New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

[300bhp/ton]

ch37 said:

Blown2CV said:

i seem to recall people saying similar when M1 first came out, that maybe 8Gb was insufficient and not proportionate with the other specs.

I only have 8GB (mainly because it was a long wait for 16GB and the larger SSD was important to me) and I've not once wished I had 16 despite everything I've thrown at it as listed above.

I have an 8GB Mac Mini M1 too, it has worked perfectly for my use. But I do wonder down the line if the 8GB will be more of a limitation. I really wanted a 16GB one, but it didn't pan out. Although I'm typing this on my new Mac Studio M1 Max with 32GB RAM.

I've not done anything yet other than setting up, installing and transferring stuff. It does seem to copy items over quicker and boost slightly faster. But I feel happier that years down the line it'll still be running things without issue. That said the Mac Mini is brilliant for the money, but lacks enough ports!!

[LunarOne]

300bhp/ton said:

...the Mac Mini is brilliant for the money, but lacks enough ports!!

That's it for me. I've only just got over the loss of floppy drives from PCs, and now every port is disappearing. I'm trying to figure out how to connect my displays to a new Mac Mini or Studio. My two displays each support DVI x2, DisplayPort x1, HDMI x1, Component Video x1, S-Video x1 and Composite Video x1. Since there's only one HDMI port on the back of a Mini or Studio, I can't see any way around using a USB-C adapter if I want both screens.

[TheJimi]

FarmyardPants said:

The Unified Memory Architecture means the RAM is shared with the GPU. Texture data can eat up quite a bit so if you use 3D graphics/games, 8GB can get borderline. Decent PC graphics cards have 8GB to themselves. I think 16GB is a better bet especially as it can't be upgraded. Not to say you can't do a lot with the base spec of course.

Indeed.

No-one's saying that 16GB wouldn't be useful, rather that the 8GB machine is bloody good in spite of that.

[thecremeegg]

ch37 said:

What are you using it for?

I have exactly the same and it absolutely walks over anything I throw at it. At this time a year that's about 150Gb of Sony RAW files a week, all imported, processed through Lightroom whilst YouTube is on in the background for music, internet broswers open etc etc, then offloaded to external drives before I go again. My old Dell XPS, on paper far more powerful, would struggle with YouTube whilst doing the same.

Had it since autumn 2020 and I've never experienced even a hint of lag, Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere, Serato DJ Pro (with an external DJ controller attached) as well as the usual Microsoft Office software etc.

Browsing, remote desktop and Outlook, that's it! Maybe mine is busted, but yea not massively impressed with it

[ch37]

thecremeegg said:

Browsing, remote desktop and Outlook, that's it! Maybe mine is busted, but yea not massively impressed with it

Is the hard drive pretty much full? Can't think of anything else that cause such an issue. I typically leave a 100Gb buffer, but that's mainly because unchecked Lightroom can bloat into an absolute beast and I can't ever afford to not be able to back up in the field.

[mark seeker]

Just bought the Mini M1 16GB (gave up waiting for the M2 Mini!) So far so good, seems to have plenty of power for Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Rush and most importantly the Pistonheads Forums

Coming from PC, the Apple differences aren't making me pull my hair out just yet.

[MikeHo]

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

[Durzel]

Was going to buy a M1 (Max) MacBook Pro 16" while the back to school offer was still going on (thanks dodgy student discount), but rumour has it the M2 Max etc MBPs might be coming out sooner than originally thought?

[MikeHo]

Gawd, there's always something !

I don't need a Max and prob not a 16" .... they are a tad big for carrying around.

[Durzel]

Sorry I wasn't referring to your situation as such.

[Craikeybaby]

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

Yes, it is a great bit of kit. Although most of my dev work (VS Code/Docker etc) is done on my 16GB M1 Air, which is more than up to the job. Screen/webcam/MagSafe on the MBP are leagues ahead of the old Air though.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

I use a M1 Pro 16" for developing - mainly command line compiler use (Rust, C++) or Python. If you are comfortable with Linux / Bash / Zsh the terminal is fabulous (macOS uses ZSH which is a great improvement over BASH).

I also use it for remote access (SSH) to Linux Servers for remote build of Yocto (Linux OS) with X11 forwarding.

[xeny]

thecremeegg said:

Browsing, remote desktop and Outlook, that's it! Maybe mine is busted, but yea not massively impressed with it

Out of curiosity, which browser, and how many tabs? Mine is used for browsing (I have a tab explosion problem but Edge's tab sleep feature stops it killing the machine) Teams in Edge and RDP, and I'm certainly happy with it for that - it's typically hooked up to a 34" ultrawide, which presumably eats some memory.

[MikeHo]

Durzel said:

Sorry I wasn't referring to your situation as such.

Lol, no, I meant there's always a new thing just round the corner.
Got to put my stick in the ground at some point and I think the M1 pro might be it.

[MikeHo]

jesusbuiltmycar said:

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

I use a M1 Pro 16" for developing - mainly command line compiler use (Rust, C++) or Python. If you are comfortable with Linux / Bash / Zsh the terminal is fabulous (macOS uses ZSH which is a great improvement over BASH).

I also use it for remote access (SSH) to Linux Servers for remote build of Yocto (Linux OS) with X11 forwarding.

Good to know.
Not sure I want to see c++ ever again

[MikeHo]

Craikeybaby said:

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

Yes, it is a great bit of kit. Although most of my dev work (VS Code/Docker etc) is done on my 16GB M1 Air, which is more than up to the job. Screen/webcam/MagSafe on the MBP are leagues ahead of the old Air though.

That's the kind of stuff I was thinking of using it for. In a size that I can't take anywhere and not worry too much about plugging in! I mostly use an XPS 9510 at the moment, screen is great >4k but pretty ste battery life.
Love the look of the new Air but side by side in an apple store the screen on the pro tipped it.

[untakenname]

Apple event tomorrow, I'm hoping for an M2 Mac mini as it's approaching two years now since the M1 version launched.

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-events/

[jesusbuiltmycar]

untakenname said:

Apple event tomorrow, I'm hoping for an M2 Mac mini as it's approaching two years now since the M1 version launched.

https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-events/

I think you may need to wait a bit longer - the September event is usually iPhones & iPads.

There is normally an event in October for Macs.

[SteveKTMer]

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

Mine is Macbook Pro 16GB with 2TB SSD, M1 Pro CPU base model. It's so much faster than anything I've ever had from Intel, even my Dell XPS 13 i7 feels very sluggish and slow compared to the Macbook Pro at everyday tasks. I'm not a developer but do have many documents and browser tabs open all the time pus video editing with Final Cut and Resolve. It's never slow.

If I was buying again, I'd probably get the Macbook Air M2 with 24GB memory and a 2TB SSD. The M2 has faster single core performance than any of the M1 CPUs, even the M1 ultra and Max, so it will be faster for general use and there's so much horsepower in reserve that nothing I am doing will really tax it and most of the time developers are editing, which is a very low pressure task. Plus no fan which is nice.

[768]

MikeHo said:

Anyone got an M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" ?

Thinking of dipping my toe in Apple land, going to be used mainly for software dev work - not Xcode, more generic.

I've got a 14" M1 Max, 32GB RAM. 2TB, which wasn't really enough.

It's generally pretty quick. If you hit any dependencies which have to be compiled for ARM, or worse you have to run x86 binaries, it can slow down dev work a lot.