M1 Pro: 8 core vs 10 core CPU

[MarkAtl]

Thanks very much. So you've gone the 8 core and 16 gb then? How much RAM did you have on your M1?

I bought the base 8/256 M1 MBP a year ago, and just ordered the base M1 Pro 8 core 16/512.

For whatever reason 8GB wasn’t quite enough but I generally buy base models (or slightly upgraded) and then trade in and upgrade every couple of years. If I had 16GB in the M1 I wouldn’t have gone for the 14” yet.

 

[EugW]

I bought the base 8/256 M1 MBP a year ago, and just ordered the base M1 Pro 8 core 16/512.

For whatever reason 8GB wasn’t quite enough but I generally buy base models (or slightly upgraded) and then trade in and upgrade every couple of years. If I had 16GB in the M1 I wouldn’t have gone for the 14” yet.

Yes, I find that with heavy Office and browser usage, at least on an Intel machine, 8 GB is sometimes not enough but 12 GB is fine. The 16 GB on my 2017 12" MacBook is more than fine, and should last me many more years. (That is, if the keyboard holds up. Those butterfly keyboards have a bad reputation for longevity.)

BTW, while the 12" MacBook's performance isn't exactly blistering fast, it's more than adequate for Office use. Its performance is also fine even when driving an external 1600p monitor. However, the Apple M1 non-Pro in the Air blows my Intel M3 out of the water. It's literally 5X as fast. 5X! That's why I'm saying getting a 32 GB M1 Pro just for Office and Chrome is a total waste of money.

 

[MarkAtl]

Yes, I find that with heavy Office and browser usage, at least on an Intel machine, 8 GB is sometimes not enough but 12 GB is fine. The 16 GB on my 2017 12" MacBook is more than fine, and should last me many more years. (That is, if the keyboard holds up. Those butterfly keyboards have a bad reputation for longevity.)

BTW, while the 12" MacBook's performance isn't exactly blistering fast, it's more than adequate for Office use. Its performance is also fine even when driving an external 1600p monitor. However, the Apple M1 non-Pro in the Air blows my Intel M3 out of the water. It's literally 5X as fast. 5X! That's why I'm saying getting a 32 GB M1 Pro just for Office and Chrome is a total waste of money.

I still have my 2017 12" 16/i7 as well, won't get rid of it as it's a great portable travel notebook for vacation, etc.

 

[yitwail]

I’m going with 14 in. 8/14 cores, 32gb, 1tb, and 96 watt adapter. That should be plenty for web development, though 10 cores is tempting.

 

[badsimian]

I’m going with 14 in. 8/14 cores, 32gb, 1tb, and 96 watt adapter. That should be plenty for web development, though 10 cores is tempting.

Same…although extra cores might mean using more power. Wish I’d added the 20 upgrade power adapter now but hey ho. Not willing to lose my place in the queue.

 

[Vazor]

Same…although extra cores might mean using more power. Wish I’d added the 20 upgrade power adapter now but hey ho. Not willing to lose my place in the queue.

Yeah I actually considered it, but I never really had to charge my MacBook quickly so I’m good. It’s also a bit better for your battery to charge it slower.

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

But you still pay the additional cost of the 32GB even if you choose the Max - it isn't like that 32GB is "free" because you went Max. It will cost you $600 extra to go 1TB/32GB but $1300 extra to go Max/1TB/32GB

No. Max comes with 32Gb RAM.

 

[badsimian]

No. Max comes with 32Gb RAM.

No it is ony available with 32GB - that isn't the same thing. Try it, click on the Max CPU option, the price doesn't just go up by the increase of the CPU price, it goes up by the increase of the CPU price plus the 32GB RAM upgrade.

 

[Appledoesnotlisten]

No it is ony available with 32GB - that isn't the same thing. Try it, click on the Max CPU option, the price doesn't just go up by the increase of the CPU price, it goes up by the increase of the CPU price plus the 32GB RAM upgrade.

I tried, and it seems that choosing a Base option and adding extra RAM, GPU and SSD will yield you the same exact Max for the normal price of Max, right? So I can get a Max by going two different routes?

 

[ignaciobarrena]

I read lots of people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU... Now I don't know if I screwed up my order haha, I've ordered the 14" M1 Pro base config ( 8C + 14C) with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

I'm upgrading from a rMBP 13" 2015 with i5 2,7Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. My only "Pro" usage will be music production (Ableton Live 11),DJ-ing using Traktor, Lightroom and in the near future I plan on learning Final Cut or Premiere (nothing crazy).

