I am not sure I believe that but if you don't want to use Rosetta 2 at all you might want to just stick with an Intel Mac for now.
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Questions about buying an M1 mac v.s Intel
- Thread starter KDPlazed
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I’ve watched several videos like those but I can’t tell you if I’ve watched those specific ones. Yes, I believe there is a problem for some M1 Mac users. I don’t know if it is a system problem or specific to particular software. I know I don’t see the problem on my M1 MBA. I suspect that Apple is estimating a pretty high TBW but even then some people are showing writes at too high of a rate for SSD longevity.Interesting! I said "can", meaning not all. Have you watched the videos? Do you think there is a problem? The TBW numbers given by manufacturers are estimations and in fact many SSDs last many times longer. There is a formula you can use to estimate the life span: https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/the...es-it-last-and-what-can-be-done-to-take-care/
"For example, the Samsung SSD 850 PRO SATA is stated to be “built to handle 150 terabytes written (TBW), which equates to a 40 GB daily read/write workload over a ten-year period.” Samsung promises that the product is “withstanding up to 600 terabytes written (TBW).”
How Long Do SSDs Really Last?
Beware: an SSD has a built-in 'time of death' that you can't ignore, notes Philip Bridge, President, Ontrack. So, how long do SSDs really last?techmonitor.ai
I do think many people are overreacting though. Most people aren’t seeing disastrously high SSD writes.
I've been following these discussions and I don't see anything conclusive. Some people seem to have excessive writes, some people don't. My M1 does not and I do use a lot of Rosetta 2 software...
In the end, I don't think that it's something you should be concerned about. It's most likely a software bug that will be fixed. Besides, Apple SSD endurance is excellent, so even with the excessive writes some people are reporting you are looking at 5-10 years lifespan using conservative estimates. And finally, if SSDs start failing in masses any time soon, there will most certainly be a recall.
How do we know that they did not? I doubt they would acknowledge this problem publicly, there is zero business sense in doing that. Most reasonable course of action is silently fix the issue and quietly replace the SSDs if they fail early. It's not the first time that something like this happens.
With just the bare video links nobody knows whether you're sharing something informative and insightful, something that's hyperbolic misinformative clickbait, or some rambling video spending forever to convey two sentences worth of information with no summary to scrub to.
My suggestion was intended to encourage better communication. You cared enough to find and share the video links. By adding a few words regarding the videos and how their content applies, you do a more effective job of helping folks here on macrumors than just posting blind links.
No need to be so defensive.
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some people would rather read information on a topic like alleged ssd drainage or suckage especially when the main focus is the M1 MacBook since this is a new revolution in computer design and the main talk of these forums. Since people are concerned over the M1 MacBook and would like more helpful information, they most likely do not own the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer and therefore do not have the 5x boost in graphics horsepower.to watch a video.
The fact that Apple aren't publicly addressing this reported problem doesn't mean they are ignoring it. Indeed, they almost certainly aren't. What they typically do is monitor their feedback channels, comments on their Support Communities site, and investigate these kind of reports to see if, and how, they can be duplicated in test conditions, and then develop a solution - a macOS update that includes a fix, or if that isn't possible, a repair program for affected machines.
They are not known for abandoning new products and the customers who buy them.
The question of whether you should buy an M1 or Intel Mac is a simple, if personal, one. Either will perform well, and an Intel-based system will not be suddenly useless or unusable as time goes by - it will simply not be offered the latest software and (seemingly an important factor for you) on-going support. However, it will continue to run the software you install on it now, and into the future while it remains supported by Apple and/or software vendors.
My personal opinion is that it would be better to go for the M1 system. Having replaced my 2016 MBP with an M1 MBA recently, I'm staggered by how much faster and more fluidly the M1 runs, and how much more pleasant it is with no fan noise. I don't have any concern about SSD usage because I'm not seeing an issue personally, and because to be honest, I have a little more faith in Apple's 'experts' than the ones commonly found on the internet.
Unless there's software which won't run on the M1 (yet) which you can't live without, I'd buy an M1. They are such a leap forward from Intel Macs in every single way possible. While you have to take Apple's hype with a pinch of salt, just go and have a look at any review from the respected tech bloggers and journalists to see what they think.
Well, maybe your intention was good but it’s your attitude that is somewhat bothering. Maybe you’re not aware of it but you surely sound a bit like someone who doesn’t want to make an effort in knowing and solving their problem and cares more about their own time than other’s.
I have already written my reasons for just posting the links but here are some more. I watched those videos a while ago so I didn’t remember all the important content. So when you ask me to write a summary you’re asking me to make it easy for YOU by watching them for YOU again and write down every argument about the subject. So you are asking me to ”waste” my time to save your and other’s time when instead you and others should put that responsibility on yourselves. Not valuing my time as much as your own contradicts your ”good intention”.
I have also already said why everyone should watch the videos and decide for themselves, because everyone has different scenario and not the same usage.
