MacBook Pro with the M1 processor

Renzatic said:
I know that my Windows PC can get pretty loud, especially while I'm doing GPU rendering. Doing the BMW scene in a little over 6 minutes through rosetta with other apps running in the background is pretty damn incredible. Most higher end consumer machines do it in around 5:30 on native code.

If you really want to see how good it can do, grab the latest version of Blender (2.90), download the car scene, then when it opens up, hit F12 (or go to the Render dropdown, and select Render Image at the top of the menu), then let it roll, nothing else running in the background. It'll tell you the final render time at the top of the popup window when it's done rendering. That's about the best way to find out exactly how fast it is.
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The 2.9 version errors out. There seems to be a bug.

By the way I am using the base model with just 8GB of memory. The 16GB/1TB version I ordered is still a couple of weeks away. I suspect the additional memory will make it even snappier. I am very impressed with it and keeping it my main office machine. I am right now working on a video in Final Cut and it’s just flying. In fact, I have yet to notice any meaningful difference between the mini and the iMac, aside from rendering a 3D in Photoshop which is way slower on the mini. Like 30 min on the iMac versus 1 hour and 40 minutes. The Pro 5700XT is the differentiating factor no doubt.
 
Finally got it and can confirm it's all that and a side of fries. The difference between it and the overheating Microsoft Surface 3 is like night and day. I've been running heavy both PS 2021, Lighroom and Chrome with a dozen tabs open on it for 2 days and it doesn't even get warm, the Surface couldn't even handle just Chrome with 3 or 4 tabs before spinning the fan on hight and becoming unresponsive. I did get it replaced but will only use it for basic tasks at work now.
 
16GB / 1TB is basically the minimum baseline for me in a machine today. Beyond that, the additional benefit drops off pretty sharply, relative to cost increases. Below that, I have to be too careful about usage.
 
I'm keeping my 15" 2018 MBP, as she is not quite two years old yet -- next month will mark that occasion -- and if I buy a 13" M1 MBP it'll be as a supplementary machine to the larger one, since I use the 15" 2018 attached to an external Thunderbolt 3 monitor and do all my image processing/editing on it. The machine that would be pretty much replaced is the 2017 12" MacBook, which I use primarily for travel and for toting around the house and around town. I love that machine dearly, though, and may just keep it anyway -- its light weight and slim profile are ideal for travel. I need to check and see what the trade-in value would be for it, and then make up my mind about what I am going to do. There have been times when I've needed to have two ports on it, and when those ports needed to have been Thunderbolt 3 rather than just USB-C. That would be one reason for getting an M1 and using it for some of the things that in the past I've used the 12" machine for.

When Apple releases the next bunch of M1 machines, or at least at some point those which are more equivalent to my 15" 2018 MBP with four Thunderbolt ports, etc., and maybe even if needed) a discrete graphics card along with the primary one, that's when I'll be trading in my 15" 2018 machine...... Her days are numbered, but she doesn't know that yet! :D
 
DT said:
Right, these are "entry level" machines, but Apple has totally disrupted what that means. These machines are outperforming much higher end gear in a number of ways, and where they're not, it's comparing things like $800 dedicated graphics cards. No shit, that costs as much as the ENTIRE Mac Mini.

1 to 10, where on Intel, the 1 was the previous MBA (or like the i3 based Mini), and the 10 is the highest end 16" MBP or iMac - now these machines are like a 7+ (or match or exceed those highest end machines) and with lower power consumption, much longer battery life (where applicable). Plus, software hasn't even gotten really optimized for using the various dedicated chips (again, where applicable).

To use your car analogy: it's like VW showed up with a new Passat, same price as the old, that gets 100 MPG and it's faster than the Boxster, Cayman, and most of the 911 models. But someone goes, aha! It's not as fast as a 911 GT2 RS (@ $293,000)
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any data on eGPUs? Is it compatible with those? I've been relatively disappointed in MacOS' handling eGPUs, but if I really had to rely on it, it works just fine on prev gen macs (like smacking a GT2RS engine in your Passat).
 
PearsonX said:
any data on eGPUs? Is it compatible with those? I've been relatively disappointed in MacOS' handling eGPUs, but if I really had to rely on it, it works just fine on prev gen macs (like smacking a GT2RS engine in your Passat).
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eGPUs are not compatible with Apple silicone Macs. There is also no indication they will ever be supported, even under Windows, which Apple says can run natively on their chip and that it's up to Microsoft to implement it.
 
PearsonX said:
Never tried to run it on my i5 Air, but this seems pretty remarkable.
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It's pretty stout. I can't wait to see how the mid-tier revs of the M1 perform.

For shits and giggles, I decided to compare the above to my machine. I have an i5-4590, Geforce GTX 1060 6Gb, and 16Gb ram, which is pretty middling at best these days, but is still a full on desktop machine with no limits on power consumption or heat concerns.

After running through the Amy animation, and rendering 100 frames of the Splash Fox, my machine is only slightly faster than the entry level MBA. I could get 14FPS in the viewport instead of 10, and it took 20 minutes to render out the fox instead of 24 minutes. Considering this is a little fanless laptop vs. my big ass PC, and Blender isn't even running native on the Mac, that's pretty damn impressive.
 
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Renzatic said:
Here we go, yall!

This is a freaking Macbook Air, and it's handling renders faster than my desktop.

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Would be interesting to see how it performs over longer periods of sustained processing, the main reason I went with the MBP is so it will kick on the fan instead of throttling the CPU down. Granted I went with only 8GB RAM but I've had it for several days now and even with massive apps running the fan has never kicked on.
 
ericgtr12 said:
Would be interesting to see how it performs over longer periods of sustained processing, the main reason I went with the MBP is so it will kick on the fan instead of throttling the CPU down. Granted I went with only 8GB RAM but I've had it for several days now and even with massive apps running the fan has never kicked on.
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I can't remember where I saw the video, but the MBA does eventually throttle under longer workloads where the MBP keeps on ticking. It took awhile for it to reach that point though. Something like running some benchmark or another for half an hour before they saw the Pro pull ahead due to the fan.
 
