M2 Pro Base Model SSD question

[aveona]

Hello folks,

I recently ordered a 2023 MacBook Pro 14" M2 Pro base model, with 10 cores CPU and 16 cores GPU with 512GB SSD and 16GB Ram.

But it seems that the SSD on the base model with 512GB is significantly slower than that of the M1 Pro 1TB version (almost half as slow at around 2500 write and read).

For the same price I could get the 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB 1TB with 10cpu 16gpu.

Should I just return the M2 and go for the M1 in this case with the much faster SSD? I am worried that the RAM Swapping into the PAGE file will be much slower on the M2 Pro, resulting in worse performance when the RAM is overloaded.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

[mato_apple]

 

[aveona]

Thanks for you reply but this video doesn't really give any help in regards to my question!

 

[mato_apple]

However i would recommend update your SSD not for speed but bigger capacity (i am going for 1 TB version)

 

[idark77]

 

[aveona]

Yes I have watched these, but they don't really test the performance in regards to the swapping with the RAM. They only say it has less speed, but don't give any real life benchmark of a situation in where both RAM's are overloaded and how the swapping on both systems affect the performance of the benchmark in question!

 

[aveona]

However i would recommend update your SSD not for speed but bigger capacity (i am going for 1 TB version)

I can only chose between the M2 Pro 512GB 16GB binned, or the M1 Pro 1TB 16GB unbinned. Nice choice!

 

[ascender]

I suspect the vast majority of users will not notice any slowdown whatsoever and if it wasn't for these articles, nobody would be any the wiser. In two days of using this one, it performs just as well as my last M1 Pro MacBook Pro.

 

[maka344]

I suspect the vast majority of users will not notice any slowdown whatsoever and if it wasn't for these articles, nobody would be any the wiser. In two days of using this one, it performs just as well as my last M1 Pro MacBook Pro.

Exactly the same here.

 

[aveona]

I ended up sticking with the M1 Pro, it has a bit better Multi Core as well which is better for gaming. And the faster SSD just seems important when importing to light room.

It's a shame that the M2 has such low SSD speeds. Shame on apple you cheapskates.

Or did I make a mistake?

 

[james2538]

Hello folks,

I recently ordered a 2023 MacBook Pro 14" M2 Pro base model, with 10 cores CPU and 16 cores GPU with 512GB SSD and 16GB Ram.

But it seems that the SSD on the base model with 512GB is significantly slower than that of the M1 Pro 1TB version (almost half as slow at around 2500 write and read).

For the same price I could get the 2021 M1 MacBook Pro 16GB 1TB with 10cpu 16gpu.

Should I just return the M2 and go for the M1 in this case with the much faster SSD? I am worried that the RAM Swapping into the PAGE file will be much slower on the M2 Pro, resulting in worse performance when the RAM is overloaded.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance

If you're overloading the RAM so often that it is constantly swapping, why aren't you upgrading the RAM!

I'll quote what I said in another thread:

The additional battery life, faster performance from both single and multi-core applications , Wi-Fi 6E, and HDMI 2.1 completely dwarf any perceived drive performance issue.

It’s also nowhere near the drop in base MacBook Air or Mac Mini SSD speeds because the base Pro still uses a RAID configuration. Just in a 2x 256GB vs 4x 128GB configuration.

Remember that 3000 MB/s for read/write is still screaming fast. It’s roughly double the speed of the SSD in the base Air/Mini and will blow past almost all Windows laptops.

Overall, I’d say this isn’t as big of an issue as it is in the Air and Mini. A bit overblown.

The base model of those only come with 8GB of RAM which means you’re more likely to run into a situation where you’re swapping to the SSD.

Those transferring large files likely need more than 512GB of storage anyways. In addition, the external drive you’re transferring to/from also need to support these speeds or greater for it to even make a difference. So a USB 4 or Thunderbolt SSD.

This also might not necessarily be a cost cutting issue. Don’t forget these Pros were significantly delayed due to supply chain issues. It’s possible Apple just couldn’t get their hands on 128GB NAND chips anymore.

I ended up sticking with the M1 Pro, it has a bit better Multi Core as well which is better for gaming. And the faster SSD just seems important when importing to light room.

It's a shame that the M2 has such low SSD speeds. Shame on apple you cheapskates.

Or did I make a mistake?

If you made a mistake depends on what you do with the computer. Your use case tells us what specs matter most.

 

[tstafford]

Setting aside Apple's decision to do this and the associated lack of disclosure, I think the decision is totally dependent on the use case. Now that we know about it (just like the M2 MBA and Mini) we can make informed decisions.

IMO - The SSD speed thing shouldn't impact one's decision to buy the machine. If you need a faster SSD because you store lots of stuff and move big files around you likely need a bigger drive. If you need a faster SSD because your usage leads to a lot of swap memory, then you need more RAM. I only use my SSD for OS and applications and lay everything else off to the cloud so I'm fine with the base SSD and, when appropriate, spec up the RAM.

Note: None of this should be construed as me giving Apple a pass.

 

[marstan]

From what I gather about the SSD speed controversy on M2 pro machines, the metric that really matters for swapping is random r/w and that metric is the same for both the 512 and 1 TB SSDs. And that approx 3-3.7 gb/s sequential metric for the "gimped" 512 may even be sufficient for disk-to-disk transfers because the Thunderbolt 4 interface tops out at 3.5 gb/s. So while the 6 gb/s sequential performance of the 1TB+ is nice it doesn't appear to serve any useful purpose.

