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M4 Pro MBP Options for Audio

J

johnnyindia

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2010
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Deciding the specs for a new MBP from audio work (Pro Tools primarily)

About a $530 difference between a MacBook Pro w/ M4 Pro 12-Core CPU/16-core GPU/24GB RAM and the 14-Core/20-core GPU/48GB RAM version.

Negligible amount in the long run, but curious if there's a good way to determine if the extra RAM and CPU/GPU will come into play?

I'm not doing massive sessions with tons of samplers, but I also don't want to ever deal with bottlenecks...so I'd consider spending the extra $500 for the peace of mind/future proofing.

Thoughts? Best way to test? Best to just get higher powered version for longevity either way?
 
The 12-core is probably plenty fast for your needs, but it never hurts to have more RAM though. I wouldn't buy a new computer with any pro workflow in mind with less than 32GB of memory. Even though you're projects are currently small, doesn't mean they will stay that way.
 
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johnnyindia said:
Negligible amount in the long run, but curious if there's a good way to determine if the extra RAM and CPU/GPU will come into play?
Click to expand...

There's no way to predict how that plays out. Just buy for the foreseeable future. Don't get caught in the future proofing trap. I don't do audio work, so take this for what it is... I spent the last 3 years on a 16GB M1 Pro as an experiment to see if it would crimp my Web Development/Photography workflow. I didn't do any extreme resource management and it was absolutely fine.

I originally paid $3099 (US) for my 16" M1 Pro. I just traded it in for $940 after 3 years. That's over 30% of my original purchase price! That would have taken the sting off had buying the 16GB machine been a mistake that forced me to upgrade early.

You can spend the extra $500 up front or just bank it and if you find that you misjudged, it might be roughly the same $500 difference when you trade-in and upgrade.
 
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