And you also could have afforded to trade in sooner. Maybe not much sooner, but let's not completely forget the other side of the equation.
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M1 Pro: 8 core vs 10 core CPU
- Thread starter Vazor
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I generally side with people who believe that paying to max out CPU in the name of future proofing is a poor investment. Many current day applications won't take full advantage of the extra performance edge (as appears to be the case now) and the additional capacity would be an almost imperceptible step when compared against future machines.
That said, $200 isn't a steep premium. It gets you 2 more CPU cores and for another $100 you get another 2 GPU cores. Apple's made the step up reasonable enough that I'd drop my philosophical resistance to voluntarily paying Apple more than I need to.
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Yes, that was observation given that if you trade in after the new equivalent model release. However, my $1250 M1 Air is worth $630 now (was $730-750 6 months ago) even though no new Airs are out there.
Well, if you waited so long, then that means that you got a good use out of it. I could only kept my 2012 rMBP 13 for 8 years, only because of 8GB of RAM(4gb base model) and 128gb ssd was annoying me all the way. But i bought it used, so it wasn't me who decided on specs to order in the first place.
I mentally depreciate to 0 any laptop in 5 years. If laptop got me through 5 years without breaking or letting me think about new models, then it was worth the purchase price.
So the person who paid +600 today, would enjoy 32GB and 1 TB ssd for years to come(5 years).
But i put that valuation just because to add to the common wisdom of buying base if upgrade in 1-2 years and not upgrade. So if you still want to be in the camp of 1-2 year upgraders, then you lose only half of what you paid for the upgrades.
My point was mostly that CPU is irrelevant for the web tabs mentioned in the OP. 50 tabs in the background will mostly be paused and not using CPU.
If we are talking about web tabs, then all the new Mac M1 Pros are irrelevant whether it is 8 core or 10 core. Because M1 Air or Pro does have the same single core speed, which stays the same even with twice the price M1 Pro and Max.
Browsers do use only single core unluckily.
Nah... not since like... a long time ago. Chrome (and anything based on it) has been process per tab (never mind multiple threads in a tab) since it was released. Safari spawns multiple processes for web rendering, network, etc.
Also, this single tab doesn't look very single thread to me (Safari, Monterey, 47% +/- 10% CPU spread across multiple cores - 2E cores and 2 P cores):
Also, you can clearly see different processes for each tab in activity monitor, and different processes will be scheduled by the OS to run on cores independently of one another.
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Yeah, but still my m1 Air scores 265(not fresh restart) in speedometer 2.0 browsing test, while M1 Max does 277. So the difference in web browsing is negligible between these CPUs, since they all the same generation with the same single core speed.
So, just wondering if you missed the discussion immediately above (and you may have, and that's cool).
There's no clear value in getting 10 core over 8 core.
Sure their is. Most of his work isn’t GPU based, it’s cpu based, those two extra performance cores will definitely help, especially as the computer ages. 5-6 years is a long time from now. 20% difference in performance is a lot when it’s needed.
There is a difference between work being CPU-based versus CPU-intensive.
This is becoming a long thread, but I did not get the impression OP's work is CPU-intensive.
If it is CPU-intensive, AND the software can take advantage of all performance cores, then I would agree with you. You make a good point: the difference is only $200. (But things add up, when you start added SSD, RAM etc., aka "Option Creep.")
Anyway, I get the feeling OP has left the room; we are just carrying on the party while the host has wisely gone to bed.
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Hey folks, wanted to give a quick update on my 8-core, 32gb, 1tb Mac. It's awesome. I code on it, I play games on it, the battery life is bonkers. Honestly, the best Mac I ever purchased. No Touch Bar, I know... /s I don't do video or high resolution photos. I do compile code and it's really, really fast.
Little question I've seen a lot of tests/videos and with 10 cores there is less battery, more fan noise in heavy work. But how is the behaviour and battery life of the 10 cores vs 8 cores in normal life (browsing / word / netflix). Is it the same ? Somebody has the answer ? Thanks !
I've seen a lot of tests/videos and with 10 cores there is less battery, more fan noise in heavy work. But how is the behaviour and battery life of the 10 cores vs 8 cores in normal life (browsing / word / netflix). Is it the same ? Somebody has the answer ? Thanks !
