I am thinking about doing this, just haven't done it yet. Now that I am more into audio production and software development than I was when I got this machine over 2 years ago, especially with Microsoft announcing today they are no longer supporting Visual Studio for Mac, I may have to finally part ways with my base model 2020 M1 13" Pro. I installed Parallels today and Windows 11 and the Windows Visual Studio, and while it all ran fine and built my projects, it just felt slow compared to the M2 Pro videos I have been watching. That and I only have 8GB to go around and it was swapping. And the 256GB really sucks because I had to remove some games. I also get annoyed to have to use DisplayLink to use multiple external displays. I was excited to get back into a Mac back in 2021 and this was fine for my use case, but now my needs are changing. Wish I could upgrade the storage and RAM because I would keep this forever.
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Have you sold or given away your Apple Silicon Mac because you didn't buy a high enough end (or because you bought too low end) of a configuration?
- Thread starter Yebubbleman
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vscode remains an option, but running a VM for dev on an 8gb system is very likely your issue,
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Given that you're doing your builds in Visual Studio, I can certainly understand not wanting to switch to a new IDE, but have you tried XCode? I can also understand how having to use DisplayLink for multiple displays would be annoying.
I have used XCode a bit to make an iOS app or 2 as a "personal project". All I use my Mac for when it comes to coding is personal projects. I use Windows VS at work (we only use Windows for dev where I work) so I am just comfortable with Visual Studio. That and when I use my gaming PC I am using VS in Windows as well. Hard for me to want to switch. I tried VS Code (I think once a couple years ago) and something about it was just annoying to use for MVC apps if memory serves (could be better now).
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For processing raw photos with Lightroom, DXO Photolab, etc, I started with an M1 Pro and 16Gb RAM. The frequency with which the machine started swapping pushed me to swap it for an M1 Max with 32Gb. There is still more swapping than I’d like, but it’s tolerable, part if I switch off big stuff running in the background such as the creative cloud app.
That was when the M1s first became available and the range of readily available configurations was limited. I’d probably go for a 64Gb machine, ideally.
More recently I got an 13” M2 Air 16Gb for travel. The amount of swapping is something to which I turned a blind eye. However, the machine doesn’t have enough grunt to generate high quality previews quickly enough for me, so I got an 14” M2 Max 32Gb instead. It’s not as portable, unfortunately, but there’s always a compromise, but it’s noticeably more responsive than even the M1 Max, for generating higher quality previews. I’ll have a look at the M3 15” Airs when they emerge; the current 15” has the same innards as the 13” (and is not a lot lighter than 14” Pro).
That was when the M1s first became available and the range of readily available configurations was limited. I’d probably go for a 64Gb machine, ideally.
More recently I got an 13” M2 Air 16Gb for travel. The amount of swapping is something to which I turned a blind eye. However, the machine doesn’t have enough grunt to generate high quality previews quickly enough for me, so I got an 14” M2 Max 32Gb instead. It’s not as portable, unfortunately, but there’s always a compromise, but it’s noticeably more responsive than even the M1 Max, for generating higher quality previews. I’ll have a look at the M3 15” Airs when they emerge; the current 15” has the same innards as the 13” (and is not a lot lighter than 14” Pro).
I did. Bought a 13" MBA 8GB/512GB.
To be fair, 50% of the reason I upgraded was eyesight - it seems my eyes were a little fussier @ the 13" size than anything, but by the same token, I have noticed a bit of hanging when I have had multiple tabs open.
We recently sold our house and bought a new one (due to a new job that pays more), and I took the opportunity to buy a MBP 14" 16GB/512GB. Would be nice if I could buy an MBA 14", but it is what it is.
Obviously not as portable as an MBA, but honestly, 99% of the time it's used at home; and it's *more* than portable enough to stick in a backpack and take on vacation or what have you...and the speed/port difference should mean it'll be useful for years to come.
(It also didn't hurt that because I'm getting $750 on trade in *and* a veteran's discount, I'm essentially getting an MPB for 1/2 price.)
To be fair, 50% of the reason I upgraded was eyesight - it seems my eyes were a little fussier @ the 13" size than anything, but by the same token, I have noticed a bit of hanging when I have had multiple tabs open.
We recently sold our house and bought a new one (due to a new job that pays more), and I took the opportunity to buy a MBP 14" 16GB/512GB. Would be nice if I could buy an MBA 14", but it is what it is.
Obviously not as portable as an MBA, but honestly, 99% of the time it's used at home; and it's *more* than portable enough to stick in a backpack and take on vacation or what have you...and the speed/port difference should mean it'll be useful for years to come.
(It also didn't hurt that because I'm getting $750 on trade in *and* a veteran's discount, I'm essentially getting an MPB for 1/2 price.)
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I did, too. Bought a 13" MBA 8GB/256GB, because it was on sale. But the SSD was way too small and I did not want to schlepp around an external SSD. I ended up selling it and buying a 13" MBA 8GB/1TB on the refurb store. Happy camper since then, I need the MBA when I'm out to a client, and I'm syncing the data with iCloud with my office Mini M2 Pro. The size of the SSD was more important to me than the main memory of 8GB.
