New apple M1 chips - who's buying?

[SV_WDC]

bhstewie said:

Have M chip MBPs always started with 8GB of RAM?

Quite surprised the "entry" level M3 has "only" 8GB for £1700.

You cannot look at RAM in the same way you do other computers.

The M architecture is SoC (System on Chip) meaning everything is integrated together. It's shared between GPU, CPU etc.

Trust me, 8GB is more than capable. You could upgrade to 16GB for more peace of mind.

Macrumours explains more about it here: https://www.macrumors.com/guide/m2/

[stemll]

bhstewie said:

Isn't "horribly slow" still relative here though? As in still damned quick compared to an 8 year old MBP.

I've never even thought to benchmark my M1 Air but I just did and it's this.

M2 Air 8Gb 512GB for comparison

[mikef]

And Air M2 16TB/1TB to complete the series

[leglessAlex]

To be fair, that pretty much confirms bhstewie’s point doesn’t it?

They’re all fantastically fast if you’re coming from almost anything else, and to the vast, vast majority of people the extra speed of the 512GB+ versions just isn’t that relevant.

I still want one, I still don’t want to spend the money on one

[mikef]

Not really, the problem is with the 256GB SSD in the M2 series, which someone was recommending in the thread, and is half as fast as the example disk benchmarks posted

[untakenname]

I originally went for a 8/256 M2 mini but it wasn't great (when using Davinci Resolve for instance the timeline preview used to stutter) so I returned it to the Apple store and got the 16/512 version which is noticeably faster.

Write speeds were way down on the 8GB M1 chips due to using a single 256GB chip instead of 2x128 so the throughput was halved, the 512MB M2's and higher don't afaik have the same issue as they also use dual chips.

untakenname said:

Just did a couple of tests using that benchmark tool on the 256 M2, hopefully someone somewhere has done the same with the 512 base M2 Mac Mini.

[a340driver]

My M1 Pro with 16GB that's 2 years old is insanely quick. Never even gets warm.

It replaced a 2014 Pro with 16GB that is still working well but I wanted to run the latest OS and it has a battery that is buggered so it's always plugged in as a music server.

The new M chips are astonishing.

More important to me is having a decent sized SSD of at least 1TB and they charge a fortune for that.

Edited by a340driver on Thursday 2nd November 19:16

Edited by a340driver on Thursday 2nd November 19:19

[mmm-five]

mikef said:

And Air M2 16TB/1TB to complete the series

Mac Studio Max with 512GB SSD for comparison.

1GB test file:


5GB test file:


GB6:

Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 2nd November 19:47

[mikef]

That’s impressive

[stemll]

leglessAlex said:

To be fair, that pretty much confirms bhstewie’s point doesn’t it?

They’re all fantastically fast if you’re coming from almost anything else, and to the vast, vast majority of people the extra speed of the 512GB+ versions just isn’t that relevant.

I still want one, I still don’t want to spend the money on one

Indeed it does, just posted if anyone wanted the comparison. I got my Air (mostly) courtesy of LV after I knocked a glass of whisky over my 2020 Intel Pro, killing half of the keyboard, the screen and suspected mainboard too. It is night and day difference and the 2020 was no slouch. I got the 512 as that was what John Lewis had in stock and I needed a laptop.

[SteveKTMer]

MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, 16GB memory, 2TB SSD using a 1GB test file. With a 5GB file the write reduces to about 6350 MB/s and read increases to about 5300 MB/s. This is the binned chip, 8 CPU, 6 perf and 2 efficiency. Battery still lasts all day.

[Blown2CV]

i don't think any of these machines are slow so it's all academic really (to me, as this is just a personal low usage machine for me)

[bitchstewie]

That's kind of my point though.

Even the "slow" M2 is presumably still more than enough for some web browsing and Office work even if spending more buys something quicker still.

