M1 Pro: 8 core vs 10 core CPU

[marian86]

Here you can see difference between M1 Pro 8 core (in 14" Macbook Pro) vs M1 Pro 10 core (in 16" Macbook Pro):

I think, that there isn't any much difference which normal user can notice. Regarding video processing, for example in FinalCut Pro was performance identical because both version CPU (8 core vs 10 core) have same ProRes hardware acceleration.

 

[yitwail]

That’s very cool. Even without testing you’d expect only a slight difference between 14 and 16 gpu cores, and when I went with base cpu and upgraded ram and storage, I was relying on all the testimonials that the original M1 chip had excellent performance, but it’s neat that on all the multicore benchmarks, 8 core M1 pro is midway between M1 and 10 core M1 pro. Finally, very pleased to see that test where a white dot is moving over a black screen with no apparent blooming.

 

[souko]

Is the 14"? I would be really interested in battery life over the next few days, maybe you can monitor a bit how long does it last and if it gets better over the course of the week.

Thanks in advance!

It is about 8 hours/ charge for last two days. But today for about 2 hours I had maximum brightness and for about 40 min I played 8K HDR youtube videos. And yesterday I did some benchmarks while running on battery.

That’s very cool. Even without testing you’d expect only a slight difference between 14 and 16 gpu cores, and when I went with base cpu and upgraded ram and storage, I was relying on all the testimonials that the original M1 chip had excellent performance, but it’s neat that on all the multicore benchmarks, 8 core M1 pro is midway between M1 and 10 core M1 pro. Finally, very pleased to see that test where a white dot is moving over a black screen with no apparent blooming.

Yes, I can confirm. Blooming on MBP 14" is non issue. I saw that only in dark, white on black and viewed from side. On iPad Pro 12.9" M1 I can see blooming relatively easily...

 

[peter1984]

I wish someone had battery test comparisons between the 8-core and 10-core models (in 14in). Seems like we'll have to wait for a bit but if you see something, post it here, please.

Edit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/8-core-vs-10-core-battery-life.2320536/ ?

 

[yitwail]

I wish someone had battery test comparisons between the 8-core and 10-core models (in 14in). Seems like we'll have to wait for a bit but if you see something, post it here, please.

Edit: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/8-core-vs-10-core-battery-life.2320536/ ?

I’m hopeful the 8 core gets better battery life of course. Verge had a long YouTube review where they found a six hour difference between 16in M1 Pro and M1 Max, so anything’s possible, though no other reviewers found so large a discrepancy.

 

[souko]

Is the 14"? I would be really interested in battery life over the next few days, maybe you can monitor a bit how long does it last and if it gets better over the course of the week.

Thanks in advance!

It is about 8 hours a day las few days. M1 MBA with same usage was 10 hours a day for me... So slightly worse but good...
I have to say one again that M1 MBP 14" is incredible machine. Great display, great performance, great keyboard, trackpad, bulid quality,...

 

[peter1984]

So I got the laptop yesterday. I was able to update the OS and then use it for an hour before dropping to 90% batter. It was about 2 hours overall. Today, I was browsing the web with the brightest intensity and the batter dropped faster (20% in 1hour). Seems like the battery life is very dependent on the screen brightness.

 

[chengengaun]

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.

This is somewhat out of topic, but OP may consider incorporating file and citation management apps in the workflow. I presume the browser tabs contain research papers that OP may refer to and quote in the thesis. These papers and the metadata can be downloaded into apps e.g. Mendeley and Zotero (great if your institution has subscription to them), and the culling, annotation and citation can be done later. I find that doing these tasks are much more efficient in an app than browser tabs. It's also easier to incorporate citation into the thesis with a citation manager (though legal papers may be different).

Without the many browser tabs open, the hardware requirement becomes much lower and an MBA should be sufficient. It might be good to invest in external monitors/iPad like some friends here suggested for improved productivity.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I’m hopeful the 8 core gets better battery life of course. Verge had a long YouTube review where they found a six hour difference between 16in M1 Pro and M1 Max, so anything’s possible, though no other reviewers found so large a discrepancy.

See my comment in this thread (the link u have in the post u answered to)
I'd anything the battery will be on par with the 10c at best...however I'm guessing it's actually worse ,perhaps by a rather conséquent margin furthermore

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

So I got the laptop yesterday. I was able to update the OS and then use it for an hour before dropping to 90% batter. It was about 2 hours overall. Today, I was browsing the web with the brightest intensity and the batter dropped faster (20% in 1hour). Seems like the battery life is very dependent on the screen brightness.

White or dark mode ?

 

[flapflapflap]

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!

