MacBook M2 Pro Storage Upgrade Dilemma

[dkassar]

I'm in a bit of a pickle regarding storage for my new MacBook M2 Pro. I went with the 12/19 Core with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD, as performance is crucial for my use of multiple programs and moderate video editing. However, I don't really need the extra storage and can always get an external SSD if needed. My current MacBook Pro has 256GB storage with about 90GB free.

So here's my question - should I switch to the 512GB SSD and opt for the M2 Max 12/30 Core instead? I'm worried that the slower 512GB SSD might affect performance (due to various benchmarks measuring slower read/write speeds), but the 12/30 Core might give me a performance boost.

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks.

 

[leifp]

If your software is GPU dependent and video editing is important to you, you will notice the difference every time you fire it up. The SSD speed, however will only ever rear its head when you export. If you remember computing on HDD the “slow” SSD is still more than ten times faster than all but the fastest HDDs.

The issue is which other software you run (which is most important for it? CPU, or GPU, or RAM, or SSD speed…) but for video editing the media engine enhancements of the M2Max over the Pro ought to be felt all the time when editing, depending on which program you use (and whether it’s optimized for Apple Silicon)

 

[Swissfashion]

I'm in a bit of a pickle regarding storage for my new MacBook M2 Pro. I went with the 12/19 Core with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD, as performance is crucial for my use of multiple programs and moderate video editing. However, I don't really need the extra storage and can always get an external SSD if needed. My current MacBook Pro has 256GB storage with about 90GB free.

So here's my question - should I switch to the 512GB SSD and opt for the M2 Max 12/30 Core instead? I'm worried that the slower 512GB SSD might affect performance (due to various benchmarks measuring slower read/write speeds), but the 12/30 Core might give me a performance boost.

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks.

If your workkflow would benefit from twice the ProRes acceleration on the Max vs Pro, or the SW you use is able to use all the GPU cores when available, then go for it.