In monday's event, Apple showed some graphs and If I understood them correctly, the M1 Pro 10C +16C GPU should be around 70% faster than last year M1. If the base M1 Pro has 8 cores instead of 10, we can asume that it would be roughly 50% faster, so we can expect a single core Geekbench 5 of around 2500. With these assumptions, the M1 Pro base config should be around x3,5 times faster in single-core and x6 times faster in multi-core, am I right?

Giving my usage, I think that the 8C + 14C with 16GB of Unified Memory (faster and more efficient than RAM If I'm not wrong) and a x7 times faster SSD should be plenty and I will notice big improvements in performance.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Beau10]

The entry level 14" MacBook Pro should be faster in both CPU & GPU than 2019 entry level 16" MacBook Pro. Not only that the display will be better & the speakers should be on par or better. For most people though an m1 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM will more than suffice.

I think it will actually be faster than the i9 - this was proven out w/ the M1 laptops.

 

[Beau10]

In monday's event, Apple showed some graphs and If I understood them correctly, the M1 Pro 10C +16C GPU should be around 70% faster than last year M1. If the base M1 Pro has 8 cores instead of 10, we can asume that it would be roughly 50% faster, so we can expect a single core Geekbench 5 of around 2500.

The M1 has 4 hi performance cores, while the 8 proc pro has 6 and 10 proc has 8. The 8 proc M1 pro is likely going to be more like high 30-ish faster, as I imagine only the high cores will be engaged in benchmarks. IIRC the single core speeds are supposed to be similar between M1 and M1 pro.

Going for the next level up stock config if you're going to really tax the CPU/GPU and need a 1 gig hd is not a terrible idea... if you need it. But keep in mind, the original M1 is a very high performing chip, beating out the 8 core i9 in the last 16".

Is it worth spending about 15% more for 25% more or overall speed? Coming from a 5 year old laptop the base M1 Pro is a crazy fast processor. Personally, I would recommend spending less now and upgrading more frequently, esp. with this new processor class that is likely to see significant speed bumps with each iteration.

 

[jacobluecke]

I read lots of people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU... Now I don't know if I screwed up my order haha, I've ordered the 14" M1 Pro base config ( 8C + 14C) with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

I'm upgrading from a rMBP 13" 2015 with i5 2,7Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. My only "Pro" usage will be music production (Ableton Live 11),DJ-ing using Traktor, Lightroom and in the near future I plan on learning Final Cut or Premiere (nothing crazy).

In monday's event, Apple showed some graphs and If I understood them correctly, the M1 Pro 10C +16C GPU should be around 70% faster than last year M1. If the base M1 Pro has 8 cores instead of 10, we can asume that it would be roughly 50% faster, so we can expect a single core Geekbench 5 of around 2500. With these assumptions, the M1 Pro base config should be around x3,5 times faster in single-core and x6 times faster in multi-core, am I right?

Giving my usage, I think that the 8C + 14C with 16GB of Unified Memory (faster and more efficient than RAM If I'm not wrong) and a x7 times faster SSD should be plenty and I will notice big improvements in performance.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake?

Thanks in advance!

I bought the same configuration, which I'll use for making songs in Logic and doing video work in Final Cut.

I've stressed about the processor and possibly needing more RAM someday — I've never had problems with 16 gigs up until now.

I've wondered the same things about how much more powerful this will be than the M1 Pro and whether the 10 core processor would make a big difference — so I'm glad you asked these questions. I guess we'll know all the answers on Tuesday. For now I'm sitting tight with my order knowing that this computer will be a huge improvement over my current 2012 Mac mini, which actually still works pretty well for what I do.

When I got this mini I remember stressing over whether to get the 2.3 or 2.6 GHz processor, and settling for the 2.3 to save money. I never regretted that at all and it didn't seem to make much of a difference over the years. I'm hoping this will be the same way.

 

[peter1984]

Oh man, so glad I found this thread.

I got the 8 core base 14 + 32gb + 1tb. Any more CPUs felt like overkill since the bottleneck in modern programming is memory, not speed of compilation. Either Java IDEs or VMs eat up memory.

With respect to space, I didn't want to have to think about it at all for the next few years. 1TB seemed to meet that desire.

My one concern is that the 8-core is somehow gimped in other ways, maybe slower SSDs or something silly like that. On the flip side, fewer cores means better battery. I can imagine how compiling on the road will tax all the cores and cause the battery to drain on the 10-core version mucho fasto. We'll have to wait for the reviews to really see.