Get the M1 MBP which has better battery life than the 14 and is svelte, lighter and just seemingly more portable. As an attorney I assume you will carry it with you regularly so I assume you want the most portable capable device and with portability you want the BEST battery life, which is exactly what the M1 MBP gives you. The M1 MBP has a brighter screen than the M1 Air, and it actually has very similar single core performance to the new 14 and 16, so just upgrade on the RAM and you should be good to go for the next 5-6 years. One caveat is that the M1 MBP can be connected to only one external display. I connect mine to an ultra-wide 34 inch monitor that gives me plenty of screen real estate to work with. That may still not be enough for you though. I used to practice law and I always needed dozens of tabs open alongside 5-10 PDFs and 5-10 word documents. If I were to go back to the grind and practice law again, I would probably buy a second external monitor, perhaps another 34 inch ultra-wide or a 24-27 inch and stack them like in the photo attached with a 16 sitting next to it.

 

[flapflapflap]

Get the M1 MBP which has better battery life than the 14 and is svelte, lighter and just seemingly more portable. As an attorney I assume you will carry it with you regularly so I assume you want the most portable capable device and with portability you want the BEST battery life, which is exactly what the M1 MBP gives you. The M1 MBP has a brighter screen than the M1 Air, and it actually has very similar single core performance to the new 14 and 16, so just upgrade on the RAM and you should be good to go for the next 5-6 years. One caveat is that the M1 MBP can be connected to only one external display. I connect mine to an ultra-wide 34 inch monitor that gives me plenty of screen real estate to work with. That may still not be enough for you though. I used to practice law and I always needed dozens of tabs open alongside 5-10 PDFs and 5-10 word documents. If I were to go back to the grind and practice law again, I would probably buy a second external monitor, perhaps another 34 inch ultra-wide or a 24-27 inch and stack them like in the photo attached with a 16 sitting next to it.

Forgot to mention that the new MBPs not only support multiple screens but also at higher HiDPI for certain monitors such as the LG 34 inch 5K2K.

 

[flapflapflap]

OP, what did you end up with?

 

[Jodeo]

FOUND THIS on 8-Core vs 10-Core.

tl;dr: Most 8 core users won't notice a difference in performance.
https://medium.com/macoclock/8-core-or-10-core-m1-pro-macbook-pro-14-6063dd2d9402

 

[Beau10]

FOUND THIS on 8-Core vs 10-Core.

tl;dr: Most 8 core users won't notice a difference in performance.
https://medium.com/macoclock/8-core-or-10-core-m1-pro-macbook-pro-14-6063dd2d9402

Hilariously, this person tries to make the case for 32 GB being a more reasonable upgrade... when it's been widely demonstrated to make zilch difference except for extreme use cases - cases where the extra processing power would surely help. Even MacRumors put out an article telling its readership to avoid upgrading the RAM unless you have a workflow that requires getting a Max.

Apparently someone has been living under a rock and unaware about the plethora of testing these machines have seen.

 

[wilberforce]

FOUND THIS on 8-Core vs 10-Core.

tl;dr: Most 8 core users won't notice a difference in performance.
https://medium.com/macoclock/8-core-or-10-core-m1-pro-macbook-pro-14-6063dd2d9402

Pretty good perspective, I think.
However, I would suggest a 1TB SSD for $200 as first priority upgrade, and 32GB RAM for $400 as second priority, not the other way round - for most people.

For most users, both of these upgrades are not needed, but do have benefits.

It is very easy to fill up 512GB SSD, so I think 1TB internal SSD is good value for $200.

You don't need to be an extreme user to see some benefit from 32GB RAM. It is just a question of whether that benefit is worth $400 to you. There are many non-extreme Lightroom and Photoshop users like myself that are finding that 16GB RAM is barely enough (e.g., masking gets laggy), and would really like, or have exchanged for, 32GB RAM. I blame this on Adobe, but that's just the way it is.

I have a base (8/14 core) 14" MBP with 512 SSD and 16GB RAM. If I were to do it again today, I would definitely buy the exact same base (8/14 core) model, but with 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM.

 

[Beau10]

You don't need to be an extreme user to see some benefit from 32GB RAM.

VANISHINGLY small number of users. You're probably in the 5% of use cases where it makes a difference ... whereas traditionally, just about anyone who did more than basic web surfing performed some activity that would see some benefit.

I'll just post it here as it's terrible advice for most folks:

16GB vs. 32GB MacBook Pro: How Much RAM is Enough?

Apple's high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro offers the M1 Pro chip with 16GB of RAM as standard, but you can upgrade to 32GB of RAM for...

www.macrumors.com

"Moreover, it is important to understand that intense tasks often also heavily rely on the CPU or GPU. This means that memory is not always the choke-point for performance lag. You may max out other hardware before you begin to push the limits of the unified memory, resulting in slowdowns regardless of the amount of memory you have."

Which is the opposite of what the article suggests.

 

[wilberforce]

VANISHINGLY small number of users. You're probably in the 5% of use cases where it makes a difference ... whereas traditionally, just about anyone who did more than basic web surfing performed some activity that would see some benefit.

I'll just post it here as it's terrible advice for most folks:

16GB vs. 32GB MacBook Pro: How Much RAM is Enough?

