Time to jump?

[AlgarveGardner]

Hello team!

Another buying advice thread - im a LONG term stalker of the forum but never registered

Im on a 2018ish 15" macbook pro with 16gb of ram and its done fine, but with all the M1 hype Im thinking its time to jump.

Im a web developer / graphic design / digital marketing guy with a bit of video editing and adobe premier animation which causes the macbook to crawl

Generally machine runs fine ish - of course opening apps takes ages, rendering anything makes the computer unusable for anything else.

What im really struggling is when I connect a 4ktv - the performance just drops right off so Ive just started not using it.

I was initially looking at the m1 macmini - but am worried about similar performance issues running a 4ktv, this laptop has really put me off apple laptops with my keyboard which no longer works at all - and the external display issues.

What would you guys suggest? Loving the new imac despite the chin, gets me a nice big monitor which wont be sluggish - but as its basically just the macmini wasnt sure its worth it?

That was a bit of a ramble, any thoughts very welcome and enjoy your time of day!

 

[Significant1]

Unless something is bugging you with your existing machine, I would wait. M1 is very good for a version 1, but it (MBA 16GB/1TB) is still not as stable as my Intel machines. I get a lot of xcode related crashes. I am new to xcode so maybe that is normal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, but my old MBA is not giving me those craches.

 

[velocityg4]

M1 is certainly faster. The main concern is some of those programs can use a lot of RAM for individual tasks. You should take a look at RAM usage when just one app is running your usual workload at a time.

while the M1 has great swap speed. To seamlessly switch tasks. Making 16GB or even 8GB feel like a lot. It could useless if a single task is using more than 16GB.

Then you can decide to switch to M1 or wait for M2 with,hopefully, 32GB or 64GB options.

 

[AlgarveGardner]

Thanks for your input chaps, I do tend to run premiere, photoshop, chrome with a YouTube playing and in design, the 16gb worries me even though the m1 is meant to better with lower...

I may have to hold out for the next thing, im still managing To work, it’s just really getting me down struggling on a monitor. Maybe will jump on the new pros or the larger iMac

 

[MBAir2010]

Find out what your collogues and professionals are using and pick their brains.
while watching a "Game of Thrones" behind the scenes, the production crew were using intel MacBook pros
probably the top line ones with 32-64 gb ram but this was during the set and while filming.
Then my ex neighbor who owns and manages an internet marketing company claims the Microsoft Surface line does everything now.
Personally, the software can be more problematic than the laptop itself were Adobe Illustrator seems to crawl on everything, not the actual work itself, just the saving and exporting seems to take more time than Photoshop.

 

[velocityg4]

Find out what your collogues and professionals are using and pick their brains.
while watching a "Game of Thrones" behind the scenes, the production crew were using intel MacBook pros
probably the top line ones with 32-64 gb ram but this was during the set and while filming.
Then my ex neighbor who owns and manages an internet marketing company claims the Microsoft Surface line does everything now.
Personally, the software can be more problematic than the laptop itself were Adobe Illustrator seems to crawl on everything, not the actual work itself, just the saving and exporting seems to take more time than Photoshop.

During most of the Game of Thrones shooting. The MBP maxed out at 16GB. Maybe while filming the final season they'd of had a 2018 model on set with 32GB RAM. Of course when they first started the series they'd have been stuck with 8GB RAM and a regular HDD since SSD were so tiny.

Thanks for your input chaps, I do tend to run premiere, photoshop, chrome with a YouTube playing and in design, the 16gb worries me even though the m1 is meant to better with lower...

I may have to hold out for the next thing, im still managing To work, it’s just really getting me down struggling on a monitor. Maybe will jump on the new pros or the larger iMac

It sounds like you may want to look at Pugetsystems benchmarks. You can see user benchmarks and also review their articles on setups tested by them. Which are more in depth benchmarks with controlled settings. Although the in depth articles focus on workstations. So, you're likely just going to find the Mac Pro and iMac Pro tested.

PugetBench List

Build your own computer, workstation, mini pc, or server at Puget Custom Computers.

www.pugetsystems.com

https://www.pugetsystems.com/all_articles.php?filter[]=Premiere%20Pro

A consideration to keep in mind when looking at these benchmarks. These will be under Rosetta 2. Everything should improve when Adobe moves Premiere Pro to an ARM native version. As far as I can tell only Premiere Rush is now native and Pro still isn't.

At any rate. As I expect Premiere is your biggest hindrance. M1 doesn't currently appear to have significant advantages over Intel (at least until ARM native). Even falling behind some of the high end Intel Macbooks. It's hard to say if it's just native vs Rosetta or if there's GPU and CPU limitations too.

It'll really depend on what M2 has to offer in GPU cores, CPU cores and RAM. But whatever they squeeze in a laptop. I doubt it will compare with a high end Windows desktop workstation. But will probably give a workstation laptop a run for its money. If they make a higher wattage chip with the rumored 12 to 16 performance cores and dedicated GPU.

I did find one article with the M1. But it's only useful for comparing current performance. Not how it will compare when the ARM native version comes out.

Apple M1 MacBook vs PC Desktop Workstation for Adobe Creative Cloud

Apple has recently launched MacBook Air and Pro models using the new Apple M1 chip based on the Arm instruction set. While we do not usually examine performance for laptops, we wanted to see how these new chips compare to a desktop PC.

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[4sallypat]

......I was initially looking at the m1 macmini - but am worried about similar performance issues running a 4ktv, this laptop has really put me off apple laptops with my keyboard which no longer works at all - and the external display issues.

What would you guys suggest? Loving the new imac despite the chin, gets me a nice big monitor which wont be sluggish - but as its basically just the macmini wasnt sure its worth it?

That was a bit of a ramble, any thoughts very welcome and enjoy your time of day!

I used to use a 16" MBP as a desktop w/ 27" Apple Thunderbolt display w/ TB3-2 adapter but couldn't stand the hot chassis running on a cooling fan pad, thermal throttling, fans spinning up like crazy!

Now I have an enjoyable daily use: base M1 Mini.

Past 6 months its been a dream - runs everything perfectly, 3 different browsers w/ 20+ tabs each, dual displays (27" TB & 32" 4K) simultaneously, Apple SuperDrive, Soundblaster DAC, and Zoom meetings (built in 27" Apple TB display).

I never hear the fan - the chassis remains ice cold and apps open without hesitation plus no more spinning beach balls.

My Mini has a measly 8GB UNIFIED MEMORY which is more than enough - runs super fast as if an Intel Mac had 64GB+ RAM!

You would benefit with the upgraded 16GB model since you do a lot of photo/video editing.

I use Adobe CC on the Mini and it's super fast!

To compare between the M1 Mini, I just ordered the M1 iMac with Pro Apps bundle (Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro) to see how their native apps work....

My M1 Mini setup:

 

[AlgarveGardner]

Thank you so much for your time in replying everybody, you are a good bunch. It’s hard isn’t it? Something new comes out and all of a sudden you start noticing slowdowns in your setup. Really tempted by the mini...especially with built in hdmi so no dongles slowing down the eternal tv.

I can still get work done. It may drive me crazy when pressing save and it takes an age for a dialogue box to appear but think the sensible thing is to hold out until next round. :-(