I just can't f***ing get one before Christmas ... I should've gotten one on order ASAP, but now I'm relegated to either buying a spec I don't want, or hoping to stumble on one through some non-direct channel.

My plan was to trade the wife's MBP on one as well, but this one would be for the little G and possibly me for if/when we travel (umm, if ever ...)
 
DT said:
I just can't f***ing get one before Christmas ... I should've gotten one on order ASAP, but now I'm relegated to either buying a spec I don't want, or hoping to stumble on one through some non-direct channel.

My plan was to trade the wife's MBP on one as well, but this one would be for the little G and possibly me for if/when we travel (umm, if ever ...)
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Have you looked at Costco (if you have a membership)? I was able to get mine within a week there.
 
I'm planning to do what I've done in the past; wait for the initial rush to settle down and then after checking availability for pickup, simply walk into my local Apple retail store and buy one then. I did that with the 15" 2018 MBP -- waited patiently for a few weeks after it had been refreshed and now included what I wanted in terms of ideal specs, and on the day I saw it would be available for pickup at the Tysons Apple store, got in the car, went over there, and came home with my new machine. Of course that wasn't a brand-new model and everything, so the demand wasn't as high for it in the first place as the demand is for the new M1 machines.... I might have a longer wait than I think.
 
Wow, B&H has the base M1 Air for $899 ($100 discount), and free shipping, and they don't collect tax in Florida. That might be hard to pass up for just an extra machine for here, or maybe the Little G uses it, then migrate it to JB, later and get another one, but the upgraded 8/8, 16GB RAM model.
 
DT said:
Wow, B&H has the base M1 Air for $899 ($100 discount), and free shipping, and they don't collect tax in Florida. That might be hard to pass up for just an extra machine for here, or maybe the Little G uses it, then migrate it to JB, later and get another one, but the upgraded 8/8, 16GB RAM model.
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Today, I ordered one of the $899 MBA "base" models, it's for JB, her needs are pretty minimal, and it's still probably 2-3X faster than the 2015 MBP it's replacing. Right, again, so till midnight tonight (Nov 30th), $100 discount, and 2 day free shipping __and__ like I mentioned, no tax to Florida, so that's $899 to my door. :cool:

Right, so, I was just going to do a trade with Apple, $520, they send a box, low hassle. I did go ahead and bump my for sale ad on MR for it, figured, maybe there was another good $200 in a private sale. A couple of folks PM, one really nice guy actually here in Florida (in the Tampa area), offers a decent amount over the trad, I say, yeah, it's in mint condition, fans run a bit, and it's got a free battery replacement confirmed (but hasn't been done). He asks for a few more pics.

Well, holy hell, I start wiping it down and notice the top plate (like the keyboard area), is swollen, I mention that, tell him I might keep it and do a new battery, he says, he'd be OK with doing that too. So today I finally shoot some pics, wow. The top plate, has a good 1/2" deflection, the bottom is also puffy (it weebles on a flat surface ...), and even the side of the case is starting to separate. Heck, this machine is probably even a bit dangerous :oops: (it might be on a "no ship list" too, as it was a "no fly" machine).

Anyway, the new machine is on "back order", but I see that Amazon and BB are getting stock around the 5th or 6th, figure B&H will too, it's not for Christmas, but just want to shutdown this old MBP for good (or at least until I replace the battery, if ever).
 
DT said:
Today, I ordered one of the $899 MBA "base" models, it's for JB, her needs are pretty minimal, and it's still probably 2-3X faster than the 2015 MBP it's replacing. Right, again, so till midnight tonight (Nov 30th), $100 discount, and 2 day free shipping __and__ like I mentioned, no tax to Florida, so that's $899 to my door. :cool:

Right, so, I was just going to do a trade with Apple, $520, they send a box, low hassle. I did go ahead and bump my for sale ad on MR for it, figured, maybe there was another good $200 in a private sale. A couple of folks PM, one really nice guy actually here in Florida (in the Tampa area), offers a decent amount over the trad, I say, yeah, it's in mint condition, fans run a bit, and it's got a free battery replacement confirmed (but hasn't been done). He asks for a few more pics.

Well, holy hell, I start wiping it down and notice the top plate (like the keyboard area), is swollen, I mention that, tell him I might keep it and do a new battery, he says, he'd be OK with doing that too. So today I finally shoot some pics, wow. The top plate, has a good 1/2" deflection, the bottom is also puffy (it weebles on a flat surface ...), and even the side of the case is starting to separate. Heck, this machine is probably even a bit dangerous :oops: (it might be on a "no ship list" too, as it was a "no fly" machine).

Anyway, the new machine is on "back order", but I see that Amazon and BB are getting stock around the 5th or 6th, figure B&H will too, it's not for Christmas, but just want to shutdown this old MBP for good (or at least until I replace the battery, if ever).
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Hubby's first MBA had similar issue. He didn't notice it actually. I was looking at it from the side and thought "That's odd!" Sure enough, the battery area was bulging. We took in to Apple for disposal. I believe it was a 2013 machine. Hadn't been used in ages. My 2014 machine was repurposed for the in-laws (to go along with our hand-me-down iPhones). Dad finally has a smart phone. His flip phone was taped and cracked, barely usable. Some tech joint wanted to charge him $150+ for a "new" flip phone.
 
Since the MBP has an extended warranty on battery replacement, I'm wondering if I take it in, if they'll just say no, or replace the chassis ... or even just give us a new machine :D
 
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