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M4 MacBook Pro

apple.com

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Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#341

Post by alanwreath »

mattfrommars wrote: post #216

Does anyone know if there is a way to use Mac without the Apple bloatware? I genuinely want to use it as primary machine but with this Intel MacBook Pro I have, I absolutely dislike FaceTime, IMessage, the need to use AppStore, Apple always asking me have a Apple user name password (which I don't and have zero intention), block Siri, and all telemetry stuff Apple has backed in, stop the machine calling home, etc. Thi…

IIRC Apple is a lot less heavy handed wrt service login requirements when compared to Microsoft’s most recent Windows endeavors. And depending on the developer you can get around having to use the App Store at all. Being you’re on an Intel Mac have you considered just using Linux ?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#342

Post by noman-land »

BenFranklin100 wrote: post #76
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.

Off topic, but I’m very interested in local LLMs. Could you point me in the right direction, both hardware specs and models?

Get as much RAM as you can stomach paying for.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#343

Post by alanwreath »

derr1 wrote: post #231
mattfrommars wrote: post #216

Does anyone know if there is a way to use Mac without the Apple bloatware? I genuinely want to use it as primary machine but with this Intel MacBook Pro I have, I absolutely dislike FaceTime, IMessage, the need to use AppStore, Apple always asking me have a Apple user name password (which I don't and have zero intention), block Siri, and all telemetry stuff Apple has backed in, stop the machine calling home, etc. Thi…

You don't need to use AppStore, unless of course you want to use apple software. Pretty much all the software I use is from brew.

this ^^

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#344

Post by yieldcrv »

noman-land wrote: post #336
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 would normally never upgrade so soon after getting an M1 but running local LLMs is extremely cool and useful to the point where I'd want the extra RAM and CPU to run larger models more quickly.

I have a 64gb M1 Max and already do that

but yes, I was looking at and anticipating the max RAM on the M4 as well as the max memory speed

128gb and 546GB/s memory bandwidth

I like it, I don't know yet on an upgrade. But I like it. Was hoping for more RAM actually, but this is nice.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#345

Post by hartator »

I’m really excited about the nano-texture display option.

It’s essentially a matte coating, but the execution on iPad displays is excellent. While it doesn’t match the e-ink experience of devices like the Kindle or ReMarkable, it’s about 20-30% easier on the eyes. The texture feels also great (even though it’s less relevant for a laptop), and the glare reduction is a welcome feature.

I prefer working on the MacBook screen, but I nearly bought an Apple Studio Display XDR or an iPad as a secondary screen just for that nano-texture finish. It's super good news that this is coming to the MacBook Pro.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#346

Post by canucker2016 »

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.

Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M4#Comparison_with_other...

M4 is built with TSMC's 2nd Gen 3nm process. M3 is on the 1st gen 3nm.

For the base M3 vs base M4:

- the CPU (4P+4E) & GPU (8) core counts are the same

- NPU perf is slightly better for M4, I think, (M4's 38TOPS @ INT8 vs M3's 18TOPS @ INT16)

- Memory Bandwidth is higher for M4 (120 GB/s vs 102.4 GB/s)

- M4 has a higher TDP (22W vs 20W)

- M4 has higher transistor count (28B vs 25B)

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#347

Post by pjmlp »

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 have a 2009 and a 2018 Windows laptops.

The only reason the 2009 one now gets little use, is its motherboard now has some electronic issues, otherwise it would serve me perfectly well.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#348

Post by trogdor »

mcculley wrote: post #87

Still, no matter how much you are willing to spend, you cannot buy a MacBook Pro with an LTE modem, like the ones in the iPhone, iPad, and Watch.

I wonder if one of the obstacles is the amount of data that would likely be used.

Most cellular carriers offer unlimited on-device data plans, but they cap data for tethering. Integrating an LTE modem into a laptop essentially requires a mobile data plan with unlimited tethering - which, AFAIK, doesn’t exist at the moment. I’m not sure why.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#349

Post by Aeolun »

stringsandchars wrote: post #339
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.

> It doesn't really feel different. My work machine was upgraded from an M1 with 16GB of RAM to an M3 Max with 36GB and the difference in Xcode compile times is beyond belief: I went from something like 1-2 minutes to 15-20 seconds. Obviously if opening a browser is the most taxing thing your machine is doing the difference will be minimal. But video or music editing, application-compiling and other intensive tasks,…

I very much enjoy being able to start compilation and just seeing results fly by.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#350

Post by Almondsetat »

bearjaws wrote: post #228
Almondsetat wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 12MP will be used for better framing, there is still almost no use case for 4k quality video conferencing

It is truly sad how bad Zoom / Google Meet / Teams are when it comes to video quality. I look at my local source vs the recording, and I am baffled. After a decade of online meeting software, we still stream 480p quality it seems.

When I have a full team of people with 1080p webcams and a solid connection I can notice the quality. Most of the time not everyone fulfills those requirements and the orchestrator system has to make do
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