go for the 2.3 GHz i9 as it is not much more in price than the i7. The 2.4 GHz i9 costs a good bit more and it is not a major jump over the 2.3.

For RAM, it really depends on your situation. In your case, when you are editing and things are running slower, I would check the RAM pressure through your Activity Monitor, which looks like this:

Here you can check to see the memory pressure. As you can see in this above image, RAM is in the green, which is good. If it is yellow, that indicates you are running a bit short. If it is red, it suggests you could really use some more RAM. If you currently have 16 GB and the pressure is high, I would say lean towards 32 GB. From what I have read on forums, some of the animation software can be RAM hungry.

For the GPU, any of them should do what you want, but the 5500M will do it better than the 5300M, and the 5600M will do it a lot better than the 5500M. For video editing, the 5600M really excels. It is worth noting if you want to use external displays with the clamshell open, the 5300M and 5500M GPUs will result in higher temps and more fan noise than the 5600M because they are less power efficient. So while both the 5300M and 5500M are plenty capable GPU, the 5600M is a very significant upgrade over both.

For the storage, it depends on what you need. I would check how much you are using currently in Disk Utility or About This Mac. Based on this, I would personally at least double what you currently use given you work with video files. If I was editing videos and storing them on my local SSD, I would probably opt for more than the 1TB I have on my system.

 

[mrstudiomucci]

The spec I have is a 2.3 Ghz i9, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB storage, and the 5600M GPU and I absolutely love it. I originally had a different spec and I returned it for this one. You can now find this spec available as a refurb as well for a few bucks less and it looks like Apple pricing in the US on the 16 inch MBP has been discounted. It was not a cheap system, but I absolutely love it.


For the CPU I would personally say go for the 2.3 GHz i9 as it is not much more in price than the i7. The 2.4 GHz i9 costs a good bit more and it is not a major jump over the 2.3.

For RAM, it really depends on your situation. In your case, when you are editing and things are running slower, I would check the RAM pressure through your Activity Monitor, which looks like this:
View attachment 1679881
Here you can check to see the memory pressure. As you can see in this above image, RAM is in the green, which is good. If it is yellow, that indicates you are running a bit short. If it is red, it suggests you could really use some more RAM. If you currently have 16 GB and the pressure is high, I would say lean towards 32 GB. From what I have read on forums, some of the animation software can be RAM hungry.

For the GPU, any of them should do what you want, but the 5500M will do it better than the 5300M, and the 5600M will do it a lot better than the 5500M. For video editing, the 5600M really excels. It is worth noting if you want to use external displays with the clamshell open, the 5300M and 5500M GPUs will result in higher temps and more fan noise than the 5600M because they are less power efficient. So while both the 5300M and 5500M are plenty capable GPU, the 5600M is a very significant upgrade over both.

For the storage, it depends on what you need. I would check how much you are using currently in Disk Utility or About This Mac. Based on this, I would personally at least double what you currently use given you work with video files. If I was editing videos and storing them on my local SSD, I would probably opt for more than the 1TB I have on my system.

Thanks a lot! I didn't realize that this information was available! Much appreciated! If you don't mind me asking, what do you mostly use your computer for?

 

[ght56]

Thanks a lot! I didn't realize that this information was available! Much appreciated! If you don't mind me asking, what do you mostly use your computer for?

I use it for your standard office purposes where having multiple spreadsheets or documents or presentations open and viewable at the same time with multiple displays is very nice. In addition, I use it for data and economic analysis entailing the use of a variety of apps and also for data visualization.

 

[chrfr]

Thanks a lot! I didn't realize that this information was available! Much appreciated! If you don't mind me asking, what do you mostly use your computer for?

I'd give some thought to waiting as long as you can on this purchase. The Apple Silicon based Macs just released already outperform the 16" MacBook Pro by a wide margin in some tasks. Presumably when the 16" version of these computers is released, most likely some time in 2021, the performance will be even better.