Sweet spot for MacBook Pro 14" configuration

[bearinthetown]

Hi guys,

I'm planning to get MacBook Pro 14" when M2 arrives. But before then, I'd like to understand better what it takes when it comes to choosing Pro vs. Max CPU.

Let's say that the price is not the key factor, but if upgrading doesn't make any sense, then I'd not. I'll use my machine mostly for web development and iOS development. I decided to go with 14", as I find 16" just too bulky to carry around.

I've seen articles about M1 Max affecting the battery life and not giving anything in return for most users. Not sure how true it is, so I'll just ask this: which config would you choose in my case? M1 Pro or M1 Max? Max could give me up to 64 GB RAM, but I doubt I'd ever need as much. And if I stick to Pro, does it make any sense to upgrade to 10-core CPU with 16-core GPU? Also, does this choice affect the battery life?

 

[Vanarak19]

I went with the Pro10/16/1TB option. It's been more than enough for anything I do. I have also read the Max cuts about 15-20% of the battery, I'm averaging about 12-14hr.

 

[bearinthetown]

I went with the Pro10/16/1TB option. It's been more than enough for anything I do. I have also read the Max cuts about 15-20% of the battery, I'm averaging about 12-14hr.

Which web browser do you use?

 

[ilikewhey]

m1 max 32 core 64gb ram here, on previous intel mbp i was fine with 16gb ram, but some reason, perhaps monterey, my ram usage skyrocketed. now my ram usage is constantly around 40-50gb. unless you're the type that shut down ur computer every week and use safari exclusively, i wouldn't recommend getting 16gb on a 14inch mbp.

 

[xraydoc]

I went with the Pro10/16/1TB option. It's been more than enough for anything I do. I have also read the Max cuts about 15-20% of the battery, I'm averaging about 12-14hr.

I went with the same configuration. It's been amazing.

 

[bearinthetown]

I went with the same configuration. It's been amazing.

You guys never felt the shortage of RAM?

 

[ilikewhey]

You guys never felt the shortage of RAM?

i did

 

[xraydoc]

You guys never felt the shortage of RAM?

I have not, no.

My "heavy" multitasking mostly consists of 4-5 Safari tabs, 2-3 Word docs open, 1-2 PowerPoint files open, 3-4 PDFs open in Preview, Bookends, Mail, Notes and Calendar. Plus all the usual background stuff going on (Time Machine, Al Dente, Magnet, Smooze Pro as a mouse driver, 1Password, DropBox, Bartender 4, a couple of Safari extensions). With all that going, I've never had an 'available memory' error, nor have I ever perceived anything paging in and out of VM (I'm sure it does, but it's been completely invisible).

I occasionally use a small Windows 11 ARM virtual machine in Parallels for testing important PowerPoint files in Windows (make sure they look right), but the VM I configured only gets 6GB of RAM and I only launch it when needed then quit it when done, so running it with all the stuff above has never seemly been an issue.

The only app I have that will use as much RAM as it's given is called OsirixMD. If I open that, I'm fine with all the other stuff in the background getting written out to virtual memory, or I'll just close & save all my open windows in other apps. It's a medical imaging app and I can't really web surf while simultaneously using it anyway, so I'm fine with quitting other apps if necessary -- though to be honest its never complained about RAM or shown any unusual slowdowns. This app is also the main reason I sprung for the extra graphics cores, since obviously Word and Mail aren't going to benefit from an upgraded GPU.

I'm not a creative graphics professional or a video editor, so I can't speak to those kinds of scenarios.

But 16GB has been fine for me in the use cases above and I don't see it changing really before my next upgrade cycle in another three years or so (unless one of my kids desperately needs a new laptop before then, which lately has been my main way of upgrading for myself).

 

[xraydoc]

Which web browser do you use?

I use Safari or Firefox when something gives me issues with Safari. I have Chrome set up, of course, but generally don't use it unless I need to.

I'm honestly not sure how long the battery will go. All I know is that a fully charged battery will get me through an entire work day with juice to spare. I then come home and plug it in. It's like my phone... I don't really need to think about the battery. I just use it, come home, plug it in at night. Granted, as I posted above, my CPU doesn't sit at 100% load for the whole day since I really just use Office-type apps which aren't exactly demanding on the battery power.

Most of the time it sits on my desk, to be honest, pretending to be an M1Pro Mac mini.

