I have the MacBook Pro M1, 16GB RAM, 1TB SDD: ask me anything

[scatopie]

Excellent thank you so much for taking the time to help me .

Hmm thinking about it, he may have to watch a video or something. It is not straight forward. Here is a video I found, but is incomplete in terms of setting up a License:

In short the workflow is this:
- Download Unity Hub (this is like a project manager)
- From the Hub, Install the actual Unity SDK/Editor (this is what he will use to make games)
- He will be prompted to link a License somewhere down the line
- Will need to create a Unity account first using an email
- Navigate to screen that lets him create a free License with his email
- Finally link his License to the installed Unity Editor/Hub on his computer by signing in
- Then he can start developing with Unity by creating a project, which is also not completely obvious where to navigate in Hub (needs to choose project directory, and then a whole bunch of other options like using different engines underneath).

This should teach him how to use YouTube and the internet, though, haha!

If he wants to deploy to iOS though (test on a phone, etc.), it is like 5x harder than the above, a different conversation haha. Good luck!

 

[ericinboston]

Hi DeanLubaki. I'm in the market to possibly buy the new M1 MBPro or Air. If you download and install DreamLab which is a freeware distributed computing app to look for cures for Cancer and COVID19, how many calculations can your new M1 machine do each hour when you run the COVID19 project? If you don't mind, let it run for 10+ hours and let me know.

Thanks!

 

[matrixsc]

Hmm thinking about it, he may have to watch a video or something. It is not straight forward. Here is a video I found, but is incomplete in terms of setting up a License:

In short the workflow is this:
- Download Unity Hub (this is like a project manager)
- From the Hub, Install the actual Unity SDK/Editor (this is what he will use to make games)
- He will be prompted to link a License somewhere down the line
- Will need to create a Unity account first using an email
- Navigate to screen that lets him create a free License with his email
- Finally link his License to the installed Unity Editor/Hub on his computer by signing in
- Then he can start developing with Unity by creating a project, which is also not completely obvious where to navigate in Hub (needs to choose project directory, and then a whole bunch of other options like using different engines underneath).

This should teach him how to use YouTube and the internet, though, haha!

If he wants to deploy to iOS though (test on a phone, etc.), it is like 5x harder than the above, a different conversation haha. Good luck!

Thank you I'll keep that video saved as it will be a christmas present for him if we do decide to go a head and buy one for him .

Thank you for taking the time to post it for me .

 

[amitdel]

Hi DeanLubaki

I have a Dell Ultrasharp U2415 monitor (1920 x 1200, 60 hz), which I am using with a windows laptop.

Possible to test any M1 laptop with a 1080p display and update if UI / Application Text is TACK SHARP, or a bit blurred?

Holding on to the purchase decision based on this, as I use Excel / Word for 10+ hours / day using U2415.

Thanks!
Amit

 

[khaihuynh2406]

Can you please test the machine when it's on idle and light tasks to see if it uses swap memory or not? I would like to see if it's true that people saying buying 16GB over 8GB will save the SSD lifespan. If they both use swap memory, there is no point to say that. Thank you in advance!

 

[phl92]

Can you please test the machine when it's on idle and light tasks to see if it uses swap memory or not? I would like to see if it's true that people saying buying 16GB over 8GB will save the SSD lifespan. If they both use swap memory, there is no point to say that. Thank you in advance!

Watch new Video of Max Tech. The 16 Gb swaps even more. According to him MacOS is built like this. he has a Mac Pro with 192! GB ram and when only half used it swaps nevertheless

 

[khaihuynh2406]

Watch new Video of Max Tech. The 16 Gb swaps even more. According to him MacOS is built like this. he has a Mac Pro with 192! GB ram and when only half used it swaps nevertheless

That is very interesting to see that even with heavy tasks the 16GB refused to use the rest of physical memory but instead using the swap memory. I think it's just how they work.

 

[beastforum]

For anybody that is interested in X Plane 11, using metal, I ran it on my MBP13” M1 with 16gb ram and getting a solid 30fps at 4K (connected to 32” 4k hdr monitor) with high settings (apart from anti aliasing which I have on low as don’t really need it on a 4K screen). That’s at Innsbruck, Heathrow, Seattle, Manchester international etc which are demanding airports. Astounded really.

