It's still worth a look. He shows the schematics of the various M1 chips and compares each one to the base M1, plus he has some good visual analogies for why having a ton of multiprocessor power doesn't help a lot for normal everyday tasks.
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Do you really need more than base M1?
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It's still worth a look. He shows the schematics of the various M1 chips and compares each one to the base M1, plus he has some good visual analogies for why having a ton of multiprocessor power doesn't help a lot for normal everyday tasks.
I think it's most likely a byproduct of Apple's A-series SOCs only ever being designed with a single fixed-resolution screen in mind, meaning it was probably a challenge to rewrite/redesign everything to even get *two* arbitrary displays supported in time for launch. That seems to line up with the weird glitches some M1 users are having with specific external monitors: there are a lot of different ways monitors can deviate from official DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort standards that other GPU makers have had decades to figure out, meaning there's going to be some first-gen growing pains on the M1's part.
Now that the first generation's had a ton of real-world testing and the display controller team's had over a year to improve their new design further, I'm guessing the M2's DCP will support at least 3 monitors (though maybe not all at 5K).
Agreed. Though I'd add to your statement: The only way we will get top quality Metal games is if Apple itself creates them, or heavily incentivises developers.
Buy two Mac Minis.
M1 is all I need. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t sell a laptop with a 120Hz + high contrast with only the M1, and the largest screen available is only 13”. I’d prefer 15”-16” instead. Also, 16GB of RAM and 1TB are build-to-order options on the MacBook Air, so that starts ratcheting the price up towards the base MacBook Pro which has too much power but has the other things I’d want/need.
My 12.9” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard has been my sort of compromise purchase. M1 + 120Hz high-contrast display. It covers 90% of my needs, but I do miss the power and flexibility of macOS, and I do feel the RAM limitations on the iPad sometimes. Can’t justify spending $2500 on the MacBook Pro model I’d want though. I have a 2018 MBP which is still speedy, but I get frustrated with the 60Hz low-contrast display, short battery life, the butterfly keyboard bugs, and how pretty much anything and everything makes the laptop hot and turns the fans on.
My 12.9” iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard has been my sort of compromise purchase. M1 + 120Hz high-contrast display. It covers 90% of my needs, but I do miss the power and flexibility of macOS, and I do feel the RAM limitations on the iPad sometimes. Can’t justify spending $2500 on the MacBook Pro model I’d want though. I have a 2018 MBP which is still speedy, but I get frustrated with the 60Hz low-contrast display, short battery life, the butterfly keyboard bugs, and how pretty much anything and everything makes the laptop hot and turns the fans on.
most of us don't, but how am I supposed to LARP as a tech enthusiast "content creator" online if I don't have my "pro"/"studio" devices
Do I need it? No. My 12900k/3080ti desktop runs circles around any Mac and laughs while it does it.
Do I want it? Yeah. Mores specifically I want the mini LED 120Hz display on my laptop.
Because of that, I went for the base 14”.
Do I want it? Yeah. Mores specifically I want the mini LED 120Hz display on my laptop.
Because of that, I went for the base 14”.
Thanks, I considered that but Microsoft RDP won't span them both with a single session. I am using Universal Control daily between two Macs - its decent.
Advise me:
I teach online. I sometimes teach via Zoom call, while having PowerPoint open with up to three .PPT files of up to 300 mb each, plus Preview showing two or three PDFs of up to 200 mb each, plus the Photos app with 100,000 photos, Mail, and Music in the background.
I’m doing this on a 2017 iMac 27” with 24 GB of RAM. It is acceptable, but starting to get long in the tooth.
Will a 16 GB M1 Mini do the job for me?
I teach online. I sometimes teach via Zoom call, while having PowerPoint open with up to three .PPT files of up to 300 mb each, plus Preview showing two or three PDFs of up to 200 mb each, plus the Photos app with 100,000 photos, Mail, and Music in the background.
I’m doing this on a 2017 iMac 27” with 24 GB of RAM. It is acceptable, but starting to get long in the tooth.
Will a 16 GB M1 Mini do the job for me?
I’m thinking I’m a 1-1.X container. I’m torn right now between the rumored M1 (or surprise, M2?) 15”ish MacBook, or the 16” MBP with M1 Pro. I genuinely wonder if I would see any benefit at the second container level.
Probably. I don't use Office, but assuming Powerpoint isn't a total hog the file sizes of those and the PDF isn't much. The photos app could be an issue... that's a lot of photos. Check Activity Monitor and look at the Memory tab - how much RAM are you using now?
No, I think it’s got to do with pushing x number of pixels or DisplayPort lanes, and not an intentional omission. Windowserver takes quite a bit of CPU on my m1 13. Even on my 16 when driving 2 4K displays I see it up high or possibly first in activity monitor.
Photos doesn’t keep everything in memory at once.
One of the superpowers of m1 vs intel is the efficiency that it decodes h.264/h.265 + HEIC, making photos, videos, video conferencing super light on the cpu.
So to @Mac47 yes absolutely an iMac 24 16gb will crush your tasks for you.
That might be an argument for an M2. It seems something that would be addressed in the next version of the M-series chips.M1 has enough performance for me, but doesn’t have the monitor support I need
I went from an M1 iMac with 7 core GPU 8 core CPU 8GB RAM to M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16GB RAM. There is simply no comparison. If I could have afforded the M1 Max I would have gone with that. If Apple put M1 Ultra in a MacBook Pro it would be the best laptop on the market they would still have the best laptop on the market, just even faster and better.
Im honestly a bit shocked Apple is giving consumers so many options. Each successive M1 chip is a huge upgrade over the next tier below it.
Im honestly a bit shocked Apple is giving consumers so many options. Each successive M1 chip is a huge upgrade over the next tier below it.