 

[stars5]

I would say, just upgrade to 32g ram and stay with 512g

 

[stars5]

From what I gather about the SSD speed controversy on M2 pro machines, the metric that really matters for swapping is random r/w and that metric is the same for both the 512 and 1 TB SSDs. And that approx 3-3.7 gb/s sequential metric for the "gimped" 512 may even be sufficient for disk-to-disk transfers because the Thunderbolt 4 interface tops out at 3.5 gb/s. So while the 6 gb/s sequential performance of the 1TB+ is nice it doesn't appear to serve any useful purpose.

That’s good to know, is there any video/article talking about it?

 

[marstan]

That’s good to know, is there any video/article talking about it?

It is not completely clear. There was a MAxtech youtube video just posted that shows a real impact from the slower 512 SSD on the 16" M2 MBP vs the M1. So, it now appears that it may be better to get the 1TB.

 

[Sagnet]

It is not completely clear. There was a MAxtech youtube video just posted that shows a real impact from the slower 512 SSD on the 16" M2 MBP vs the M1. So, it now appears that it may be better to get the 1TB.

The gist of the video is that if you are using more RAM than you have available, so that the system is swapping RAM to the SSD, the drive speed might affect performance in some applications. The tests were run on 16GB machines, so the bare minimum specs. They will run some test on 32GB MBPs as well, which will probably show less of the same issues.

You should probably upgrade your RAM before you upgrade you SSD, if performance is a concern.

 

[marstan]

The gist of the video is that if you are using more RAM than you have available, so that the system is swapping RAM to the SSD, the drive speed might affect performance in some applications. The tests were run on 16GB machines, so the bare minimum specs. They will run some test on 32GB MBPs as well, which will probably show less of the same issues.

You should probably upgrade your RAM before you upgrade you SSD, if performance is a concern.

That is true. He also showed that a large file transfer (~225GB) from an external to internal was about a minute slower on M2 512 SSD; not much considering the size of the file. I would like to say that I will usually stay within the 16GB ram and not do large file transfers like that but one never knows over the life of the machine. But, man, $400 for the extra ram.

 

[gradi]

The video below compares the 16" M1 Pro 16gb/512gb to the 16" M2 Pro 16gb/512gb. The M2 Pro 512gb SSD is half the speed of the M1 Pro SSD. This is the result when a browser with a few tabs was open and Lightroom Classic running (only those 2 programs open). This resulted in some swapping on both so the M1 Pro with an SSD that was much faster beat the M2 Pro.

Here is the video:

 

[vadimyuryev]

The video below compares the 16" M1 Pro 16gb/512gb to the 16" M2 Pro 16gb/512gb. The M2 Pro 512gb SSD is half the speed of the M1 Pro SSD. This is the result when a browser with a few tabs was open and Lightroom Classic running (only those 2 programs open). This resulted in some swapping on both so the M1 Pro with an SSD that was much faster beat the M2 Pro.


View attachment 2148817


Here is the video:

Yep, that's with 15 Chrome tabs open. I just checked and I have 20 open right now, and that's below average for me, especially when doing research for videos.

Photo editing gets hit hard by this SSD issue since it relies heavily on RAM, but other tasks seemed to do fine like video editing and web-based Figma.

It just sucks to buy a $2,500 machine which is already a stretch for a lot of people, and then get worse performance with just 15 chrome tabs open, compared to the 16" M1 Pro which is on sale right now for $2,100.

-Vadim from Max Tech

 

[mfractal]

hey guys, sorry if it was replied somewhere already. I understand that 512gb version is slower than the 1TB version, but does the 2TB twice as fast as the 1TB version?

Like do they use 8x 256GB for 2TB ?

 

[Chancha]

hey guys, sorry if it was replied somewhere already. I understand that 512gb version is slower than the 1TB version, but does the 2TB twice as fast as the 1TB version?

Like do they use 8x 256GB for 2TB ?

Even if it did, there are other bottlenecks in the system to keep it jumping another double. You can find the 2021 speed tests of 2TB 4TB 8TB to get an idea, the boards share the same NAND space setup as 2023.

IIRC it was more like 10-20% increase per tier.

 

[starquake]

I prefer the base(binned) M2 pro SoC, 10-core CPU, and 16-core GPU. So if I customize the base 14" M2 pro model, select the 1tb ssd rather than the 512gb ssd, can I avoid this slow ssd problem?

 

[tstafford]

I prefer the base(binned) M2 pro SoC, 10-core CPU, and 16-core GPU. So if I customize the base 14" M2 pro model, select the 1tb ssd rather than the 512gb ssd, can I avoid this slow ssd problem?

By all reports from YT, yes. That should avoid the SSD "issue". Probably more of a peace of mind thing unless you are a heavy user of the SSD.

 

[starquake]

By all reports from YT, yes. That should avoid the SSD "issue". Probably more of a peace of mind thing unless you are a heavy user of the SSD.

I found this useful testing result: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ssd-speed-test-for-macbook-pro-14-inch-m2-pro-1tb.2378707/.
1TB SSD on the base 14" model does not have a downgraded speed.