[gangzoom]

Due to having to travel across sites on my pedal bike this week I’ve been using the M1 iPad Pro as the main work machine. I have to say even with iOS limitations the M1 processor is simply a monster. It runs Windows via Vmware almost as well as my actual HP EliteBook. Everything however loads up so much faster than the laptop, well there is no load time, and FaceID for enterprise security is so much quicker than typing in passwords all the time/doing 2 factor authentication!

For my work usage - Office suite, occasional Slido/Mentimeter creation, Teams calls etc the M1 chip is more than overkill, cannot imagine what an upgraded processor would do. Better run time on the battery will be useful though, the massive screen on the iPad doesn’t help, but better battery life is the only thing I can ask for.

[tim0409]

gangzoom said:

Due to having to travel across sites on my pedal bike this week I’ve been using the M1 iPad Pro as the main work machine. I have to say even with iOS limitations the M1 processor is simply a monster.

The M1 iPad Pro is a great bit of kit; I’ve been using it since I sold my MBA last month and it’s been fanstatic - my wife bought me the magic keyboard case last year and I was sceptical due to the price and weight, but it works really well.

I’m visiting the US and picked up a new M2 MBA for £750 in an early black friday sale, and although it’s only the base model with 256gb storage, it’s more than enough performance for me. The M1 MBA I had before was superb, but the price to change made the upgrade worthwhile as I love the new design and the screen.

[TheJimi]

leglessAlex said:

To be fair, that pretty much confirms bhstewie’s point doesn’t it?

They’re all fantastically fast if you’re coming from almost anything else, and to the vast, vast majority of people the extra speed of the 512GB+ versions just isn’t that relevant.

I still want one, I still don’t want to spend the money on one

This

I have an 8GB M1 Air and this is exactly where I'm at.

My M1 doesn't stutter in the slightest, it's fking incredible tbh - goes against my entire experience of laptops - both PC and Mac.

[Teppic]

mikef said:

And Air M2 16TB/1TB to complete the series

Macbook Air M1 16Tb / 1Tb

[MM]

gangzoom said:

Due to having to travel across sites on my pedal bike this week I’ve been using the M1 iPad Pro as the main work machine. I have to say even with iOS limitations the M1 processor is simply a monster. It runs Windows via Vmware almost as well as my actual HP EliteBook. Everything however loads up so much faster than the laptop, well there is no load time, and FaceID for enterprise security is so much quicker than typing in passwords all the time/doing 2 factor authentication!

For my work usage - Office suite, occasional Slido/Mentimeter creation, Teams calls etc the M1 chip is more than overkill, cannot imagine what an upgraded processor would do. Better run time on the battery will be useful though, the massive screen on the iPad doesn’t help, but better battery life is the only thing I can ask for.

Are you using VMware to run windows on the iPad or as a form of remote desktop connection?

[stemll]

MM said:

gangzoom said:

Due to having to travel across sites on my pedal bike this week I’ve been using the M1 iPad Pro as the main work machine. I have to say even with iOS limitations the M1 processor is simply a monster. It runs Windows via Vmware almost as well as my actual HP EliteBook. Everything however loads up so much faster than the laptop, well there is no load time, and FaceID for enterprise security is so much quicker than typing in passwords all the time/doing 2 factor authentication!

For my work usage - Office suite, occasional Slido/Mentimeter creation, Teams calls etc the M1 chip is more than overkill, cannot imagine what an upgraded processor would do. Better run time on the battery will be useful though, the massive screen on the iPad doesn’t help, but better battery life is the only thing I can ask for.

Are you using VMware to run windows on the iPad or as a form of remote desktop connection?

The answer is in the post you quoted

"It runs Windows via Vmware almost as well as my actual HP EliteBook"

[eyebeebe]

stemll said:

The answer is in the post you quoted

"It runs Windows via Vmware almost as well as my actual HP EliteBook"

Is it? It reads to me like VMWare is running on the iPad, but when I google VMWare M1 iPad or similar it doesn‘t seem to be possible to do so.

From what I can see running any kind of VM isn‘t possible on an iPad without jailbraking. Would be happy to be proven wrong though. DOS emulators that temporarily sneaked past the censors don‘t count!