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M4 MacBook Pro

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Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#251

Post by alwillis »

charliebwrites wrote: post #239
extr wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've owned an M1 MBP base model since 2021 and I just got an M3 Max for work. I was curious to see if it "felt" different and was contemplating an upgrade to M4. You know what? It doesn't really feel different. I think my browser opens about 1 second faster from a cold start. But other than that, no perceptible difference day to day.

This is how I feel about the last few iPhones as well I upgraded from a 13 pro to a 15 pro expecting zippier performance and it feels almost identical if not weirdly a bit slower in rendering and typing I wonder what it will take to make Mac/iOS feel faster

> I upgraded from a 13 pro to a 15 pro expecting zippier performance and it feels almost identical if not weirdly a bit slower in rendering and typing

I went from an iPhone 13 mini to an iPhone 16 and it's a significant speed boost.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#252

Post by SirMaster »

manaskarekar wrote: post #36
garciasn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We run our LLM workloads on a M2 Ultra because of this. 2x the VRAM; one-time cost at $5350 was the same as, at the time, 1 month of 80GB VRAM GPU in GCP. Works well for us.

If the 2x multiplier holds up, the Ultra update should bring it up to 1080GBps. Amazing.

There isn't even an M3 Ultra. Will there be an M4 Ultra?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#253

Post by thom »

scrlk wrote: post #2

Nano-texture option for the display is nice. IIRC it's the first time since the 2012 15" MBP that a matte option has been offered? I hope that the response times have improved, because it has been quite poor for a 120 Hz panel.

It's also on the iPad Pro. Only downside is you really do need the right cloth to be able to clean it.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#254

Post by gniv »

carlgreene wrote: post #94

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? Tec…

I've had Macs before, from work, but there is something about the M1 Pro that feels like a major step up.

Only recently I noticed some slowness. I think Google Photos changed something and they show photos in HDR and it causes unsmooth scrolling. I wonder if it's something fixable on Google's side though.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#255

Post by School-Cotton »

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #126
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 can spin up a Unix OS. =) It’s even older than Linux.

NextSTEP which macOS is ultimately based on is indeed older than Linux (first release was 1989). But why does that matter? The commenter presumably said "Linux" for a reason, i.e. they want to use Linux specifically, not any UNIX-like OS.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#256

Post by rbanffy »

klooney wrote: post #212
rbanffy wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of my work can be easily done with a Celeron - it's editing source, compiling very little, running tests on Python code, running small Docker containers and so on. Could it be faster? Of course! Do I need it to be faster? Not really. I am due to update my Mac mini because my current one can't run Sonoma, but, apart from that, it's a lovely little box with more than enough power for me.

How's the performance of Gmail on the Celeron? That's always my sticking point for older computers. The fancy web applications really drag.

Not great. Works well with Thunderbird or Evolution though.

And yes. Web apps are not really great on low-spec machines.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#258

Post by mmcnl »

bloopernova wrote: post #132

Trying to find how many external displays the base model supports. Because corps almost always buy the base model #firstworldproblems The base model doesn't support thunderbolt 5. And the base model still doesn't support more than 2 external displays without the DisplaySync (not DisplayPort!) hardware+software.

Two displays with the lid open.

"The display engine of the M4 family is enhanced to support two external displays in addition to a built-in display."

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/apple-introduces-m4-p...

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#259

Post by __rito__ »

bronco21016 wrote: post #134
electriclove wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Costco was selling MB Air M2 8 GB for $699! Incredible deal. I’ve been using the exact model for about a year and I rarely find limitations for my typical office type work. The only time I’ve managed to thermally throttle it has been with some super suboptimal Excel Macros.

I was seeing $699 MB Air M1 8 GB on Amazon India a week ago.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#260

Post by jchw »

dijit wrote: post #184
jchw wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptops in general are just better than they used to be, with modern CPUs and NVMe disks. I feel exactly the same seeing new mobile AMD chips too, I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with my Ryzen 7040-based laptop for at least a few years. Apple's M1 came at a really interesting point. Intel was still dominating the laptop game for Windows laptops, but generational improvements felt pretty lame. A whole lot of money for m…

> Laptops in general are just better than they used to be, with modern CPUs and NVMe disks. I feel exactly the same seeing new mobile AMD chips too, I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with my Ryzen 7040-based laptop for at least a few years. You say that, but I get extremely frustrated at how slow my Surface Pro 10 is (with an Ultra 7 165U). It could be Windows of course, but this is a much more modern machine than my Mac…

It's true that Linux may be a bit better in some cases, if you have a system that has good Linux support, but I think in most cases it should never make a very substantial difference. On some of the newer Intel laptops, there are still missing power management features anyways, so it's hard to compare.

That said, Intel still has yet to catch up to AMD on efficiency unfortunately, they've improved generationally but if you look at power efficiency benchmarks of Intel CPUs vs AMD you can see AMD comfortably owns the entire top of the chart. Also, as a many-time Microsoft Surface owner, I can also confirm that these devices are rarely good showcases for the chipsets inside of them: they tend to be constrained by both power and thermal limits. There are a lot of good laptops on the market, I wouldn't compare a MacBook, even a MacBook Air, a laptop, with a Surface Pro, a 2-in-1 device. Heck, even my Intel Surface Laptop 4, a device I kinda like, isn't the ideal showcase for its already mediocre 11th gen Intel processor...

The Mac laptop market is pretty easy: you buy the laptops they make, and you get what you get. On one hand, that means no need to worry about looking at reviews or comparisons, except to pick a model. They all perform reasonably well, the touchpad will always be good, the keyboard is alright. On the other hand, you really do get what you get: no touchscreens, no repairability, no booting directly into Windows, etc.

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