Sweet spot 2021 MBP config ?

[gl3lan]

What are in your opinion the sweet spot configurations for this MBP generation ?

My thoughts :

• The 24/32-core GPU version are overkill and will probably be power-hungry. It will be thermally constrained on the 14 inch version and will impact battery life on the 16 inch version (« M1 Pro delivers game-changing performance with amazing battery life. », according to Apple). We can expect the 32-core GPU version to be 50 to 70% faster than the 16-core version in the best scenarios (according to Apple advertisement of GPU performances on https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-14-and-16/, when comparing against 2019 version on several softwares).
• The 8-core CPU base 14 inch version is already a beast. According to my estimations*, Geekbench 5 CPU multicore performance should be around 9583, which places it already in iMac Pro territory and above the 27 iMac 2020 top configuration.
• I have a hard time deciding what is better between 16 and 32 GB RAM options. With environmental impact considerations in mind, I cannot imagine upgrading every 3 to 5 years, I would rather prefer keep the machine at least as long as it is supported (my last two machines are a 2008 base alu macbook and a 2015 base MBP, the 2015 is still software supported but too narrow for my use cases).

Considering this, I am hesitating between (M1 pro-based) :

• Base 14 inch with 1TB SSD (and 32 GB RAM if I want to keep it long).
• Mid-tier 16 inch with 32 GB RAM upgrade in order to enjoy screen real estate and have an event better CPU.

*Supposing M1 and M1 pro/max CPU cores are the same, and considering Geekbench 5 CPU multicore performances of resp. 7500 and 12500, you can estimate the per-core performance solving 4P+4E = 7500 and 8P+2E = 12500. That gives you around 417 for an E-core and 1458 for a P-core.

 

[Melotz]

I don't think there is a sweet spot for everyone. Since every upgrade option costs you the same money.

So, basically, you are deciding GPU/Memory/Storage which is most important for you.

I would say 32GB memory > GPU upgrade > 64GB memory >>> Storage.

16GB is budget even for daily usage especially if you use Chrome which consumes lots of memory. And the unified memory means the GPU will take up part of the memory. If you don't care about the GPU performance, go for the memory.

 

[edfoo]

I don't think there is a sweet spot for everyone. Since every upgrade option costs you the same money.

Exactly, OP didn't even tell us what and how he/she is planning to use his/her new MBP.