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M4 MacBook Pro

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Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#311

Post by porphyra »

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'm waiting for the 16 GB M2 Air to be super cheap to pick one up to use with Asahi Linux!

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#312

Post by [deleted] »

rizzaxc wrote: post #221
bhouston wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven’t had even a tinge of feeling that I need to upgrade after getting my M1 Pro MBP. I upgraded my M1 MBP to a MacBook Air M3 15" and it was a major upgrade. It is the same weight but 40% faster and so much nicer to work on while on the sofa or traveling. The screen is also brighter. I think very few people actually do need the heavy MBPs, especially not the web/full-stack devs who populate Hacker News. EDIT:…

the Air doesn't have ProMotion right? that feature is non-negotiable on any display for me nowadays

[deleted]

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#313

Post by andrei_says_ »

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

16 pro has a specialized camera button which is a game changer for street / travel photography. I upgraded from 13 pro and use that. But no other noticeable improvements. Maybe Apple intelligence summarizing wordy emails.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#314

Post by trogdor »

RobinL wrote: post #154

Can anyone comment on the viability of using an external SSD rather than upgrading storage? Specifically for data analysis (e.g. storing/analysing parquet files using Python/duckdb, or video editing using divinci resolve). Also, any recommendations for suitable ssds, ideally not too expensive? Thank you!

> Also, any recommendations for suitable ssds, ideally not too expensive?

I own a media production company. We use Sabrent Thunderbolt external NVMe TLC SSDs and are very happy with their price, quality, and performance.

I suggest you avoid QLC SSDs.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#315

Post by HumblyTossed »

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…

But this ad is specifically for you! (Well, and those pesky consumers clinging on to that i7!):

> Up to 7x faster image processing in Affinity Photo when compared to the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Core i7, and up to 1.8x faster when compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#317

Post by rafaelmn »

crazygringo wrote: post #309
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…

Yup, honestly the main reason I'd like to upgrade from my M1 MBA is the newer webcams are 1080p instead of 720p, and particularly much better in low light like in the evening. Has nothing whatsoever to do with CPU/memory/etc.

If you're in the ecosystem get an iphone mount - image quality is unreal compared to anything short of some fancy DSLR setup - it is some setup but not much with magnets in iphone.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#318

Post by reliabilityguy »

metadat wrote: post #83
manaskarekar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The M3 Max was 400GBps, this is 540GBps. Truly an outstanding case for unified memory. DDR5 doesn't come anywhere near.

I was curious so I looked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR5_SDRAM (info from the first section): > DDR5 is capable of 8GT/s which translates to 64 GB/s (8 gigatransfers/second * 64-bit width / 8 bits/byte = 64 GB/s) of bandwidth per DIMM. So for example if you have a server with 16 DDR5 DIMMs (sticks) it equates to 1,024 GB/s of total bandwidth. DDR4 clocks in at 3.2GT/s and the fastest DDR3 at 2.1GT/s. DDR5…

> So for example if you have a server with 16 DDR5 DIMMs (sticks) it equates to 1,024 GB/s of total bandwidth.

Not quite as it depends on number of channels and not on the number of DIMMs. An extreme example: put all 16 DIMMs on single channel, you will get performance of a single channel.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#319

Post by jerojero »

axelthegerman wrote: post #37
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…

> pretty sure bet that now you won't need to upgrade for a good few years. Or you could get a framework and you could actually upgrade parts that are worth upgrading - instead of upgrade as in buying a new one

I don't mind spending a thousand bucks every 7 years to upgrade my laptop. I've had this macbook air since 2020 and besides the speakers don't being the best... I have no complaints.

I don't really see a world where this machine doesn't last me a few more years. If there's anything i'd service would be the battery, but eh. It lasts more than a few hours and I don't go out much.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#320

Post by alexnewman »

I recently switched back to using homemade desktops for most of my work. I’ve been running Debian on them . Still have my Mac laptop for working on the go
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