Depends on your budget. If you can upgrade something, let it be memory and get 32GB if possible.
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M1 Pro, M2, or M2 Pro?
- Thread starter IliveAboveAMall
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that's a good consideration, because I use photoshop and illustrator most of the time (I rarely use InDesign), while for adobe dimension, adobe after effects and adobe lightroom, I'm still on the learning stage. maybe the base should be fine, except maybe the larger SSD the better, despite I already owned a Seagate Backup Plus Slim Hardisk External 1TB (for backup purposes)...
Unless something has dramatically changed, I'd say either would work, but make sure you get plenty of RAM.
Assuming that Adobe did a good job of optimizing towards Metal, I think the M1 Pro could be your best fit. That would depend on the side of your workflow though.
I am not a graphic designer right now, but having done it, I can tell you that it's resource intensive. If they coded things right the 2E + 8P, and 16 core GPU, plus high memory is at your advantage.
I'd focus more on your workflow, rather than the specs.
With that said, I'm using a 16" M1 Max (32 Core GPU) with 64GB of memory, and while using various tools (not a graphic designer anymore) I can hit about 70% memory utilization.
Pick your fights wisely, and spec based on workflow. I told someone in sales today "I am basically carrying a 1U server in a less than 5LB laptop. Don't worry about mega and lets go kill it"
thanks for the advice. maybe to help you giving me more input, I'm using photoshop and illustrator most of the time (I rarely use InDesign),
while for adobe dimension, adobe after effects and adobe lightroom, my current laptop, L401x, disabled me to learn everything about them.
Because my workflow is mainly Apple products plus Affinity and I'm self-employed part-time and work elsewhere not using my kit, I can get away with the M1 Pro 16GB (1TB hard drive, for memory swap). If I were working specifically in-house I'd get the M1 Max 32GB 1TB/2TB. Specifically thinking of the two options in your post, I'd get the 14" M1 Pro. If you are working intensively, specifically for your work, with Adobe apps and with lots of RAW files etc I'd go for the 10/16 option with 32GB - if budget allows. Otherwise if it's more occasional usage that perhaps isn't professional use, you aren't using lots of RAW files, you're not using After Effects much (and unlikely to use it much) and you're using your external HD, I'd go for the base M1 Pro.
I can get yellow memory pressure playing around in PS with a few other apps and heavy browser tabs open as well. Yellow memory pressure in and of itself isn't bad, it just means that my computer use using most of the RAM, but it does mean that if I doubled the size fo the files Im using I would start to see lag and performance issues as the computer used Swap memory. If you end up running Illustrator, PS, After Effects, In Design and other apps at the same time then 16GB likely isn't enough. Another real world design scenario that requires RAM, and you've probably encountered this doing graphic design, is lets say you have several apps open and you want to copy and paste something large asset from AI to PS. Its the running multiple ram-hungry apps and multitasking between them that really consumes ram.
My suggestion is that you would be fine to learn PS with 16GB RAM if you accept that you might need to upgrade your computer again sooner rather than later if you end up doing a lot more in Adobe apps. If you aren't comfortable with that possibility then bite the bullet and upgrade to 32GB.
Another way to decide is if you aren't bothered but system lagging or the spinning wheel when you are going a task then you can get by with less RAM, but fi you don't want to experience that, especially on your brand new expensive computer, then get 32GB.
PS. 16GB M1-Pro has been enough to smoothly manipulate 26MP camera RAWs in Lightroom, and those are Fuji X-Trans which are more demanding than Bayer files to demosaic. And what's nice is that the fans don't even turn on unless I am doing something like batch pasting edits to like 50 photos.
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In Indonesia, I’d get a 13” or 14” MBP because the MBA has no fan to help it to keep cool.
Adobe is the more feature-rich, professional and industry-standard between the two. It really depends on what you're doing and how you work. There is a learning curve between Adobe CC and Affinity. For me with 'smaller' clients in the charity and faith sector, they don't mind if I create an Illustrator or an Affinity Designer file as long as it works and looks like they want it to! And the difference in cost and not being subscription based clinched it for me. If you're in a more professional environment, working in a design agency, collaborating with creative pros or need the other excellent products Adobe apps, it has to be Adobe. I used Adobe CC up to the point of a change in my work. That's not to say Affinity isn't outstanding or great value, or that it can't create professional products - it really can. But obviously Adobe is and does so much more. Main question (same as with your laptop) is what do you want and need it to do? That will help you decide.
true. the only thing that irked me is the subscription thing. if there's no subscription thing, this should have not be a problem
I feel lie the $10/month photographers bundle of PS and LR is pretty good.
Affinity's software is great and if you don't need 100% guaranteed compatibility with Adobe files, it does open and save PSDs, then they are a great alternative.
So I decided to take the M1 Pro with these specs as my friends from one of Apple’s distributor provided.
Spec :
System on a Chip (Processor): (065-CCVF) - M1 Pro with 8-Core CPU, 14-Core GPU
Memory: (065-CCVV) - 16GB unified memory (RAM)
Storage: (065-CCW0) - 1TB SSD storage
Do you think the spec is enough for me, the one who is using photoshop and/or illustrator most of the time?
Spec :
System on a Chip (Processor): (065-CCVF) - M1 Pro with 8-Core CPU, 14-Core GPU
Memory: (065-CCVV) - 16GB unified memory (RAM)
Storage: (065-CCW0) - 1TB SSD storage
Do you think the spec is enough for me, the one who is using photoshop and/or illustrator most of the time?
That's a great computer; it should last you a very long time. Make sure you upgrade to the 96W power brick so you can take advantage of fast-charging.
Great choice, it will serve you well. You will see a night and day difference in performance to your current PC laptop. Allow a couple of weeks to get used to Mac OS, after a month or so, you will never want to go back to Windows
it's for Indonesian market, so maybe 67W should be enough... but I'll ask the seller.
You can always get a 3rd party charger from a company like Anker if you want fast charging, assuming you even care about that.