GPU cores and external monitors

[Betonmischer]

Hello folks,

I was reading through a lot of posts regarding the new MBPs and also ordered the base 14 inch model with PSU upgrade. This will perfectly serve my needs (office work, light software development) most likely is already an overkill. However, I would love to go for an M1 MBA, but the showstopper was the one external screen limitation. Thus I would love to go for an MBP.

Now here comes the question: I am using two wide screen displays (34 inch, 27 inch) with WQHD resolution and refresh rates of 100 (34 Inch) and 165 (27 inch). Typically I am not doing any GPU intensive tasks such as rendering etc. Do you feel that the base model will be capable of ensuring a smooth and performant experience or would you feel that a GPU upgrade, e.g to 16 cores, may make sense?

I know it is hard to say at this point in time without any real world benchmarks, however an indication would be sufficient.

Thanks

 

[rtkane]

Someone may say my comparisons are invalid because I'm not sure if I'm looking at this the right way or the refresh rates will make more of a difference than I'm thinking, but since nobody else has replied, I'll throw out some numbers. I'd love to hear if anyone has any other insight into this as well or if I'm just completely off-base here. I also don't run any super GPU intensive tasks so not sure what this would do in a gaming environment and can't speak to that.

Your WQHD displays (3440x1440) are pushing out 4.95 million pixels each. Round it up to 5 million each so you're rendering 10 million pixels.

I currently have a 2016 MBP with two LG 27" UltraFine 5k monitors attached. The total pixels on each of these is 14.7 million per screen (5120 x 2880), or just under 30 million total. Up until this last year, I've never had an issue with my Mac rendering these two screens plus the built in display (another 2.3 million pixels) and having a smooth experience. This past year, the fans ramp up to max and I'm getting some throttling (age? software issue? I don't know) so decided it's time to replace it--I was going to go with the MBA M1 last year, but that chip can't support multiple monitors (as you know). However, when I hook up my wife's M1 MBA to the 5k screen, it's super smooth and no problem.

I bought the 14" with the 10/16 core with 16gb. This will be a monster upgrade for me coming from the 2016 MBP and I don't think I'll have ANY issues driving the displays. I don't think you would either with any of the new M1 Pro chips, including the 14 core GPU. But you'll at least have 14 days to find out with Apple's return policy!

 

[Betonmischer]

Someone may say my comparisons are invalid because I'm not sure if I'm looking at this the right way or the refresh rates will make more of a difference than I'm thinking, but since nobody else has replied, I'll throw out some numbers. I'd love to hear if anyone has any other insight into this as well or if I'm just completely off-base here. I also don't run any super GPU intensive tasks so not sure what this would do in a gaming environment and can't speak to that.

Your WQHD displays (3440x1440) are pushing out 4.95 million pixels each. Round it up to 5 million each so you're rendering 10 million pixels.

I currently have a 2016 MBP with two LG 27" UltraFine 5k monitors attached. The total pixels on each of these is 14.7 million per screen (5120 x 2880), or just under 30 million total. Up until this last year, I've never had an issue with my Mac rendering these two screens plus the built in display (another 2.3 million pixels) and having a smooth experience. This past year, the fans ramp up to max and I'm getting some throttling (age? software issue? I don't know) so decided it's time to replace it--I was going to go with the MBA M1 last year, but that chip can't support multiple monitors (as you know). However, when I hook up my wife's M1 MBA to the 5k screen, it's super smooth and no problem.

I bought the 14" with the 10/16 core with 16gb. This will be a monster upgrade for me coming from the 2016 MBP and I don't think I'll have ANY issues driving the displays. I don't think you would either with any of the new M1 Pro chips, including the 14 core GPU. But you'll at least have 14 days to find out with Apple's return policy!

Wow, thank you such much for your feedback and help - this is highly appreciated. I currently have ordered both models (8/14 core & 10/16 core, both 16GB). Delivery date is in four weeks, thus there will be some time to watch upcoming benchmarks etc.

I know there is a constant discussion on buying a future proof model. I feel that we are still at the very beginning of a great new SoC (which even now is already great, but there still will be huge improvements). Thus most likely it makes more sense to save the money and upgrade earlier. On top of that, I am not the one using a laptop for more than four to five years.

Hmmm...considering all the above makes the 8/14 model most likely the most reasonable pick, but still I would feel a bit more secure in upgrading to 10/16 ;-).

 

[leman]

I think you are massively overestimating the difficulty of driving multiple displays. It is not a GPU-heavy task at all. Even an older Intel integrated GPU can do it fairly competently, and here you have something that’s almost 10x faster, with 5x memory bandwidth.

The base 14“ will be perfectly fine for your use case, I’m just not sure it wI’ll support the 165hz refresh rateof your second monitor.