How and/or why does a machine with 8gb of RAM start to get sluggish? What causes that?
And I'm returning my M2 Mac Mini (entry level) to Costco and bought a new M2 Mac Mini Pro from Best Buy. The reason in my mind was "future proofing" and the 16gb of RAM and people in another thread saying that they got more or better resolutions on a M2 Pro Mac Mini and LG 5k2k (34") monitor than a entry level M2 Mac Mini and same LG 5k2k monitor.
Um, there is no such thing as an M2 iMac.
Many of us are waiting for an updated iMac but Apple appears to have not made it a priority.
You are absolutely right - I apologise for my mistake. It was an M1 iMac - 24 inch
This item may be of mild interest:-
Thanks. But I already know that in general the big change for the next iMac is not going to be CPU performance.
I guess I'm more interested in the following:
1) changes in the ports (Apple doing away with Thunderbolt, which the 2020 iMacs still have). And I want to stay away from USB hubs so I want more than a couple of USB ports.
2) memory limitations - 16GB max may not be sufficient (I want to do play with generative AI, for example), and Apple charges too much to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB anyway.
3) that magic mouse is such a klunker - is it to much to hope that the next iMac will also bring an improvement there?
Now, am I asking too much for Apple to change its stripes, and not charge so much for a RAM upgrade? Perhaps, but I think it is not out of the question that Apple could offer more variety in the base models of the next iMac.
I would guess yes. And if Apple did, I would suspect it would be for a higher end product than the baseline iMac. To act as an inducement for users to trade-up. Not good for the consumer but makes better marketing strategy.
No, because I always max out (or very nearly max out) my hardware when I buy it, even if I'm not sure I'll need to. Always makes for the best user experience, gives me peace of mind, and improves the resale value later when I upgrade to a new model.
The only thing I didn't top out on my MBP was the storage, but I came close. M1 Max MBP, 32 core GPU, 64 GB RAM, 4TB (instead of 8) of storage.
And I've been super happy with it. My plan was always to keep it until the M3s and see what they had to offer. So far based on the rumors, I'm pretty pumped about them but we'll have to wait until next year for the MBP offerings. My current MBP will more than be up to the task until then
The only thing I didn't top out on my MBP was the storage, but I came close. M1 Max MBP, 32 core GPU, 64 GB RAM, 4TB (instead of 8) of storage.
And I've been super happy with it. My plan was always to keep it until the M3s and see what they had to offer. So far based on the rumors, I'm pretty pumped about them but we'll have to wait until next year for the MBP offerings. My current MBP will more than be up to the task until then
Interesting I have a similar philosophy but with one small difference.
I too max everything (except for 4TB instead of 8TB). But my track record is then hold on to hardware for about 10 years, at which time it is either falling apart or you can’t run current software. I just replaced a 27” late 2012 iMac (2nd internal HDD and power supply died), before that a 20” G4 iMac, before that LC475… Also my phone is an iPhone XR and I still see no reason to update that either
While you are considering replacing your (3 year old ?) M1 with an M3. As a result you are the type of customer Apple loves, as compared to me-the type of customer they don’t care about at all.
Nope. I bought an M1 Mac Mini at launch with an 8GB/512GB configuration and it was perfectly configured for pretty much everything: ran Parallels just fine, did games just fine, etc. Got rid of it because I've come to the conclusion Mac Minis are cursed with bad bluetooth and random display problems (or at least the two I have owned).
Got a 8GB/512GB M1 Macbook Air after that which I also sold after a few months, but not because of any issues: I just loved it so much that I wanted to upgrade to a Macbook Pro M1 for bigger display and better speakers. I did however spec it out as much as I reasonably could (M1 Max, 32GB RAM, 1TB), without hitting the insane Apple upgrade tax that happens beyond a certain point, because every Mac I have had (besides the Minis) has lasted 5+ years and I want it to still do everything I need at that point.
Got a 8GB/512GB M1 Macbook Air after that which I also sold after a few months, but not because of any issues: I just loved it so much that I wanted to upgrade to a Macbook Pro M1 for bigger display and better speakers. I did however spec it out as much as I reasonably could (M1 Max, 32GB RAM, 1TB), without hitting the insane Apple upgrade tax that happens beyond a certain point, because every Mac I have had (besides the Minis) has lasted 5+ years and I want it to still do everything I need at that point.
With only dual and quad-core Intel Macs to compare to, I can't say that I truly understand what a "sluggish" entry-level octa-core M1 is supposed to mean? I wouldn't know I'm using 1.6 GB swap memory, if I wouldn't monitor all my stats. I'm convinced memory and storage size make no performance difference whatsoever. My download folder lives on an external SSD and would outgrow any internal drive anyway. 256 GB is enough for the OS and all productivity apps you can possibly want to. I'd only recommend more when raytracing and tripple-A gaming is coming to the Mac. Apple needs to offer something more than just a spec bump, if they want to convince me to upgrade ever again.
