In which situations is a maxed out M1 Pro not enough?

[mr_roboto]

The M1 Max is somewhat faster than the base M1, but I still get regular beach balls in our Excel Model. The increase in speed is not night and day either. What’s odd is that the CPU isn’t typically maxed out, except briefly when filtering and unfiltering the large datasets. But I don’t see the CPU really struggling, especially when it beach balls. It is annoying that the M1 Max doesn’t solve the issue.

Excel is not really capable of utilizing more than one CPU core, and doesn't use the GPU at all for spreadsheet recalculations, so it's not too surprising you didn't see much change. Unlike Intel Macs, all M1 Macs have nearly identical single-threaded speed. ("Nearly" because plain M1's highest single-thread frequency is 3204 MHz, and M1 Pro/Max bumped that to 3228 MHz, which is only a 24 MHz gain.) The only thing the Max has which can help is more memory, but if your dataset fit in the base M1's memory just fine, that's not an advantage either.

As a rule of thumb, if you are using Excel to do heavy computation on large datasets, you are probably using the wrong tool for the job.

 

[darngooddesign]

My question is this: how many of you have purchased this high-end configuration of M1 Pro (again with 10 CPU Cores, 16 GPU Cores, and 32GB of RAM) and found that you needed more power/performance than this?

The M1 Pro is under-powered for 3D rendering. Since it is a hobby for me, instead of work, I decided to save the $600 and just deal with longer render times; I just do something else while it is rendering. To be frank I don't really notice it much when rendering 720p sizes, just when I want a high-res image.

 

[Anox]

As someone with iMac 2019 that does 3D as a hobby I was really interested in hearing some of the answers here, simply telling me it cuts rendering is a given yet I wanted to read some usecases from apps (I mainly use blender) to actual scenario usually I do simple characters so I don’t have much going on.

 

[profcutter]

I see. thanks for explaining! and hey the 2015 is a SICK and classic computer. i have a new 14 inch and i love it (best mac ive ever used), but im not lying when I say that there are times I miss the one you have. and also... by the time you do upgrade your computer its gonna be some crazy new chip that blows the m1 family out of the water!

No worries! And yeah, I’m not bagging on the 2015, it’s just getting a bit long in the tooth, and I’m ready to upgrade, but my finances say otherwise. Eventually, I suppose I’ll get a used Mx MacBook Pro, but I’ve been priced out of the market, just how these things work. It’s OK for now, much of what I do I can do on my iPad Pro for now, and I use the 2015 for the more heavy lifting, but it’s showing its age, with flaky USB and Thunderbolt ports. I think the OP’s question is an interesting one, I’m glad to see folks responding to it.

 

[aevan]

I didn't move the goal-post, my ORIGINAL question is how many people (and for which situations) did one purchase that M1 Pro configuration and find that it wasn't enough.

Those that thought that the GPU of the M1 Pro would be enough, but it turned out they needed more GPU power

As for the RAM situation, you don't need more RAM unless you know you need more RAM, so people who knew they needed 64Gb bought the M1 Max and most people are actually fine with 16Gb RAM (despite so many people on MRF arbitrarily deciding that they need more) so I doubt anyone got 32 and then found out that wasn't enough.

 

[Larabee119]

It’s either RAM or GPU requirements. I had the pro 32GB and the max 64GB and my RAM usage is always around 50GB so, the Pro constantly writing to nvme for swap.

 

[anthony13]

Is it Universal/Native yet? I guess it being a mainly CPU intensive app might still cause both to max out. Would be interesting to see to what degree it's using your GPU cores.

It is native. Actually I'd love any recommendations on software for moderating system usage.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

As someone with iMac 2019 that does 3D as a hobby I was really interested in hearing some of the answers here, simply telling me it cuts rendering is a given yet I wanted to read some usecases from apps (I mainly use blender) to actual scenario usually I do simple characters so I don’t have much going on.

I think Apple’s done a good job with Apple Silicon and Xcode’s compiling for it, but AS is still just under 2 years old. Most developers are still trying to get a handle on how to code most efficiently for it (or determining if it’s even worth the effort because Rosetta is pretty darn good). I was watching a video recently about someone rewriting Super Mario 64 based on what’s been learned about how the N64 works since those days, and the amount of power that was left unused due to various reasons was remarkable. In the same way, something that, due to what developers know, currently seems to require a Max may in the future be able to be done on a Pro. Even understanding that some of this is coming forward from iOS, Intel/AMD/Nvidia performance tweaks have been worked on for years more, we’re just getting started with Apple Silicon.

 

[MayaUser]

For me for example...if Apple brings me 128 gpu cores...i will take it
For now, the Ultra is not scaling as much as i thought but its still magnificent and better than my m1 max for Maya

 

[clevins]

Oh yay, a 3rd (or is it 4th) post trying to say that no one needs the Max.

What is it with all of you people trying to police what other people buy? These posts never come at it from the "I'm trying to decide, here are my use cases" it's always "Why does anyone need this?"

Then you tell them and they keep going "No, that's not what I'm looking for"

OP and others - some people have valid needs for the Max. The replies here and in the other threads outline plenty of needs for this. Is there some other reason you keep asking this?

I think the OP is frustrated because they were looking for real world examples of a maxed-out pro not cutting the mustard. As in specific cases. I can’t add any, because I’m cruising around on a 2015, much to my chagrin, but I think they wanted folks to say something like: I was using AE with 6k footage, x number of layers, and the Pro started chugging away. I upgraded to the Max, and it was able to do 5 more layers… or something like that.

Sure, but how many people have bought a Pro, run into cases like that then bought a second expensive machine? I'm sure there are cases out there where people have done it, but it's going to be a really small number of folks.

 

[profcutter]

Oh yay, a 3rd (or is it 4th) post trying to say that no one needs the Max.

What is it with all of you people trying to police what other people buy? These posts never come at it from the "I'm trying to decide, here are my use cases" it's always "Why does anyone need this?"

Then you tell them and they keep going "No, that's not what I'm looking for"

OP and others - some people have valid needs for the Max. The replies here and in the other threads outline plenty of needs for this. Is there some other reason you keep asking this?

Sure, but how many people have bought a Pro, run into cases like that then bought a second expensive machine? I'm sure there are cases out there where people have done it, but it's going to be a really small number of folks.

Right, it may be a marginal case, but seems like that’s what the OP was looking for. Not policing other people’s purchases but just trying to understand what the extra power was useful for in everyday work. I think it’s a reasonable question.

 

[clevins]

never mind.