 

[bearinthetown]

I use Safari or Firefox when something gives me issues with Safari. I have Chrome set up, of course, but generally don't use it unless I need to.

I thought so. Can you go one cycle with Chrome and see how it affects battery life?

 

[Vanarak19]

You guys never felt the shortage of RAM?

No I have not. I use safari, and as much as I miss chrome and google stuff altogether, I hover around 6-8GB free. There are times it dips down to 4, but I’m on the Ventura betas so who knows why some random FaceTime service needs 3GB when I don’t use it lol

 

[Vanarak19]

I thought so. Can you go one cycle with Chrome and see how it affects battery life?

Not sure what you are worried about. It’s way too many variables anyway.

Plan to get 9-13hr battery with the 14. If that’s not enough then look elsewhere.

 

[bearinthetown]

Not sure what you are worried about. It’s way too many variables anyway.

Plan to get 9-13hr battery with the 14. If that’s not enough then look elsewhere.

The problem is, I heard same stories about MacBook Airs. People claiming to get 12h, while I was getting 6h tops when new.

 

[xraydoc]

The problem is, I heard same stories about MacBook Airs. People claiming to get 12h, while I was getting 6h tops when new.

It depends on so many factors -- screen brightness (a huge battery killer), kinds of apps you use (Chrome is known to trade speed for more sustained CPU usage), GPU usage (even Chrome/Chromium apps will leverage the GPU to eek out more performance at expense of battery life), amount of RAM you have relative to your workload (but empty RAM still uses power, so too much isn't helpful, either), stuff you let go in the background (DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive syncing will all eat some battery), etc.

The 120Hz screen on the MBP will also potentially use some extra battery power as compared to a 60Hz screen depending on what the GPU is doing (if the GPU isn't doing much, the screen can clock down below 60Hz and save some power; but if the GPU is kept occupied, the screen refresh will increase accordingly).

There's also Low Power mode on newer MBPs and MBAs that can help extend battery life as well (on the MBP, it'll lock the display at 60Hz, drop screen brightness, limit certain OS background tasks, and do certain CPU/GPU optimizations).

But if you're someone who runs their MBP at 85% brightness with 10 Chrome tabs and YouTube open, cloud storage constantly syncing in the background every time you change a file in any way, and use an M1 Max chip with unused GPU cores chewing on power while sitting idle, then you're not going to see more than 5-6 hours. Just the way it is. Intel-based machines will be worse.

Run Safari with minimum plug-ins, keep screen brightness low, pause unneeded cloud storage, skip continuous YouTube background things playing constantly and turn on Low Power mode, then you too will see ~10+ hour battery life.

I unplugged my machine with 80% battery at 11am. It's now 2:15pm and with continuous use, I'm down to 66% battery. So about 3.25hrs used just 14% of the battery, and I'm not using Low Power mode.

 

[Vanarak19]

The problem is, I heard same stories about MacBook Airs. People claiming to get 12h, while I was getting 6h tops when new.

showing 100%, 14:39hr left. Chrome doesn't eat 50% battery. My guess is your CPU is doing something and you should investigate it. Surfing in safari at medium brightness...10hr is doable on any of the new laptops.

 

[bearinthetown]

showing 100%, 14:39hr left. Chrome doesn't eat 50% battery. My guess is your CPU is doing something and you should investigate it. Surfing in safari at medium brightness...10hr is doable on any of the new laptops.

Don't assume that what it "shows" is the real battery life you're gonna get. That's how most people measure it and it's misleading.

 

[rajkumarpatel79]

Guys, I have a Short term uni course with Oxford starting from mid Nov. I would need to use Docker/Vagrant containers on it. Been looking to pull the trigger on new M1 14 inch MBP. I found costco uk to be the cheapest, its for GBP 2089.00 and they have 3 year technical support (repair or refund) + 90 days no quibble return/refund. Its the cheapest I have seen across (even as compared to Amazon). And with costco 3 yr tech support, I may have to buy Apple care, but no Apple extended warranty. Apple Approved for the same config is of 2129.
Config -

2021 Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, Apple M1 Pro chip with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD)​

I can see the M2 pro are going into production in last quarter of 2022. Will the prices of M1 MBP come down from the current, as it has already at the likes of John Lewis and Costco. Should I wait for a bit, like October to see Apple approved ones come down in price.
Thanks
Raj

 

[kasakka]

I'd say 16 GB is fine for most users but the moment you start regularly using e.g virtual machines, Docker containers or do anything more constantly memory demanding stuff then I'd jump to 32 GB considering you can't upgrade this stuff later if needed.

