New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

[Matt..]

thebraketester said:

Yes they could make it as small as an Apple TV. However then you hugely limit port-count and cooling.

IMO it's plenty small enough.

Cooling performance is unknown. They could likely solve that with their new chips being far lower power. The Mini case was designed for high wattage Intel CPUs.

Ports is possibly true, but solvable fairly easily as well. eg. USB-A will go in a year or two, and they might move to a power brick with some ports on it (same as the iMac).

I would fully expect the Mini to drop in size in the next couple of years.

[ajprice]

MKBHD with the M2 Max MacBook Pro

[ch37]

Matt.. said:

Apple is fine if you want to just do simple tasks at home, but for anything more intensive where you need more than the base spec it gets extremely expensive very quickly.

Most professional photographers I know in real life (which I assume, by definition, is slightly more involved than 'simple tasks at home') are using M1 models at or very near base spec, and many using Airs rather than Pros.

I'm running an M1 Air with 8GB and it still takes a huge amount of intensive editing in its stride. Breezed through by far my busiest year ever last year. I kinda assumed I would needed to have upgraded within two years but there are no signs of needing to do that at the moment despite upgrading to higher res Sony bodies. Each shoot gets offloaded to external storage once edited so 512GB has been fine, but when I've needed to edit from an external drive (i.e. two separate shoots back to back) there is virtually no slowdown.

I guess maybe intensive 4K video editing would be the limit for the models I'm referring to (for light work they are fine, but I'm not editing hours worth a day), but that's fairly niche, most wedding videographers (for example) I know don't bother shooting in 4K as it's overkill.

Edited by ch37 on Tuesday 24th January 08:16

[Blown2CV]

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

[Leithen]

Blown2CV said:

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

I think you might find the base spec M1 every bit as good as your Intel.

[SteveKTMer]

Blown2CV said:

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

If you've got the 1.1 GHz i3 or i5, then the M1 will rip the Intel a new one in every respect. My 2020 M1 Mac Mini I use for general editing of GoPro 4k from the bike and raw photo editing is much, much faster than my Dell XPS 13 i7 from 2018. The difference is like night and day. And the Dell was a quick laptop in 2018 and has a faster SSD than standard.

[TheJimi]

Blown2CV said:

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

You absolutely would notice a real world difference, and you'd notice it instantly with an M1 Air, never mind an M2.

Leithen said:

I think you might find the base spec M1 every bit as good as your Intel.

Better in every way, I'd suggest.

[pete]

Another basic M1 fan here. I use a base M1 mini with only 8GB of RAM for personal duties, and it has no problem with 4k video editing or processing massive raw photo files in Lightroom, never feels like it's struggling unlike the i7 it replaced. My work machine is a 14" M1 Pro Macbook with more RAM, and it's quicker but not so much better that the base M1 feels slow.

[anonymous-user]

Leithen said:

I think you might find the base spec M1 every bit as good as your Intel.

Indeed. I would actually be surprised if it was not considerably better than an Intel Pro.

This is what myself and others have found, and posted in this thread about. The base models of anything M1 or M2 will be more powerful than powerful enough for the vast majority of users, even the ones who edit video or photos.

I would suggest that these days, anything above the base model, and especially the Pro or Max models, are really only required by users who want serious amounts of firepower. It has become apparent that Apple silicone is extremely efficient.

Not needing to choose above the base model does take some getting your head around. My last MacBook was a 2019 13" Pro with intel, and I bought the Pro model specifically because I edit photos as part of my photography hobby and have a job where I often have to use large spreadsheets and so on. Occasionally the Pro would be slow with a big batch of editing or perhaps a very large spreadsheet with calcs in it.

When I made the decision to buy a new MacBook, I always intended on buying the new M1 Pro, as I've had a Pro before so clearly I the next one needs to be a Pro right? When I actually saw the spec (and price) of the new M1 Pro, I realised it wasn't for people like me anymore. It was for really serious users.

I then bought a base model Air M1 and over the last 12 months, it has gone like a rocket with whatever I have thrown at it. Way quicker than my old 2019 Pro.

Edited: Corrected to 2019 Macbook Pro as my old machine. Not 2015.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 24th January 12:16

[Blown2CV]

SteveKTMer said:

Blown2CV said:

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

If you've got the 1.1 GHz i3 or i5, then the M1 will rip the Intel a new one in every respect. My 2020 M1 Mac Mini I use for general editing of GoPro 4k from the bike and raw photo editing is much, much faster than my Dell XPS 13 i7 from 2018. The difference is like night and day. And the Dell was a quick laptop in 2018 and has a faster SSD than standard.

it's a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

[Craikeybaby]

pete said:

Another basic M1 fan here. I use a base M1 mini with only 8GB of RAM for personal duties, and it has no problem with 4k video editing or processing massive raw photo files in Lightroom, never feels like it's struggling unlike the i7 it replaced. My work machine is a 14" M1 Pro Macbook with more RAM, and it's quicker but not so much better that the base M1 feels slow.

