Developers - Best M4 MacBook Pro Configuration

[geoxd]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to use the new M4 MacBook Pro primarily for SaaS product development. I'm not sure yet what the SaaS product will be, but it will mostly likely include web development but potentially also include some data science / machine learning, I'm not sure yet.

Could anyone recommend the best configuration (which M4 chip, how many cores, RAM, storage) for a balance between development power and price? I'm currently leaning towards the M4 Pro (base). If you’re in a similar developer role, I’d love to hear what’s working well for you.

Thanks!

 

[kzly]

I am by no means an expert but additional information such as which development (e.g., web, mobile (cross platform or native) could give you more accurate answers. For example, I think iOS development definitely benefits from more rams compared to web development.

 

[dmccloud]

If data science/ML is part of your potential usage case, I'd lean towards the M4 Max. The additional CPU and GPU cores coupled with the increased memory bandwidth will be beneficial for those uses. If you upgrade anything above the base spec, I'd recommend the RAM and SoC over the storage. With Thunderbolt 5 on the new Pros, external storage will be almost as fast as the internal and cost a lot less. I have a pair of TB4 external SSDs I use with my MBP, then I have a flush-mount SD card adapter with a 1TB Micro SD card in the Mac for storing files that don't need high bandwidth to access or use.