cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

A friend sent me a link to a site saying that Apple's M1 chip outperformed its M3 chip, at least in some selected applications. I'm not equipped to evaluate the relevance of this sort of stuff for photographic applications, but I suspect some of my fellow Hogs are. What do you think? The link is

https://www.gearnews.com/apple-m1-pro-beats-m3-pro-with-ableton-logic-and-pro-tools/

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

I think the key to this story is in the opening paragraph, where the author writes, "[S]ome DAWs don’t fully utilize Apple’s latest M3 chip." He goes on to state that the M3's chip architecture differs from the M1, and if software isn't written to take advantage of the new architecture, there may be little to no benefit by simply upgrading one's hardware.

The three Macs in my household are equipped with an Intel i7, an Apple M1 and an Apple M2 chip. In most cases, I don't see any performance improvements, or minimal improvements if I focus on time to complete a task (which is not normally my work habit).

Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) are compute-intensive programs, as can be photo editing. If your needs require processing a lot of photos quickly, then I think it's incumbent to learn if the software is optimized for the hardware.

It's always been the case.

User ID

My friends never send me links. They know I am not gullible and really quite cynical. If an acquaintance were to send me a link I would feel somewhat insulted and keep that person at arms length. You say that in this instance its "a friend". Its entirely up to you just what company you keep.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

[quote=Just Fred]I think the key to this story is in the opening paragraph, where the author writes, "[S]ome DAWs don’t fully utilize Apple’s latest M3 chip." He goes on to state that the M3's chip architecture differs from the M1, and if software isn't written to take advantage of the new architecture, there may be little to no benefit by simply upgrading one's hardware.

The three Macs in my household are equipped with an Intel i7, an Apple M1 and an Apple M2 chip. In most cases, I don't see any performance improvements, or minimal improvements if I focus on time to complete a task (which is not normally my work habit).

Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) are compute-intensive programs, as can be photo editing. If your needs require processing a lot of photos quickly, then I think it's incumbent to learn if the software is optimized for the hardware.

It's always been the case.[/quote]

Thanks for your helpful response.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Thanks, ID; quite helpful.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Those are AUDIO mixing and music production tools. The M3 (base) is a little less capable of audio. But the M3 graphics performance is far better. Go watch MaxTech YouTube videos on the M3 machines. They did LOTS of real-world comparisons of various Macs in different configurations. They have the info you need.

Whatever you get, get AT LEAST 16GB memory and 1TB internal storage.

cbtsam Loc: Monkton, MD

Ahh, Burk, the man I was waiting for! Thanks so much for your helpful feedback.