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M4 MacBook Pro

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Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#91

Post by skellington »

efields wrote: post #32
jerojero wrote: post #14

Finally they're doing starting memory at 16gb. Looking at how long the 8gb lasted it's a pretty sure bet that now you won't need to upgrade for a good few years. I mean, I have a MacBook air with 16gb of ram and it's honestly working pretty well to this day. I don't do "much" on it though but not many people do. I'd say the one incentive a MacBook Pro has over the air is the better a screens and better speakers. Not…

My hypothesis is Apple is mostly right about their base model offerings. > I mean, I have a MacBook air with 16gb of ram and it's honestly working pretty well to this day. I don't do "much" on it though but not many people do. If an HN user can get along with 16gb on their MacBook Air for the last X years, most users were able to get by with 8gb.

It's just a tactic to get a higher average price while being able to advertise a lower price. What makes it infuriating is memory is dirt cheap. That extra 8GB probably costs them $10 at most, but would add to utility and longevity of their hardware quite a bit.

They are supposed to be "green" but they encourage obsolescence.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#93

Post by TIPSIO »

These chips are incredible. Even my M1 MBP from 2020 still feels so ridiculously fast for everyday basic use and coding.

Is an upgrade really worth it?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#94

Post by carlgreene »

What’s amazing is that in the past I’ve felt the need to upgrade within a few years.

New video format or more demanding music software is released that slows the machine down, or battery life craters.

Well, I haven’t had even a tinge of feeling that I need to upgrade after getting my M1 Pro MBP. I can’t remember it ever skipping a beat running a serious Ableton project, or editing in Resolve.

Can stuff be faster? Technically of course. But this is the first machine that even after several years I’ve not caught myself once wishing that it was faster or had more RAM. Not once.

Perhaps it’s my age, or perhaps it’s just the architecture of these new Mac chips are just so damn good.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#95

Post by SparkyMcUnicorn »

redundantly wrote: post #75
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #55

I'm pleased that the Pro's base memory starts at 16 GB, but surprised they top out at 32 GB: > ...the new MacBook Pro starts with 16GB of faster unified memory with support for up to 32GB, along with 120GB/s of memory bandwidth... I haven't been an Apple user since 2012 when I graduated from college and retired my first computer, a mid-2007 Core2 Duo Macbook Pro, which I'd upgraded with a 2.5" SSD and 6GB of RAM with…

The M4 tops off at 32 GB The M4 Pro goes up to 48 GB The M4 Max can have up to 128 GB

It doesn't look this cut and dry.

M4 Max 14 core has a single option of 36GB.

M4 Max 16 core lets you go up to 128GB.

So you can actually get more ram with the Pro than the base level Max.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#96

Post by infecto »

vid wrote: post #26

[flagged]

Huh? My m1 is still kicking strong with little to no reason to upgrade.

If it matters that much to you just sell the old one and buy the new. That's your subscription.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#98

Post by MBCook »

tonygiorgio wrote: post #62
zurfer wrote: post #38

If I remember correctly, the claim was that M3 is 1.6x faster than M1. M4 is now 1.8x faster than M1. It sounds more exciting than M4 is 12.5% faster than M3.

So far I’m only reading comments here about people wow’d by a lot of things it seemed that M3 pretty much also had. Not seeing anything new besides “little bit better specs”

The M4 is architecturally better than the M3, especially on GPU features IIRC, but you’re right it’s not a total blow out.

Not all products got the M3, so in some lines this week is the first update in quite a while. In others like MBP it’s just the yearly bump. A good performing one, but the yearly bump.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#99

Post by p_j_w »

aidenfoxivey wrote: post #52
tomrod wrote: post #19

This is the first compelling Mac to me. I've used Macs for a few clients and muscle memory is very deeply ingrained for linux desktops. But with local LLMs finally on the verge of usability along with sufficient memory... I might need to make the jump! Wish I could spin up a Linux OS on the hardware though. Not a bright spot for me.

You totally can after a little bit of time waiting for M4 bringup! https://asahilinux.org It won't have all the niceties / hardware support of MacOS, but it seamlessly coexists with MacOS, can handle the GPU/CPU/RAM with no issues, and can provide you a good GNU/Linux environment.

Asahi doesn't work on M3 yet after a year. It's gonna be a bit before M4 support is here.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#100

Post by electriclove »

opjjf wrote: post #5

It seems they also update the base memory on MacBook Air: > MacBook Air: The World’s Most Popular Laptop Now Starts at 16GB > MacBook Air is the world’s most popular laptop, and with Apple Intelligence, it’s even better. Now, models with M2 and M3 double the starting memory to 16GB, while keeping the starting price at just $999 — a terrific value for the world’s best-selling laptop.

Wow, I didn't expect them to update the older models to start at 16GB and no price increase. I guess that is why Amazon was blowing the 8GB models out at crazy low prices over the past few days.
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