Heck I have 44 tabs open in Safari on my iPhone 13 pro max and it's just as fast as ever. All you need is MacBook Air M1. You should value portability, ease of carrying it in one hand. It can do all the heavy lifting required for intended use. Unless you want the MacBook Pros screen quality.
I would go 10/16 that is my choice. I also have the MBP 16 i9.
Why you prefer the 14 and not the 16 ?
So what's your verdict after some time has passed to evaluate your choice? I'm on a 16" 10 core M1 Pro 16GB and it's working out just fine. Well, there are some obvious software glitches that cause some slowdowns and odd stutters, but it has nothing to do with memory. Those are happening when I'm doing nothing demanding or have almost nothing open.
I've compiled something in XCode while also having working in Android Studio and PHPStorm running at the same time with a whole bunch of other more minor programs. I think that counts as being resource intensive. It was fine though I'm not running this heavy all the time. If I were, I would have bumped up to 32GB, but for the random times that I've got all sorts of resource hogs running all together, I've noticed nothing amiss.
My verdict on the MBP M1 is that 16GB RAM has been perfectly fine for my usage. Very happy with my choice. Less happy that shortly after buying it I had to revert to using a Windows laptop for my work, so the MBP is now rarely used rather than being my device for both work and personal computing. If I’d known that was on the horizon I’d probably have kept my MBP 16.
Because I saw more travelling for work in the not too distant future so thought that the 14 would be better. I liked the 16 for use at home (other than the noise when connected to a monitor) but prefer a smaller laptop when on the move.
Just stumbled across this one.
I was using an MBA 8 core 7 gpu 8Gb 256Gb since release day and I was having some memory pressure problems occasionally on it. i run XCode, VScode and use it for programming tasks (commercial), remote admin and usual day to day app stuff including Lightroom and Pixelmator etc.
I figured I'd just shell out for the bottom end 8 core 14" MBP as it has 16Gb of RAM / 512Gb of storage which is enough for me and I didn't have to wait months for it.
It's absolutely fine.
I've just spent half the morning with it next to my colleague's 32Gb M1 Max 16" and apart from being smaller it's pretty much exactly the same speed at most tasks we threw at it. I think unless you're doing major compute workloads or need 1TB of storage the absolute ass end MBP is probably the right machine for everyone. I also think the 16 is way too big. I had an Intel 15" for a long time and it was a pain carrying it around everywhere.
What is possibly more important is you buy an off the shelf configuration. I got my M1 Pro the next day ordered from Amazon rather than having to wait because it was an off the shelf configuration. I can go into any Apple Store in the UK and pick up a machine with the same spec. That means if something goes wrong with it, you're not going to be down for days or weeks while they find another machine or parts for you. There are a lot of 8 core 16Gb/512Gb 14" parts out there ready to roll without a long lead time.
I was using an MBA 8 core 7 gpu 8Gb 256Gb since release day and I was having some memory pressure problems occasionally on it. i run XCode, VScode and use it for programming tasks (commercial), remote admin and usual day to day app stuff including Lightroom and Pixelmator etc.
I figured I'd just shell out for the bottom end 8 core 14" MBP as it has 16Gb of RAM / 512Gb of storage which is enough for me and I didn't have to wait months for it.
It's absolutely fine.
I've just spent half the morning with it next to my colleague's 32Gb M1 Max 16" and apart from being smaller it's pretty much exactly the same speed at most tasks we threw at it. I think unless you're doing major compute workloads or need 1TB of storage the absolute ass end MBP is probably the right machine for everyone. I also think the 16 is way too big. I had an Intel 15" for a long time and it was a pain carrying it around everywhere.
What is possibly more important is you buy an off the shelf configuration. I got my M1 Pro the next day ordered from Amazon rather than having to wait because it was an off the shelf configuration. I can go into any Apple Store in the UK and pick up a machine with the same spec. That means if something goes wrong with it, you're not going to be down for days or weeks while they find another machine or parts for you. There are a lot of 8 core 16Gb/512Gb 14" parts out there ready to roll without a long lead time.
This is exactly why I bought my 10/16/1TB 14".
Because it's off the shelf. As you said, 8/14 is powerful enough but I need 1TB and without going to the 10 core its a custom build. And having had various custom builds before.... lead times... no replacement on shelves, etc. Never again.
I wanted 32 GB ideally, but again... with 1 TB not off the shelf (and I wasn't going to go paying for a max because I don't even do GPU work really). 16 is fine for my purposes... but 32 would have been just that little bit more comfortable