By a simple click on one those videos you could get much more information than just a link. The thumbnails show the title so you can already see that the videos are relevant. By playing them you can see the length and that they’re not long, one only under 7 min so you could choose to watch the shorter one. You can also see that both are tech channels with many subscribers and by watching a few seconds you can tell they are serious channels. By a simple click you could get all that info in just under a minute. You could see that they’re not blind links and not ”hyperbolic misinformative clickbait, or some rambling video spending forever to convey two sentences worth of information with no summary to scrub to”.
Instead of a simple click you chose to make minmal effort and not spend a few seconds to find out. I guess it’s because it’s not even your problem as you didn’t even watch them but you still took the time to make yourself to a spokesperson for the whole forum by saying that what I did would waste everybody’s time. It’s like if you needed a specific book for your school homework and when someone gave you that you asked them to tell you about the content and answer your questions instead of reading it and do the work yourself.
And even if I wrote a few words about the videos what guarantee would that be for the videos not being clickbate and irrelevant? I could still write some convincing words about them, if I wanted to fool people? So your whole argument about clickbating is insufficient. Then you have only two options to really found out for yourself, regardless of me summarizing or not. You can ignore the videos or watch at least one of them to find out. Finally if you care so much about helping ”folks here at macrumors” as some kind of moderator or representative you can always ”waste” your time and watch and summarize yourself. Again why is your time more important than mine?
Last year I created a thread about iMac reviews where I asked people to post the reviews they find. It resulted in many reviews and it’s obvious that if you wanted to know about the new iMacs and their performance you should watch/read the reviews. Not one of the thousands readers/posters ever asked anyone to summarize a single review. That is how it works. People post relevant videos with clear titles in different threads to help, not to clickbate, and anyone interested in the subject should at least make an effort to take a look at the videos themselves.
First of all you need to remember that this is the internet. EVERYTHING gets blown out of proportion on the internet. A vocal minority can all of a sudden seem like a majority of users even though it may literally be less than a dozen people. This entire SSD issue is really a non-issue. Yes, a few folks are seeing massive writes to disk. No, it most certainly does not relate to Rosetta 2 alone, or Chrome alone, or Safari alone, or Teams alone, etc. It's most likely a race condition that causes the OS to write the same pages to swap over and over again causing these excessive writes. That is, however, as good a guess as any so take it with a grain of salt. All I can say is that my MacBook Air is at around 3 TBW after four months of almost daily use, including the initial backup restoration phase, multiple OS updates, and regular application updates (Office 365 for example). Taking all that into account I'm looking at less than 15 GB of writes per day on average.
With that said I think my advice is obvious: avoid Intel if you can and get a MacBook Air M1. You won't regret it, and chances are it will last you for much more than 5 years.
Buy your M1 with AppleCare and you're good for three years no matter what.
As you get near the end of that period, evaluate what folks are saying about the matter and whether it turned out to be a big deal or just a tempest in a teacup.
Then make the decision whether to keep it another couple years or to trade in / buy a new or refurb and start the clock over again.
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Howdy KDPlazed,
Based on the forum you posted this question in, logic would dictate that you will get an Apple Silicon biased response
. The future of Macs is most certainly the Apple Silicon route, but you should be concerned with your future. Check with your University to see the system requirements for the courses you expect to take. If any of them require software or a capability that is not (yet?) supported by Apple Silicon Macs, it won't matter that it is a future-proof option. It will not meet your needs. The other thing to look at is your "budget." If you are considering a MacBook Air, or the entry-level 13" MacBook Pro, the Apple Silicon models are the obvious choice (assuming your course work will run on it). If you are (were?) targeting one of the higher-spec systems (high-end 13" MBP or the 16" MBP), then your obvious choice would be an Intel model. Regardless which route you take, getting AppleCare with it is a good safety-net. You know that you will get a minimum of 3 years of use out it, and should something break, it will be covered. Apple has already committed to continuing support for Intel models for the next few years, so they are not dead yet LOL. Incidentally, Apple has a virtual event happening next week (20 April), which is expected to be about iPads, but it is possible that new higher-end Apple Silicon based systems could be announced. I recommend you hold of on purchasing anything until after the show. Good luck!Oh, and an after-thought... If you do want an Apple Silicon system, and some of your coursework will not work on it, you could buy a cheap Windows based laptop or something for those use cases, and once done sell them. I did that for a SANS course (not because of Apple Silicon, but because I didn't want to risk my MBP getting hacked during the course). And also, I agree with most folks in here, that if the excessive write-problem for Apple SSDs is factual, then Apple will solve it, and if you have Apple Care, you can be sure they will fix it
.Rich
Tons of discussion around that topic back a few months.
Here's a starting point for you: https://forums.macrumors.com/search...&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=227&o=relevance
Even on that never-ending thread about SSD wear, they are seeing improvements with Mac OS 11.3 and 11.4. What problem there is seems to be a swap issue in Big Sur that Apple is working on. I don't see it as being a long term concern.