 

[ArPe]

Watch new Video of Max Tech. The 16 Gb swaps even more. According to him MacOS is built like this. he has a Mac Pro with 192! GB ram and when only half used it swaps nevertheless

The render cache and temp locations for some apps show up as swap data in Activity Monitor. They will store data in their temp locations regardless how much memory you have because that’s the way the apps are made. But if you have a ton of RAM you can disable the caches and temps for some of those apps. It really depends on what apps you use and what kind of content you throw at them.

Premiere by default creates an MPEG file for video previews (despite what some ijits have said here) which you can control in the Sequence Settings pane.

 

[CheesePuff]

For anybody that is interested in X Plane 11, using metal, I ran it on my MBP13” M1 with 16gb ram and getting a solid 30fps at 4K (connected to 32” 4k hdr monitor) with high settings (apart from anti aliasing which I have on low as don’t really need it on a 4K screen). That’s at Innsbruck, Heathrow, Seattle, Manchester international etc which are demanding airports. Astounded really.

Do you have any comparisons from how it performed from what you had? It’s been years since I used X Plane

 

[Populus]

ooops! I meant 4K

60 or 30Hz?

 

[Populus]

Power Nap seems to no longer be a thing with M1 Macs!

Does this mean apps in the background are put into sleep after some time by default?

 

[CheesePuff]

Does this mean apps in the background are put into sleep after some time by default?

This will be interesting to find out the answer to... wonder if its like iOS where its a background app refresh instead of power nap using the efficiency cores of the M1 to check occasionally

 

[DeanL]

60 or 30Hz?

60

 

[DeanL]

Does this mean apps in the background are put into sleep after some time by default?

I’m not sure I understand your question. Power Nap is about what the Mac does while it’s sleeping, not about apps in the background. I think you’re confusing Power Nap and App Nap.

 

[Hexley]

Fun fact: BootCamp Assistant is present, and according to System Report, it's a universal app (meaning Apple took the time to compile an ARM version of it...)

Observations (to be updated as they come):

• Rosetta needs to be installed
• I have attached pictures of the new bootloader.

Why 1TB storage? Why not $240 2TB external SSD with read/write ~1GB/s?

 

[Populus]

I’m not sure I understand your question. Power Nap is about what the Mac does while it’s sleeping, not about apps in the background. I think you’re confusing Power Nap and App Nap.

Yeah, definitely. Thank you.

 

[beastforum]

Do you have any comparisons from how it performed from what you had? It’s been years since I used X Plane

I don’t unfortunately. I can say that I get the following fps..

4k- 30fps
1440p- 45-48fps
1080p- 60-70fps

They are all with the above airports and everything on high apart from anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering (that’s on the first bar)

Chuffed tbh

Matt

 

[DeanL]

Why 1TB storage? Why not $240 2TB external SSD with read/write ~1GB/s?

Because my previous Mac all had 1TB, and it’s my standard haha!
I use around 300GB and I’m uncomfortable having less than half the total storage available.

 

[hmscott]

Hi DeanLubaki

I have a Dell Ultrasharp U2415 monitor (1920 x 1200, 60 hz), which I am using with a windows laptop.

Possible to test any M1 laptop with a 1080p display and update if UI / Application Text is TACK SHARP, or a bit blurred?

Holding on to the purchase decision based on this, as I use Excel / Word for 10+ hours / day using U2415.

Thanks!
Amit

My Macbook Pro M1 16/2TB connects fine with my LG 27GL650 at 1920x1080 at 60hz fine, but I set it for 144hz which looks better by my eye's.

Text is sharp and easy to read, color is well saturated, I use the LG built-in Game 2 and Vivid gaming pre-set's tuned for optimal sync and frame updating speed.

The MacOS will support HDR as well, but when I turn it on on the Macbook Pro M1 and on the Monitor it's not quite my cup of tea.

For my eyes the Macbook Pro M1 video through HDMI (6-port Hyperdrive USB-C Hub) and DisplayPort (Hyperdrive Thunderbolt 16-port Hub) - both look far better to my eyes as the video output on both HDMI and DisplayPort out of my 2070 Super / 3700x PC.

More info here: Post here your working external display setup | MacRumors Forums

 

[VitoBotta]

What kind of apps do you use? Have you had any issues like high memory pressure etc with 16GB?

 

[DeanL]

What kind of apps do you use? Have you had any issues like high memory pressure etc with 16GB?

I don't really do intensive work (especially since there isn't yet a Virtual Machine for Windows) but memory pressure is just like or better than my Intel Mac!