He's approaching it ('perfect Apple customer') but not quite - at least it's not every year/new model.
I keep mine as long as in feasible - which amounts to one of two things:
1. I am now hard-limit constrained - out of storage or RAM to the point of hitting significant issues (e.g. beachballs), compute becoming painful for work being done, etc.
2. Can see I'm closing in on being hard-limit constrained soon AND I really want something from the <other model>.
Apple's base hw is $ enough that their upgrade cost insanity makes it almost unpalatable once you're into higher end options, so I usually buy 'a bit of room for today's uses' + 1. e.g. I was buying 1TB storage when I was ok at time of purchase with ~512GB (that's been a bit), although was stuck before the 2019 MBP with no option > 16GB RAM - system at the time (2015MBP 16GB 1TB) was hitting both RAM and storage limits, so jumped almost immediately to 2019 MBP16 32GB 2TB, which would still be sufficient for my needs today, other than of course, the Intel abandonment/shift to AS.... so I picked up a refurbed 1 year old (actual, not model year) M1 Max MBP14 with 64GB and 2TB) - working in tech there's no way I can get 10 years from any system, but my general target is at least 4-5. My move from the 2019MBP to the '2021' M1 Max (in 2023, ~1.5 months ago) was probably the shortest cycle for me at ~3.5 years and I could have gone longer, but came across a reasonably solid deal. Right now I'm expecting my refurbed M1 Max to last me at least into M4 territory.
Purchased a maxed out M1 Mini (except 10GbE) a year and a half ago to replace a mid-range 27" Intel iMac (6C 3.7GHz, 580X GPU, 24GB RAM, 2TB SSD), and have been pretty happy with it. Lately, I've seen more and more memory swaps when leaving Safari, Plex server, Music, Mail, downloading software, and Steam games open, so I started researching the next best screen-less thing Apple offered. Opted for a refurb M2 Pro Mini (arriving today), and sold my M1 last week for only a couple hundred dollar loss. So...
M1 Mini 8C/8C 16GB RAM 2TB SSD --> M2 Pro Mini 12C/19C 32GB RAM 2TB SSD.
I probably could've waited for a 4TB SSD M2 Pro to pop up on the refurb store, but I wasn't willing to crest $2500 for what's basically a Plex server that plays games occasionally and delivers my mail. Plus, the price Apple had this refurb listed at was a decent amount below any other retailer's new listing by a couple hundred dollars. Hopefully this one will last a good 3-5 years.
M1 Mini 8C/8C 16GB RAM 2TB SSD --> M2 Pro Mini 12C/19C 32GB RAM 2TB SSD.
I probably could've waited for a 4TB SSD M2 Pro to pop up on the refurb store, but I wasn't willing to crest $2500 for what's basically a Plex server that plays games occasionally and delivers my mail. Plus, the price Apple had this refurb listed at was a decent amount below any other retailer's new listing by a couple hundred dollars. Hopefully this one will last a good 3-5 years.
It's a weakness. Faster, stronger, better, etc. Since I do so much work on these machines, even moderate upgrades improve my quality of life noticeably.
And if that weren't entirely obvious, one could just scan your iPhone history in your signature to get that impression.
You even upgraded through 'S' revisions and only skipped the 8? OMG.
Mine: 1st gen -> 3GS -> 6 -> X -> 11 Pro Max. Current: 11 Pro Max.
Wife: <some crap> -> my inherited 6 -> my inherited X -> iPhone 14.
I haven't done this or felt the need to with my Apple Computers. I have Mac Mini M2 16G RAM and 256GB Storage configuration. I Use external storage if I need to store anything on it. For my computing needs it's so far been plenty. I never hit the page swap. I also bought a Macbook Air M2 in the base model configuration. As my mobile needs are even less demanding. It's basically my overpriced backyard laptop while I enjoy a cigar watching a youtube video. OR listening to a podcast. The Mac Mini M2 is my daily driver at home. And since I only use it to consume Youtube or similar and general internet surfing, banking, shopping. As well as Listen to audiophile music. None of which are super demanding on this hardware configuration. I have been pleasantly surprised. Especially being that was 100% windows only for the longest time. I still rock my gaming rig which is WIndows self built i7 13th Gen, 32GB RAM, and Storage galore.
With phones on the other hand I have done this.
With phones on the other hand I have done this.
And if that weren't entirely obvious, one could just scan your iPhone history in your signature to get that impression.
You even upgraded through 'S' revisions and only skipped the 8? OMG.
Mine: 1st gen -> 3GS -> 6 -> X -> 11 Pro Max. Current: 11 Pro Max.
Wife: <some crap> -> my inherited 6 -> my inherited X -> iPhone 14.
Haha, yeah. I 'skipped' the 8 because the 8 and X were released at basically the same time. They were announced simultaneously, and the X was only a couple of months behind the 8, so, went from 7 to X.