$4k Total Budget – Which would you go with?

[elliskay83]

As indicated in the title, my company has given me an absolute/hard capped budget of $4k to purchase a new Macbook Pro. (Public sector and tax exempt.) Absolutely no chance to increase even $1 above $4k. I'm a designer who also regularly works with high resolution photography and videography, so very large file sizes is the norm. Also, I have to admit I'm prone to having a good portion of the Creative Suite open at the same time. With these things in mind, which would you say is the better use of the full funds?

Option 1:
14" MBP, M3 Max, 14 Core, 96GB Ram ($3,999)

Option 2:
16" MBP, M3 Max, 16 Core, 48GB Ram ($3,999)

I'm not super worried about the portability and the extra screen size would be nice for situations where I'm not able to plug into into a monitor. I think my biggest struggle is deciding whether the extra RAM is worth the reduction in cores and screen size.

Have to place my order today! Which way would you go?

 

[wilberforce]

This is a tough one, because Adobe apps are serious memory hogs on Apple Silicon (the graphical acceleration feature in Adobe apps sucks up unified memory), and a 14" screen is tiny for apps like Photoshop - but arguably so is 16".

Are you currently working on Apple Silicon? If so, how is your memory pressure in Activity Monitor?

I would be inclined to try the 16" with 48GB, and return it in 14 days if memory usage is a problem

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Buy a decked out studio and third party monitors.

 

[elliskay83]

Tough one indeed. I should clarify on the portability statement. By that, I' meant I'm not that concerned with the size/weight difference between a 14" and 16" when it comes to portability. But this does need to be a MBP vs something like a Studio because it will be used outside of the office on a regular basis.

We added a team member and right now we're lucky enough to have one MBP to share amongst the group. It's a 16" M1 Max with 64GB of RAM that performs pretty well in most situations. But since we've been given the green light to add a second MBP, we want to take advantage of the opportunity since it's not likely to arrive again anytime soon.

 

[elliskay83]

I think my ideal scenario would have been a situation where we could configure a 16" MPB with M3 Max, 14 Core and 64GB of RAM. Unfortunately, it's only possible to get 36GB or 96GB with the 14 core and the upgrade to 16 core/64GB puts me $200 over budget.

 

[wilberforce]

Tough one indeed. I should clarify on the portability statement. By that, I' meant I'm not that concerned with the size/weight difference between a 14" and 16" when it comes to portability. But this does need to be a MBP vs something like a Studio because it will be used outside of the office on a regular basis.

We added a team member and right now we're lucky enough to have one MBP to share amongst the group. It's a 16" M1 Max with 64GB of RAM that performs pretty well in most situations. But since we've been given the green light to add a second MBP, we want to take advantage of the opportunity since it's not likely to arrive again anytime soon.

Well, you can see how the memory pressure is on your current MBP.
You can force a high memory pressure condition by entering the following in the Terminal app:

sudo memory_pressure -l warn
(Then enter login password if requested)

In Activity Monitor you can see how much of the 64GB memory needs to be allocated to the memory_pressure process to create a (warning level) high memory pressure condition, while running Adobe apps.

(Close Terminal to terminate the process)

 

[elliskay83]

Well, you can see how the memory pressure is on your current MBP.
You can force a high memory pressure condition by entering the following in the Terminal app:

sudo memory_pressure -l warn
(Then enter login password if requested)

In Activity Monitor you can see how much of the 64GB memory needs to be allocated to the memory_pressure process to create a (warning level) high memory pressure condition, while running Adobe apps.

(Close Terminal to terminate the process)

Just opened up Premiere, Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator and a TON of tabs on Chrome. Set Premiere to export a 5:00 4K clip and watched the pressure rise.

 

[wilberforce]

Well, if that is how you normally operate, then you would benefit from more RAM. However, if you are opening an unusually high number of apps and tabs to force a high memory pressure, this is not helping to inform you what to choose.

 

[elliskay83]

I may not always have quite so many things open as this situation, but it’s not uncommon to be somewhere close to it. Meaning, if I’m in Premiere and After Effects I usually won’t have InDesign open and usually not Photoshop either. When I’m not working on video or animation, I’ll almost always have Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop open/running along with the usual stuff. (Chrome, Acrobat, Spotify, etc.)

So given that this test pushed the machine above the 48GB, I guess I might be forced to go with the smaller 14” with the crazy amount of RAM (96GB) just to be safe and better situated for the long-term?

 

[MacProFCP]

As indicated in the title, my company has given me an absolute/hard capped budget of $4k to purchase a new Macbook Pro. (Public sector and tax exempt.) Absolutely no chance to increase even $1 above $4k. I'm a designer who also regularly works with high resolution photography and videography, so very large file sizes is the norm. Also, I have to admit I'm prone to having a good portion of the Creative Suite open at the same time. With these things in mind, which would you say is the better use of the full funds?

Option 1:
14" MBP, M3 Max, 14 Core, 96GB Ram ($3,999)

Option 2:
16" MBP, M3 Max, 16 Core, 48GB Ram ($3,999)

I'm not super worried about the portability and the extra screen size would be nice for situations where I'm not able to plug into into a monitor. I think my biggest struggle is deciding whether the extra RAM is worth the reduction in cores and screen size.

Have to place my order today! Which way would you go?

Allow me to simplify:

1. Screen size is probably not so important since the work you're doing will generally require a full size monitor. The 14-inch display, being used solely for travel, is therefore unlikely to make a huge difference. Get a cheap travel monitor if you must.

2. With the M3 Max, you're good with 14 cores regardless. The extra two cores are unlikely to significantly decrease your rendering time, so this too is inconsequential.

3. Which brings us to RAM. You WILL notice a HUGE difference when multi-tasking with the added ram.

To me, this is a no brainer: Option 1.

 

[Squirrrrel]

If you need more RAM, then just get the configuration with more RAM. You will deeply regret running out of RAM over losing 2 inches of screen real estate. You can always hook up the laptop to a monitor. You can't increase the RAM later on due to it being part of the SoC.

 

[TechnoMonk]

If you live near a microcenter, there is a sale going on now. You can grab some of them for 500 off.

16 inch MBP 16/40 Core, 1 TB and 128 GB is 4.4K
16 inch MBP 16/40 Core 1 TB and 96 GB RAM is 3.8 K

 

[elliskay83]

Dang, sounds like some good deals. Shame there isn’t one in my state.

 

[Fishrrman]

If you're using LOTS of heavy-duty, RAM-hogging apps, get the one with the most RAM...

 

[MacProFCP]

Dang, sounds like some good deals. Shame there isn’t one in my state.

Don't leave us hanging.

What did you decide?

 

[dumastudetto]

I would increase my budget to get the perfect setup. I believe in a no-compromise computing experience. Money is just a number that gets in the way of doing big things.

 

[elliskay83]

Don't leave us hanging.

What did you decide?

Went with my gut and the overall sentiment here. Extra RAM won out.

If increasing the budget was an option, I definitely would have gone that route. Even though I knew the answer, I actually asked the finance team if there was any way of eeking out a little extra. But as mentioned above, I’m in the public sector and it wasn’t possible. Honestly, I’m just happy we were able to get this amount approved because it’s by no means a common occurrence.

 

[MacProFCP]

Went with my gut and the overall sentiment here. Extra RAM won out.

If increasing the budget was an option, I definitely would have gone that route. Even though I knew the answer, I actually asked the finance team if there was any way of eeking out a little extra. But as mentioned above, I’m in the public sector and it wasn’t possible. Honestly, I’m just happy we were able to get this amount approved because it’s by no means a common occurrence.

Good choice.

Thanks for sharing.