Apple announce new 14" & 16" MBP with M1Pro and M1Max

[Nevel]

Please, can anybody help me on this?
I am thinking about a 14" with M1 Pro (10cores CPU and 14cores GPU) but I am still choosing between 16GB vs 32Gb of RAM.
I use Ableton Live 11, with third-party plugins from Spectrasonics (Omnisphere), U-He, Softube, Overloud, FabFilter. Using Kontakt just for one or two libraries sometimes.
Will I see improvements overall if I choose the 32 GB version?
Thanks

[teilo]

Please, can anybody help me on this?
I am thinking about a 14" with M1 Pro (10cores CPU and 14cores GPU) but I am still choosing between 16GB vs 32Gb of RAM.
I use Ableton Live 11, with third-party plugins from Spectrasonics (Omnisphere), U-He, Softube, Overloud, FabFilter. Using Kontakt just for one or two libraries sometimes.
Will I see improvements overall if I choose the 32 GB version?
Thanks

The core configurations are only 8/14 or 10/16. There is no 10/14.

You will likely be OK with 16G. But if you decide to really hammer sample libraries at some point, you could run into issues.

[Nevel]

Please, can anybody help me on this?
I am thinking about a 14" with M1 Pro (10cores CPU and 14cores GPU) but I am still choosing between 16GB vs 32Gb of RAM.
I use Ableton Live 11, with third-party plugins from Spectrasonics (Omnisphere), U-He, Softube, Overloud, FabFilter. Using Kontakt just for one or two libraries sometimes.
Will I see improvements overall if I choose the 32 GB version?
Thanks

The core configurations are only 8/14 or 10/16. There is no 10/14.

You will likely be OK with 16G. But if you decide to really hammer sample libraries at some point, you could run into issues.

Thank you teilo for the feedback! Actually, here in Italy I see available also the option with 14GPU cores and it's 40€ cheaper than the 16GPU one. I don't think I need an extra 2 GPU cores for music production so I skipped it.

Sample libraries that come to my mind are Kontakt instruments, right? I can't find out if Omnisphere uses significantly the RAM too.
So it's basically about how many instances of it I can load and playback at the same time I guess. Or maybe it is connected with the loading speed of the instruments too?

[FapFilter]

More RAM won't get you any improvements at all, unless you are hitting or exceeding the RAM limit.
See how much your current projects require. If you are getting relatively close to 16GB, 32GB will be the safer bet. If you need more than that, 32GB is a no brainer anyway.
If your projects are far from 16GB, anything more than 16GB is pretty much useless, unless you are planning to start working on higher sample rates, which will indeed require much more RAM

[teilo]

Thank you teilo for the feedback! Actually, here in Italy I see available also the option with 14GPU cores and it's 40€ cheaper than the 16GPU one. I don't think I need an extra 2 GPU cores for music production so I skipped it.

Sample libraries that come to my mind are Kontakt instruments, right? I can't find out if Omnisphere uses significantly the RAM too.
So it's basically about how many instances of it I can load and playback at the same time I guess. Or maybe it is connected with the loading speed of the instruments too?

Loading speed is is a function of SSD speed, so the extra RAM won't matter unless you are hitting swap hard. The M1 Max machines have double the memory bandwidth, but that won't matter at all for music production. That comes into play more for things like 8K video production.

[synchronizer]

I’m trying to decide between the 14” and 16” for audio AND programming. I much prefer the 14” smaller form factor and portability since I usually have an external monitor anyway for a larger screen, but want the ability not to be tethered to a desk. However, I am concerned that a max chip in the 14 would cause the fan to spin up a lot earlier than in the 16 due to the smaller heatsink and worse thermals. For audio that’s bad of course for recording and if I want the sample buffer to be at minimum. Any advice?

[FapFilter]

Depends on what you mean with “programming“:
If programming means HEAVY graphics use, then the Max will be better, but if you mean DAW use and programming that doesn't mean high end gaming level graphics you are actually better off with the Pro in pretty much every single regard (less heat, less power consumption / higher battery life, less costy)

Regarding 14 vs 16“: of course smaller builds will always be more problematic regarding heat dissipation and the 14“ is not just smaller, but also has smaller fans installed where the fans will kick in earlier due to the smaller form factor plus at also higher RPM which means even louder.
I think only someone with both models can really give you good advice on this, because maybe the fans will only kick in at really high sustained CPU loads that you eventually will never actually hit in your use cases.

[Passing Bye]

Regarding 14 vs 16“: of course smaller builds will always be more problematic regarding heat dissipation and the 14“ is not just smaller, but also has smaller fans installed where the fans will kick in earlier due to the smaller form factor plus at also higher RPM which means even louder.
I think only someone with both models can really give you good advice on this, because maybe the fans will only kick in at really high sustained CPU loads that you eventually will never actually hit in your use cases.

Maybe this can help about whole thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQwMq2T9VFU

[synchronizer]

Depends on what you mean with “programming“:
If programming means HEAVY graphics use, then the Max will be better, but if you mean DAW use and programming that doesn't mean high end gaming level graphics you are actually better off with the Pro in pretty much every single regard (less heat, less power consumption / higher battery life, less costy)

Regarding 14 vs 16“: of course smaller builds will always be more problematic regarding heat dissipation and the 14“ is not just smaller, but also has smaller fans installed where the fans will kick in earlier due to the smaller form factor plus at also higher RPM which means even louder.
I think only someone with both models can really give you good advice on this, because maybe the fans will only kick in at really high sustained CPU loads that you eventually will never actually hit in your use cases.

Oh, I mean programming as in writing and compiling code to build applications, which is a task that immediately spins up my old fans. The applicactions are realtime graphical simulations and games, but nothing like a AAA game.

It just seems like the m1 max makes sense for THAT side of things, but the 16” is the one for that if I want to avoid heat issues.

If possible, I want to set DAW sample size to minimum too so I can hear myself play with minimum latency.

However, I imagine having a lot of issues carrying the 16” around. I currently just use a monitor and move around basically one or two office floors in my building, but I wanted to be able to work elsewhere.

I tried the 14” in-store though. I prefer the ergonomics, but have to sit closer to the screen and don’t like the smaller cramped area.
So if I wanted to sit away from the monitor, that might be a problem, save for the fact that maybe the 16” is too big to use as a *lap*top.

It would be helpful if we heard from someone who tried both.

[Passing Bye]

Look post up

[synchronizer]

Look post up


 

That video just concludes that portability is nice.
I’m more concerned about the real-world performance.
hmmm… it’s really too bad there isn’t someone with both whoa can attest to fan and performance patterns specific to using a DAW for a large intensive project.

[Passing Bye]

Look post up


 

That video just concludes that portability is nice.
I’m more concerned about the real-world performance.
hmmm… it’s really too bad there isn’t someone with both whoa can attest to fan and performance patterns specific to using a DAW for a large intensive project.

He tackled performance too, there's other videos on same channel, even in that video he showed some of the benchmarks, but yeah, he's video guy and video is more demanding than audio, so it's not worthless info at all.

[synchronizer]

The new macs have extra accelerators, encoders/decoders for video processing though, so that’s sort of cheating.

[Passing Bye]

You said you are interested how the thing behave on full load, he can get it there and show you how fan behaves, how battery behaves and all that between different models, take it or leave it...

[synchronizer]

I wanted to see how it behaves with an audio application like Cubase or Ableton Live, and whether it could get to minimum buffer sizes. That’s not the same as looking at max perormance pushing using video.

Not to knock on the video you found. It’s great in its own way—just not all the evidence and feedback I’m looking for.