Is this a good opportunity to upgrade to a 14" M2 MBP from a 2013 15" Intel MBP at a discount?

[thomgloams]

Looking for arguments for and against this idea and which M2 chip (even an M1) would be best value:

- MUST upgrade my 2013 15" Intel MBP asap, no question there, it's kaput
- Was waiting for M3 event to hedge any major improvements to M2. AFAIK, I don't believe so.
- Upside: Last Gen M2 line likely to be discounted now for a machine of arguably equal (possibly better) performance to a new M3.

Concerns:
- Availability of custom builds from Apple or 3rd parties.
- Want to avoid the slower HD performance of the single SSD configs in some of the M2. (Where they used 1x256GB or 1x512GB instead of 2x128GB or 2x256GB SSD)
- Do all MBP have internal fan? Def need one for high compute tasks, which rules out at least MB Air.
- Is 16GB of 2023 RAM w M2 proportional to 16GB 2013 RAM w Intel or should my base be higher? (Running several pro-audio apps + video)

Specs required [ ' ≥ ' means equal to or greater than]:
- ≥ Any M2 Chip since I'm coming from 15" 2013 Intel. (Base, Pro, Max, maybe M1?)
- ≥14" Display, <16"
- ≥16GB RAM
- ≥512GB SSD (in dual ≥256GB SSDs configs)
- support for ≥ 1 external HD monitor
- Internal Fan
- Balance between future proofing and value

Any reason I should still be considering an M3 base/pro/max vs M2 base/pro/max? Should M1 be in this equation since I'm used to a 10+ yr old MBP?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers

 

[maerz001]

Definitely M1 pro is light years ahead to your 2013.

14” or 16” is up to you. All 512GB have the faster SSD.

Since you don’t mention your tasks we don’t know what to tell u about specifications.

Buy from apple refurb or discount from 3rd party.

 

[thomgloams]

Thanks! I figured pro-audio was general enough tasks wise but here's some more specifics:
- Running large Pro Tools HD digital audio sessions (64+ tracks playback but from external drive)
- 50-100 Native plugins, multiple software synths, soft samples, MIDI I/O
- playback of digital video (720, 1080 rez) synchronous with audio sessions, displayed on 2nd 20" LCD
- Non real-time rendering of 30 - 60 min Stereo audio files that have DSP to calculate while also combining non-contiguous regions into a single file.
(I'm used to waiting about 5 - 8 minutes per render for this, painful)

- General Photoshop use, nothing fancy
- Running Logic X in the background and/or other standalone app. Typical app requirements ~10 at a time plus Browsing, downloading files.

- Decent WiFi (used to a 56k baud dial up. Takes 36 hours to download mp3. Hoping for <24 hours)

- Large Excel sheets with API feeds, real time calcs, medium complexity scripts.
- The dial up modem was joke 😂

- Biggest "upgrade" looking forward to is how many plugins can I run native on an M1 or M2 (base, pro, max, etc) vs on my Intel i5 which was about 25 before it came to a screeching halt. I'm guessing ~100 maybe w upgrade?

Thanks again!
Cheers

Edit: As this is a mobile rig with a bunch of accessories, I'm thinking a 14" for extra portability yet close enough to my 15" habits. Am I limiting myself ruling out a 16" ?

Tbh, I haven't held or played with a modern MacBook pro for years. My 2013 15" weighs about 4.5 - 5 lbs. (~2 kilos). Not sure how much of a difference today's machines are in this respect.

 

[lowkey]

If you can find a NOS 14” MBP M1Pro 16/512 or 1TB the. It will do all that. I run shed loads of plugins in Cubase.

The main issue is updating everything to Apple Silicon native so you don’t need to run under Rosetta.

Even after 2 years I still have a few plugins by d16 that aren’t native and force Cubase to run in Rosetta.

That said even using Rosetta I’m running loads and loads of plugins and VIs. In fact I’ve never hit the limit on this machine whereas I did with my previous 16” MBP i9.

 

[thomgloams]

If you can find a NOS 14” MBP M1Pro 16/512 or 1TB the. It will do all that. I run shed loads of plugins in Cubase.

The main issue is updating everything to Apple Silicon native so you don’t need to run under Rosetta.

Even after 2 years I still have a few plugins by d16 that aren’t native and force Cubase to run in Rosetta.

That said even using Rosetta I’m running loads and loads of plugins and VIs. In fact I’ve never hit the limit on this machine whereas I did with my previous 16” MBP i9.

Very interesting. So you don't think I'd get a cost-to-value boost by looking for NOS M2Pros ? Such that an M1 for my purposes would be plenty and I could potentially use the savings for upping the RAM or other goodies?

As I said, I've been out of the loop for some time but it's tough to get past the psychological part of buying a 1st Gen Apple silicon for a machine I'd like to use as long as I did my Intel 2013 - 10 legit years of value for something I paid somewhere between $2100 - $2500 for at the time.
If I could repeat that price range for a 10 year value I'm golden w a ~$210 - 250 ish/year cost of equipment for this investment.

Anyone have a counter to sell me on an M2?
Thanks again!

 

[lowkey]

If you are looking to get the M2Pro, you just need to make sure you get the one with 8 Performance Cores. That is called the 12 Core Model. Don't get the 10 Core M2Pro as that only has 6 Performance Cores and 4 Efficiency Cores.

The M1 Pro chip you want is the 10 Core model. 8P 2E.

Confusing.

If you can get an M2Pro for the same price as the M1 Pro, both with 8 Performance cores, then go for the M2.
Otherwise the M1 Pro with 8P cores will do what you want.

 

[thomgloams]

If you are looking to get the M2Pro, you just need to make sure you get the one with 8 Performance Cores. That is called the 12 Core Model. Don't get the 10 Core M2Pro as that only has 6 Performance Cores and 4 Efficiency Cores.

The M1 Pro chip you want is the 10 Core model. 8P 2E.

Confusing.

If you can get an M2Pro for the same price as the M1 Pro, both with 8 Performance cores, then go for the M2.
Otherwise the M1 Pro with 8P cores will do what you want.

This is great info! Thanks I wasn't aware of this detail.

The last thing I'm having trouble finding an answer to is regarding the SSD NAND configuration.

From what I've gathered, there are M1 MBP with 4 chips to achieve the storage: such as for 512GB they had 4x128GB SSDs.

Then the M2 came out and seems like some configs had 2x256GB to achieve 512GB storage. Which some tests showed it to be on par or slightly less R/W speeds than the 4 chip M1.

But then I read some M2 Pros have 1x512GB to achieve 512GB storage and those were significantly underperforming. Def don't want that.

But now I can't seem to figure out which M2 has the dual chips for 512GB SSD. I'm not concerned about the performance between a 4 chip SSD vs a 2 chip.

So, what I'm looking for (I think) is:
- 14" MacBook Pro M2 Pro
- 12 core version (w 8 performance Cores)
- 512GB (via 2x256GB SSD chips, NOT a single 1x512GB chip)
- 16GB RAM (32GB if necessary w the above specs)

Does this exist?
Or is the only way to ensure dual SSD is upgrading an M2 Pro to 1TB via 2x512GB SSD chips?

Thanks again for any help!
Cheers