I have a 2019 Intel MBP with 64 GB RAM and most of the time half of it sits idle doing nothing, despite running multiple Docker containers simultaneously, plus an IDE and various other apps. So for my work 32 GB would be the right amount considering unused RAM is useless RAM.

If I were to buy a Mac for personal use I'd most likely just cheap out and stay with 16 GB as I am unlikely to need more than that for personal use. Similarly M1 Pro would be enough for that.

 

[TSE]

To be honest, just in terms of value per dollar, the base model is the one to get for 90% of people. Diminishing returns the more you upgrade it unless you NEED it. But if you have to ask, you probably don't.

 

[bearinthetown]

To be honest, just in terms of value per dollar, the base model is the one to get for 90% of people. Diminishing returns the more you upgrade it unless you NEED it. But if you have to ask, you probably don't.

I agree with this. It's interesting to hear people casually justifying spending 2x more to gain 5% increase in performance. In my case though, I use virtual machines and performance bump for me is real.

 

[TSE]

I agree with this. It's interesting to hear people casually justifying spending 2x more to gain 5% increase in performance. In my case though, I use virtual machines and performance bump for me is real.

Agreed! Nothing wrong with getting a configuration you are comfortable with and serves you well;.

I'm in the opposite boat as you. I thought I needed the Max model - I'm a professional UX Designer who works with pretty intense workloads alongside Parallels.

My former company purchased me a 14" 32-Core Max, 64 GB, 1 TB model on day one. I never even used half the power of that thing. And while I loved it, my new company supplied me with a M1 MacBook Air and everything is still smooth sailing at a fraction of the cost, size, and weight! I love my Air!

 

[zakarhino]

I use the Max chip but honestly I think the Pro chip is better for almost all use cases. the extra battery life of the Pro chip is well worth it especially because the Pro compute ability (which is what ios and web development relies on) is equivalent to that of the Max.

go with the Pro, you won't regret it. the max is only for people doing a lot of 3D or video editing.

 

[januarydrive7]

You guys never felt the shortage of RAM?

I've got 14" M1 pro (8/16/512), and currently am running:
-- Safari with 26 (twenty-six) tabs (
-- A C++ project running in CLion taking ~3.2GB ram
-- A Java project running in IntelliJ taking ~4GB ram
-- A python project running in PyCharm taking ~2.7GB ram
-- A java app using about ~1GB ram
-- vscodium with a large latex project (~230 pages)
-- Pixelmator Pro with about a dozen large figures in process
And a bunch of smallish random apps, e.g., Spotify, a pages doc, slack

I'm using about 78% memory right now, swap is at 176 MB.

Of course, depending on your workload, YMMV, but for me it's been a cool and quiet experience, with excellent battery to boot.

 

[Vanarak19]

Don't assume that what it "shows" is the real battery life you're gonna get. That's how most people measure it and it's misleading.

I’m not sure I follow. I’ve stated a few times I’m seeing close to that battery life in real world use. That’s not an assumption.

If you need the most, an air or a 16MBP are your options. If you want to max battery life on any of the current offerings, stay away from the Max chip. Best of luck.

 

[mdhaus72]

m1 max 32 core 64gb ram here, on previous intel mbp i was fine with 16gb ram, but some reason, perhaps monterey, my ram usage skyrocketed. now my ram usage is constantly around 40-50gb. unless you're the type that shut down ur computer every week and use safari exclusively, i wouldn't recommend getting 16gb on a 14inch mbp.

The reason your RAM usage is so high is simple - On these new ARM machines, MacOS is designed to expand its footprint to utilize the RAM space that it has. So if you have 16 GB, it will use it. If you have 32 GB, it all use it. And if you have 64 GB, it will allow programs to use all of it as needed.

So in other words, you're not actually running short of RAM. And thanks to the high speed of the SSDs, it isn't that big of a deal if the MacBook ever has to do some disc swapping. This is why so many people say that 64 GB of RAM is overkill....It takes A LOT of insanely large files to ever come close to using that amount. And even if it does start to run short, it will simply disc swap as needed and you'll notice little if any difference.