 

[badsimian]

I tried, and it seems that choosing a Base option and adding extra RAM, GPU and SSD will yield you the same exact Max for the normal price of Max, right? So I can get a Max by going two different routes?

Correct yes

 

[badsimian]

Oh man, so glad I found this thread.

I got the 8 core base 14 + 32gb + 1tb. Any more CPUs felt like overkill since the bottleneck in modern programming is memory, not speed of compilation. Either Java IDEs or VMs eat up memory.

With respect to space, I didn't want to have to think about it at all for the next few years. 1TB seemed to meet that desire.

My one concern is that the 8-core is somehow gimped in other ways, maybe slower SSDs or something silly like that. On the flip side, fewer cores means better battery. I can imagine how compiling on the road will tax all the cores and cause the battery to drain on the 10-core version mucho fasto. We'll have to wait for the reviews to really see.

I got the same as you. The M1 MBA I’m on now is pretty fast and this new base has two more perf cores. I had a 16” at one point and went i7 (6 cores) over i9 (8 cores) due to cost and it really made little difference. For all the unified memory being efficient you still can’t beat having more of it. Having twice the graphics cores of my M1 MBA? Sounds pretty good to me, I barely use the ones I have now. I think that base machine is enough CPU/GPU for most people.

 

[bluegt]

I read lots of people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU... Now I don't know if I screwed up my order haha, I've ordered the 14" M1 Pro base config ( 8C + 14C) with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

I'm upgrading from a rMBP 13" 2015 with i5 2,7Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. My only "Pro" usage will be music production (Ableton Live 11),DJ-ing using Traktor, Lightroom and in the near future I plan on learning Final Cut or Premiere (nothing crazy).

In monday's event, Apple showed some graphs and If I understood them correctly, the M1 Pro 10C +16C GPU should be around 70% faster than last year M1. If the base M1 Pro has 8 cores instead of 10, we can asume that it would be roughly 50% faster, so we can expect a single core Geekbench 5 of around 2500. With these assumptions, the M1 Pro base config should be around x3,5 times faster in single-core and x6 times faster in multi-core, am I right?

Giving my usage, I think that the 8C + 14C with 16GB of Unified Memory (faster and more efficient than RAM If I'm not wrong) and a x7 times faster SSD should be plenty and I will notice big improvements in performance.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake?

Thanks in advance!

I don't understand the logic of "people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU"

Why would it not be worth it? Could you link some of the YT videos, I'm trying to make this decision myself...

Thinking about just going base as I'm doubtful my workload will stretch even that.

 

[shower999]

I’m a lawschool master student who often has 50+ safari tabs on pretty heavy websites and lots of word/pdf files open at the same time. Basically I like to multitask, especially when I’m writing my thesis. I plan to use this MacBook Pro for at least 5-6 years, well into my first few years as a licensed lawyer, which means it will be used a lot for multitasking. I feel like the base 14 MacBook Pro with 8 cores should be fine for what I use it for, but I wonder if the extra 250 euro’s would be worth it just to future proof it a bit more. I don’t like to spend 2100 euros just to regret not spending a little bit more to have my ideal machine. Any help / discussion would be much appreciated!

my MacBook Air M1 16GB RAM can already do the task you mention. What I did was open FCP & Logic Pro & Motion and Photos and watch Apple TV+ while doing video editing. I also tried open more than 50 word document in Pages various sizes in one time. it wasn't slow down.

I'm pretty sure the MacBook Pro M1 Pro will outperform what you describe. but I bought the MacBook Pro M1 Pro 10 core CPU, 16 Core GPU because I like it

 

[ttujr97]

Oh man, so glad I found this thread.

I got the 8 core base 14 + 32gb + 1tb. Any more CPUs felt like overkill since the bottleneck in modern programming is memory, not speed of compilation. Either Java IDEs or VMs eat up memory.

With respect to space, I didn't want to have to think about it at all for the next few years. 1TB seemed to meet that desire.

My one concern is that the 8-core is somehow gimped in other ways, maybe slower SSDs or something silly like that. On the flip side, fewer cores means better battery. I can imagine how compiling on the road will tax all the cores and cause the battery to drain on the 10-core version mucho fasto. We'll have to wait for the reviews to really see.

This is the same configuration I did. Considering I am still working with a 2012 MBP i7 with 16GB Ram, this will be awesome!