Apple's high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro offers the M1 Pro chip with 16GB of RAM as standard, but you can upgrade to 32GB of RAM for...

www.macrumors.com

"Moreover, it is important to understand that intense tasks often also heavily rely on the CPU or GPU. This means that memory is not always the choke-point for performance lag. You may max out other hardware before you begin to push the limits of the unified memory, resulting in slowdowns regardless of the amount of memory you have."

Which is the opposite of what the article suggests.

I guess it depends on the use case. For me, for example, interactive masking of a large photo is not CPU or GPU intensive (I have verified this by Activity Monitor). Instead, it must be fully loaded into RAM, both for CPU use and for Adobe's GPU acceleration (which unfortunately, effectively loads it into RAM twice, thus NOT taking advantage of the unified memory). If it is not, it is laggy as it swaps in and out of RAM from the SSD. People have done comparisons, and the lagginess disappears for MBPs with more RAM even though they have fewer CPU and GPU cores. It is not terrible, and masking large photos is only a small fraction of what I do, but I can acknowledge the benefit of more RAM. I know memory usage is not the defining metric, but I am often into high yellow memory pressure with up to 20GB swap, with only Photoshop and Lightroom open.

But your point is valid: for most people the benefit of 32GB will likely be negligible, and not nearly worth $400 (except for those to whom $400 is not much money anyway.)

 

[ctjack]

I have a base (8/14 core) 14" MBP with 512 SSD and 16GB RAM. If I were to do it again today, I would definitely buy the exact same base (8/14 core) model, but with 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM.

Thanks for sharing. We need more first hand feedback like this. I myself were bought by 8gb of unified memory on M1 Air, apparently 8gb is 8gb no matter how you slice it. Also think that 1tb ssd and 32gb is the sweet spot. 8 core is the 3rd priority but not really necessary at all.

 

[throAU]

pretty sure safari suspends tabs in the background so….

 

[ctjack]

pretty sure safari suspends tabs in the background so….

get lots of messages saying "tab was using too much energy and it was reloaded" is a nice way of telling people that you don't have enough RAM but not the power(i have 100% battery charged or even plugged in, what energy are you telling me about, Apple?!)

 

[wilberforce]

Thanks for sharing. We need more first hand feedback like this. I myself were bought by 8gb of unified memory on M1 Air, apparently 8gb is 8gb no matter how you slice it. Also think that 1tb ssd and 32gb is the sweet spot. 8 core is the 3rd priority but not really necessary at all.

I should point out that I don't mean to imply that everyone should get 32GB RAM - far from it. For me, for my use case and the software I use (Adobe), I found that I would have benefited (not needed - needed and benefited are not the same thing) from 32GB RAM. There is no simple combo that works for everyone. You need to decide if your usage relies more heavily on storage, memory, CPU or GPU, and select accordingly. The base 8/14 core MBP with 16GB RAM is a very capable machine with no upgrades.

I agree about the 8GB RAM on M1. I was shaking my head at those saying "you will be fine" with 8GB, when 16GB was only $200 more than 8GB. In this case, 32GB is $400 more than 16GB, for much less improvement (due to diminishing returns).

 

[ctjack]

In this case, 32GB is $400 more than 16GB, for much less improvement (due to diminishing returns).

Actually the cost of upgrade is only half of the price paid. Most of the folks here just trade-in with Apple. I have tracked trade-in prices, and it is exactly 50%-55% of initial value.
In other words, $400 RAM and $200 ssd is $600 paid upfront over the base model. When you go to trade in, you get +$300+tax valuation on top of the base models. So someone with base 14 will get $1000+tax, you get $1300+tax.

 

[wilberforce]

Actually the cost of upgrade is only half of the price paid. Most of the folks here just trade-in with Apple. I have tracked trade-in prices, and it is exactly 50%-55% of initial value.
In other words, $400 RAM and $200 ssd is $600 paid upfront over the base model. When you go to trade in, you get +$300+tax valuation on top of the base models. So someone with base 14 will get $1000+tax, you get $1300+tax.

Presumably that only applies if you trade-in after only a few years.

When I traded in my 2015 13" MBP, original price $1300, I got $260 (=20%). The top spec model (which I think cost around $2500, possibly more) would have got $400, according to Apple's trade-in estimator. So the extra $1200+ of upgrades would have only returned $140, around 12%.

Also, here in sunny California, the tax man only taketh away, he never giveth back. (We get taxed on the full purchase price before trade-in, and no tax is returned on trade-ins)

 

[Miltz]

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!

Definitely go with the 10 core. For the price difference it’s worth it, especially since you plan to use it for 5-6 years. A lot can change in 6 years and not spending $200 more when you’re already spending 2K makes no sense. In 2016 I got a full loaded MBP 15 and it lasted me till this year. Had I gone with a lower spec I would have had to trade in sooner because it could barely keep up now.