I am the opposite, splashed out on the 14" MPB with M1Pro for myself, after skipping the M1, because from the announcement it seemed like the bottom of the range. Then I got a M1 Air from work a few months later, albeit upgraded to 16GB, and I am yet to notice any difference in performance, for software development work, with multiple Docker containers running etc.

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Blown2CV said:

it's a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Regardless of the advice above, it sounds like you don’t need to upgrade and won’t need to until your current machine dies.
I swapped a 12” MacBook for the 14” M1 MacBook Pro but through want rather than need.
My use is normal day to day, writing, bit of photoshop and editing video clips and the old machine never struggled.
For the vast majority of users every machine on the market is more than enough.

BUT… get one, the square Pros and Airs are ever so nice!

[NDA]

Lord Marylebone said:

I then bought a base model Air M1 and over the last 12 months, it has gone like a rocket with whatever I have thrown at it. Way quicker than my old 2015 Pro.

I bought an M1 Pro to replace my (not very good) 2015 Pro. It's way more than I need and I would not be tempted by the M2 which is even more over spec'd for my usage.

My son is using my 2013 Air for university duties. Still going strong and he's followed my advice to store nothing on it - all on a removable drive.

[TheJimi]

Lee Jones Jnr said:

Blown2CV said:

it's a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Regardless of the advice above, it sounds like you don’t need to upgrade and won’t need to until your current machine dies.
I swapped a 12” MacBook for the 14” M1 MacBook Pro but through want rather than need.
My use is normal day to day, writing, bit of photoshop and editing video clips and the old machine never struggled.
For the vast majority of users every machine on the market is more than enough.

BUT… get one, the square Pros and Airs are ever so nice!

I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.

[Lee Jones Jnr]

TheJimi said:

I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.

If the current laptop meets his needs none of that is a gain?

[anonymous-user]

TheJimi said:

I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.

I agree. There are numerous reasons to change.

For me it was the battery life that attracted me to an upgrade more than anything, and I wasn't disappointed. I can get pretty much 2 full days of work in the office without plugging it in, which is really handy when you are hotdesking and moving between meeting rooms etc.

Another reason I decided to upgrade sooner rather than later was the resale value. My 2019 Intel 13" Pro was still worth a good chunk of money 12 months ago when I sold it was only just about 3 years old. I decided that I should cash out before everyone started catching on to 'needing' M1, M2 etc.

I would say to anyone that if they own an Intel Mac, think about selling it on before they become a pariah compared to an Apple silicon model, and still holds value.

I'm not a tech/IT person, and I may well be wrong, but I imagine there will come a point soon, where Apple will draw a line under the old Intel models and offer no new OS upgrades etc, and possibly rewrite the new OS specifically to work with Apple silicon only. I know Apple still sell the Mac Pro as an Intel model, but they must be very close to canning these forever, and brining out some kind of M3 Mega Mac for those who really want to spend £10k or more on a computer.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 24th January 12:35

[Durzel]

I don't think Apple will abandon updates etc for Intel, as the buik of their stuff already out there is on it.

You are right though that as time goes on they will become less and less desirable, and the Apple Silicon ones seem to be so far ahead in performance, battery life and heat (lack of) terms that they are a paradigm shift.

I've just pulled the trigger on a M1 Max one even though my Intel i9 is pretty much fine, because I feel like the value will drop off a cliff as time goes on.

[TheJimi]

Lee Jones Jnr said:

TheJimi said:

I honestly think it's worth upgrading from an Intel machine purely from a heat management perspective, even without considering the performance gains, and battery life.

If the current laptop meets his needs none of that is a gain?

In my opinion, yes, it is.

Yours may differ

[Blown2CV]

Durzel said:

I don't think Apple will abandon updates etc for Intel, as the buik of their stuff already out there is on it.

that's not how they would do it anyway. They support the OS not the hardware as such, and as long as hardware supports a new macOS then it can be upgraded. When a particular macOS goes out of support and you are blocked from upgrading, then this is when you'd have an issue.

[SteveKTMer]

Blown2CV said:

SteveKTMer said:

Blown2CV said:

i have an intel air 2020 with the slightly faster CPU option and 16Gb of RAM. Tend to just use it for normal stuff but i do do photo editing from time to time. The natural replacement if I was to do that at 3 years old would be the M2 Air i guess... I am guessing that a) I would hardly notice any real world difference in performance but also that b) the residual value of my underclass intel will be very low!

If you've got the 1.1 GHz i3 or i5, then the M1 will rip the Intel a new one in every respect. My 2020 M1 Mac Mini I use for general editing of GoPro 4k from the bike and raw photo editing is much, much faster than my Dell XPS 13 i7 from 2018. The difference is like night and day. And the Dell was a quick laptop in 2018 and has a faster SSD than standard.

it's a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

The M1 and especially M2 will still rip ahead and be significantly faster - it's like jumping two or three generations of processor, not just an upgrade like i3 to i7. Also as others have said, genuine all day battery life and no heat unless you hit it hard. But if you don't need the extra speed then stay with what you have, it'll last years.