 

[Rck1984]

Don't let other people (read: Youtubers) decide for you what to buy. Look at your own situation and buy accordingly.

I currently have a M1 Air with 16GB and this CPU is no joke. It's blazing fast and in my workload, I haven't even fully utilized it yet. The base Pro CPU even has two more performance cores compared to the M1 Air.

There is nothing worse than being talked into overspecing, for specs you don't need and never utilize..

 

[RossMacca]

I read lots of people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU... Now I don't know if I screwed up my order haha, I've ordered the 14" M1 Pro base config ( 8C + 14C) with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

Don’t let some YouTubers make you feel bad about your purchase, they live in a fantasy world and fall for the fallacy of “well if you’ve spend £2k, what’s another £200? Then another £300?” And before you know it, you’ve got a complete overkill £3k machine which you do not need.

Your new machine is going to absolutely crush your old one, enjoy it, and if you honestly get it and feel CPU limited, return it and order the next one up.

 

[ignaciobarrena]

Don’t let some YouTubers make you feel bad about your purchase, they live in a fantasy world and fall for the fallacy of “well if you’ve spend £2k, what’s another £200? Then another £300?” And before you know it, you’ve got a complete overkill £3k machine which you do not need.

Your new machine is going to absolutely crush your old one, enjoy it, and if you honestly get it and feel CPU limited, return it and order the next one up.

Yes I think you are right. I've been speculating a bit with different geekbench and benchmarks, and the base 14" M1 Pro compared to my 2015 13" i5 has:

- A CPU at least x2,5 times faster in Single-core and almost x7 times in Multi-Core.
- GPU x8 times more powerful compared the Intel integrated 6100 graphics.
- 16GB of LPDDR5 Unified Memory vs 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, along with 200GB/s of memory bandwith. LPDDR5 is x4 times faster and much more efficient than LPDDR3.
- 1TB SSD that is x6-7 times faster than the 256GB SSD on my 2015 model.

And of course, we have other cores in the M1 Pro that will help speeding up other tasks, like Neural Engine, Display Engine and hardware decoders for video without affecting the workload of the CPU/GPU. Also, macOS is better optimized for Apple Silicon, so this machine will fly through it.

All of this with better cooling and lower power consumption, slightly better battery life, better I/O, amazing display, 6-speakers system, 1080 facetime camera and better microphones, bigger screen....

This thing is going to be amazing and a huge upgrade

 

[boak]

I would just buy the M1 MBA with 16GB RAM and upgrade to another M# MBA when the need arises. The M# chips are so powerful nowadays.

 

[shower999]

I read lots of people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU... Now I don't know if I screwed up my order haha, I've ordered the 14" M1 Pro base config ( 8C + 14C) with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD.

I'm upgrading from a rMBP 13" 2015 with i5 2,7Ghz 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. My only "Pro" usage will be music production (Ableton Live 11),DJ-ing using Traktor, Lightroom and in the near future I plan on learning Final Cut or Premiere (nothing crazy).

In monday's event, Apple showed some graphs and If I understood them correctly, the M1 Pro 10C +16C GPU should be around 70% faster than last year M1. If the base M1 Pro has 8 cores instead of 10, we can asume that it would be roughly 50% faster, so we can expect a single core Geekbench 5 of around 2500. With these assumptions, the M1 Pro base config should be around x3,5 times faster in single-core and x6 times faster in multi-core, am I right?

Giving my usage, I think that the 8C + 14C with 16GB of Unified Memory (faster and more efficient than RAM If I'm not wrong) and a x7 times faster SSD should be plenty and I will notice big improvements in performance.

What do you think? Did I make a mistake?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,
I have the same MBP 2015 8GB. I have MBA M1 and just bought the new MBP M1 Pro.

from the MBA M1 experience, I can Gurantee you it overkill the usage like yours far more for upcoming 5 years.

 

[UBS28]

I don't understand the logic of "people in forums and heard some youtubers saying that the base M1 Pro (8 Core CPU + 14 Core GPU) isn't worth it, and that we should go for the 10C CPU + 16C GPU"

Why would it not be worth it? Could you link some of the YT videos, I'm trying to make this decision myself...

Thinking about just going base as I'm doubtful my workload will stretch even that.

The base 14” is a good deal. If you spec the M1 13” MBP with the same storage and RAM, there is only a $300 price difference.

And to me, it is worth spending those $300 going from a M1 13” MBP to a 14” MBP.