M4 MacBook Pro • Hacker News Board

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#361

Post by fwip » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

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 think most of that difference is going to be the huge increase in performance core count between the base chip and the Max (from 4 to 12). The RAM certainly doesn't hurt though!

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#362

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

philistine wrote: post #290

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can totally use it without ever signing in to Apple account. You cannot delete Siri etc, but you can disable parts of it and not use the rest.

There used to be this whole contingent of people who were adamant that Apple's software was too opinionated, bloated, that you couldn't adapt its OS to your needs, and that Apple was far too ingrained in your relationship with your device. That Linux was true freedom, but at least that Windows respected its users Then Windows 11 came out.

Happened a lot earlier than 11.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#363

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:35 PM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #338

The base M4 Max only has an option for 36gb of ram!? They're doing some sus things with that pricing ladder again. No more 96gb option, and then to go beyond 48gb I'd have to spend another $1250 CAD on a processor upgrade first, and in doing so lose the option to have the now baseline 512gb ssd

[deleted]

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#364

Post by cedws » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:35 PM UTC

hartator wrote: post #345

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 s…

Does it make much difference for looking at code?

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#365

Post by jwitthuhn » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:35 PM UTC

mrcwinn wrote: post #297

Question without judgement: why would I want to run LLM locally? Say I'm building a SaaS app and connecting to Anthropic using the `ai` package. Would I want to cut over to ollama+something for local dev?

For me it is consistency. I control the model and the software so I know a local LLM will remain exactly the same until I want to change it.

It also avoids the trouble of using a hosted LLM that decides to double their price overnight, costs are very predictable.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#366

Post by throwaway48476 » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

Rohansi wrote: post #107

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.

Apple is using LPDDR5 for M3. The bandwidth doesn't come from unified memory - it comes from using many channels. You could get the same bandwidth or more with normal DDR5 modules if you could use 8 or more channels, but in the PC space you don't usually see more than 2 or 4 channels (only common for servers). Unrelated but unified memory is a strange buzzword being used by Apple. Their memory is no different than ot…

High end servers now have 12 ddr5 channels.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#367

Post by ant6n » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #105

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.

But no update to a M4 for the MacBook Air yet unfortunately. I would love to get an M4 MacBook Air with 32GB. I believe the rumor is that the MacBook Air will get the update to M4 in early spring 2025, February/March timeline.

The big question for me is whether they will have a matte option for the Air. I want a fanless machine with a matte screen.

Unfortunately Apple won’t tell you until the day they sell the machines.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#368

Post by criddell » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:38 PM UTC

sroussey wrote: post #250

yurishimo wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll be interesting to see the reaction of tech commentators about this. So many people have been screaming at Apple to increase the base RAM and stop price gouging their customers on memory upgrades. If Apple Intelligence is the excuse the hardware team needed to get the bean counters on board, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

So we can scream about the lousy base storage, which is the same as my phone. Yikes.

It wouldn't surprise me if people typically use more storage on their phone than their computer. The phone should probably have a higher base storage than the base storage of their laptops.

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#369

Post by tigen » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:39 PM UTC

nabakin wrote: post #174

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.

It does and it gets even worse when you realize those stats are only true under very specific circumstances, not typical computer usage. If you benchmarked based on typical computer usage, I think you'd only see gains of 5% or less.

Anyone know of articles that deep dive into "snappiness" or "feel" computer experiences?

Everyone knows SSDs made a big difference in user experience. For the CPU, normally if you aren't gaming at high settings or "crunching" something (compiling or processing video etc.) then it's not obvious why CPU upgrades should be making much difference even vs. years-old Intel chips, in terms of that feel.

There is the issue of running heavy JS sites in browsers but I can avoid those.

The main issue seems to be how the OS itself is optimized for snappiness, and how well it's caching/preloading things. I've noticed Windows 10 file system caching seems to be not very sophisticated for example... it goes to disk too often for things I've accessed recently-but-not-immediately-prior.

Similarly when it comes to generating heat, if laptops are getting hot even while doing undemanding office tasks with huge periods of idle time then basically it points to stupid software -- or let's say poorly balanced (likely aimed purely at benchmark numbers than user experience).

https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compare/apple-m1-vs-amd-ryzen-...

Re: M4 MacBook Pro

#370

Post by erickhill » Wed, Oct 30, 2024, 5:39 PM UTC

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 an MBP M1 Max and the only time I really feel like I need more oomph is when I'm doing live previews and/or rendering in After Effects. I find myself having to clear the cache constantly.

Other than that it cruises across all other applications. Hard to justify an upgrade purely for that one issue when everything else is so solid. But it does make the eyes wander...