It certainly would. That kind of load would be fine even with the 16GB of RAM. The number of photos is not directly an issue as only 1 full image is loaded at one, though the index loads and Photos is not really nimble with that many photos (I know).
The only thing stopping me from recommending my elderly parents buy an M1 iMac is knowing that an M2 iMac is just around the corner... at least in Australia, unless you're buying very early in product lifecycle (with the usual 10% off sales at various retailers + discounted gift cards), then there's not much savings to be had until the model is about to be replaced or recently superseded.
My usage is mostly developing (Xcode) and audio production.
I've had a MacBook Air M1 for few months and then got M1 Pro (I work for audio software company and we needed machines towards transition to Apple silicon).
Many comments here summs it up well.
The base M1 was a huge game changer. I was surprised how performant it was vs my desktop 10700k at the time.
The M1 Pro on the other hand didn't had the same impact. Its heavier, it gets warmer, it has worse battery.
So when the M1 Pro/Max/Ultra chimes?
- intense multicore work (compiling, rendering)
- intense memory usage (the base M1 supports only 16GB which is the main reason any pro even with enough CPU power might be off the base M1)
I've had a MacBook Air M1 for few months and then got M1 Pro (I work for audio software company and we needed machines towards transition to Apple silicon).
Many comments here summs it up well.
The base M1 was a huge game changer. I was surprised how performant it was vs my desktop 10700k at the time.
The M1 Pro on the other hand didn't had the same impact. Its heavier, it gets warmer, it has worse battery.
So when the M1 Pro/Max/Ultra chimes?
- intense multicore work (compiling, rendering)
- intense memory usage (the base M1 supports only 16GB which is the main reason any pro even with enough CPU power might be off the base M1)
Till a few weeks ago I ran a 2 monitor setup (4k + 1440) on an old Radeon with 3GB, no problem.
Just a bit of reality, 4k is about 8.3 million pixels even with HDR and buffering a dozen windows you could run that on a 512MB GPU. Sure trying to run 3D games at that level would be a no go and the same for demanding productivity apps.
Real reason is, M1 has limited I/O which only allows for 2 screens (or 1 if you go beyond 4k), M1Pro/Max increases that to up to 4x6k + 1x4k (HDMI) and in theory M1Ultra doubles that but on the Studio 2 of the extra TB lines and the 2nd HDMI don't exist and I'm not sure if running screens from the front USB-4/TB port is even an option.
My main issue with the M1 is the 16GB RAM limit. I need 32GB for my workload and that's why I got the Mac Studio, even if it's an overkill otherwise for me. I had a M1 iMac for 10 months and it was very fast and had zero issues with it, but there were times where memory pressure went to yellow and some times to red, so I learned to be more careful how many apps I leave running on the system. Now, with the Mac Studio I don't have to care. Having said that though, even with paging happening on the M1 iMac I never experienced a slow-down, mainly because of the very fast SSDs.
Apple made the differentiator to be RAM and features like external display support. But processing power wise, yes, even the M1 is sufficient for most people. Most people use their computers for internet browsing and YouTube/Netflix. Anything that can decide 4K video smoothly would be fine. Mobile SoCs are even better with their low power requirement and efficiency.
The actual race right now is not in the raw CPU power, but in GPU and Machine Learning. Apple has been focusing on GPU power so that an integrated solution can be powerful. ML and NPU are the other race to build up new and smarter features.
To say the M1 is sufficient to meet most people’s needs is an understatement. It’s far more than sufficient. Most people’s needs are met by an i3, i5, Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 and 256 or 512 SSD. And as long as there is an HDMI port for a larger display they’re good.
My needs are met quite sufficiently by my old 2011 21.5 with an i7, 32GB RAM and a 500GB SSD. Given an M1 iMac is supposedly as capable as a spec’d out (and just discontinued) 27in. Intel iMac then it would likely be enough to replace my current setup. But I could add 16GB and 1TB to be more safely future proofed. That said I can wait to see what M2 has to offer and what the next iMac upgrade has in store.
Of course presently a base Mac Studio would cost about the same, maybe a bit more, than an M1 iMac spec’d as I stated above, and it would be significantly more powerful and likely beyond my needs. But then I would still have to add the keyboard and decent display. Now we’re costing significantly more than the spec’d iMac.
Better for me to wait. And for myself I like the elegance of the AIO solution.
My needs are met quite sufficiently by my old 2011 21.5 with an i7, 32GB RAM and a 500GB SSD. Given an M1 iMac is supposedly as capable as a spec’d out (and just discontinued) 27in. Intel iMac then it would likely be enough to replace my current setup. But I could add 16GB and 1TB to be more safely future proofed. That said I can wait to see what M2 has to offer and what the next iMac upgrade has in store.
Of course presently a base Mac Studio would cost about the same, maybe a bit more, than an M1 iMac spec’d as I stated above, and it would be significantly more powerful and likely beyond my needs. But then I would still have to add the keyboard and decent display. Now we’re costing significantly more than the spec’d iMac.
Better for me to wait. And for myself I like the elegance of the AIO solution.
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The same for me.
My PC is a i9-10850/3080 and is very fast and I have no issues with it.
However I have been tech bored lately and I needed something new to mess around with, so I ordered an M1 iMac.
I don’t like the direction Microsoft is taking with Windows 11. The new interface is horrible in my opinion. It’s like they are changing stuff just for the sake of change.
Huch? Most game companies sell vie stores such as Steam, Epic or GoG. Only the truly big companies that have their own advertising network do direct sales.
To you office people on Mac we like native software for office replacement from LibreOffice! go ahead and pay Microsoft for a lesser stand today on M1!