Picking up a pair of M1's today

[whiteonline]

I ordered and will pick up a pair of M1 pro's today. An 8GB/512GB and and 16GB/1TB model. I couldn't decide based on the (very flawed Max Tech) comparison that is being reposted everywhere. I mainly work with 42MP still images in low volume. Therefor I have no need for exporting 60 images at a time, nor do I have use for 4K or 8K video. Based on that, I believe 8GB should be fine.
However I do occasional nightscape photography, and stacking is a concern.

My plan is to work on the 8GB model first. If I see no problems, I'll happily return an unopened 16gb model.

I have no care for "future proofing". I don't keep computers long enough for it to matter.

I'll follow up with my opinions. Don't expect benchmarks. Saving 1.5 seconds on a process from one model to the next is pretty useless for real-world impressions.

 

[delsoul]

I think you'll be very impressed with the base model

 

[phl92]

Please report how the 8Gb will do.
What was you buy the Pro model not the air?

 

[whiteonline]

Please report how the 8Gb will do.
What was you buy the Pro model not the air?

Will do.
Pro over the Air because I'm a Touch Bar weirdo.

 

[KPOM]

I ordered and will pick up a pair of M1 pro's today. An 8GB/512GB and and 16GB/1TB model. I couldn't decide based on the (very flawed Max Tech) comparison that is being reposted everywhere. I mainly work with 42MP still images in low volume. Therefor I have no need for exporting 60 images at a time, nor do I have use for 4K or 8K video. Based on that, I believe 8GB should be fine.
However I do occasional nightscape photography, and stacking is a concern.

My plan is to work on the 8GB model first. If I see no problems, I'll happily return an unopened 16gb model.

I have no care for "future proofing". I don't keep computers long enough for it to matter.

I'll follow up with my opinions. Don't expect benchmarks. Saving 1.5 seconds on a process from one model to the next is pretty useless for real-world impressions.

What did you find flawed with the Max Tech tests? Everyone's use case will be a bit different.

 

[4sallypat]

Will do.
Pro over the Air because I'm a Touch Bar weirdo.

My first Touch Bar was on my 16" MBP I never use maybe because I never experienced using it since all my past Macbooks had function keys which I memorized....

 

[whiteonline]

What did you find flawed with the Max Tech tests? Everyone's use case will be a bit different.

Without going too much into it, his analysis of the memory and swap were note useful. For example - an OS writing to swap is not a big deal. The whole point of swap is a place for the OS to write data if needs exceed physical free. However, only inactive processes should be placed in swap. Now, if the OS is constantly accessing swap, there is a problem. Will it matter? Size itself is not a determinant factor in the perception of performance (what matters to users).

That's what I'm trying to find out. Perception of performance regardless of what the system is doing behind the scenes.

To your point, my use cases don't align with Max Tech's "real-world" testing at all. But that's all the information we have right now.

 

[whiteonline]

I have my applications loaded on the 8GB model at the moment. Overall opinion is tempered. Acts just like a Mac.
Of course, Lightroom CC is syncing among other background tasks, so no judgements made. Seems like high network use causes occasional beach balls.

 

[phl92]

Do you also use video editing software from time to time?

 

[whiteonline]

I think I'm settled with my decision after using both the 8GB and 16GB variants side-by-side...

If I hadn't looked at Activity Monitor, I probably wouldn't notice a difference in use overall. Did the 8GB slow things down? Maybe, probably a time or two. But not enough for me to get concerned. Definitely not worth (in this case) a $400 increase. As I have paraphrased in another post: when you look for problems, you will find them.

The two main applications I use (Lightroom and Capture One) work flawlessly, no worse than my Mac mini with eGPU in all honesty. As I noted, I am a low-volume hobbyist photographer. So a few seconds for exporting won't bring me more money (and if so, I'd stick with the eGPU which is much faster at export). I added 8 or so layers into Capture One without any problems. More than I would normally use. And I normally work within only one or two apps simultaneously (LR/C1+PS).
Photoshop beta was noticeably faster than non-native, which gives great promise for LR and C1.
I had no major issues with stacking 12 images in PS, and it is really an edge use case anyway. If I was serious into astro, I'd need 32GB+ RAM.

Summary: I'll stick with the lowly 8GB variant. It just works and the price is right. It is also just a stop-gap for the potential redesign and/or eventual new CPU models. It's first-generation after all; longevity is not something I am looking for (nor expecting).

Recommendation to you: If you are on the fence, the 8gb is probably fine if you are like me and use one or two apps at a time (cmd-q is your friend). Just use it and stop worrying about what is happening behind the scenes. You always have the return window to swap for the 16gb.
Or just buy the 16GB - it’s not my money ?‍♂️