burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

About an hour ago (1:00 PM EDT on October 18, 2021), Apple revealed the new 14" and 16" MacBook Pros. I just finished watching the presentation. I'm sitting here in a state of wonder at the power of these things, and a positive state of shock at the price, for what you get. (I don't need either, but if I did...)

These are truly advanced pro machines that the professional video editors, photographers, software developers, music recording engineers, video game designers, and graphic designers have been waiting for.

Not one, but two new Apple Silicon chips (M1 Pro and M1 Max) are in these. The specs are amazing. You can get all the details on Apple.com, although the order site is already freezing and choppy, because so many people are ordering. There are tons of options, and both models are available for pre-order, with shipping starting next week. Prices start at $1999 and $2499 and top out over $6000 for the fully loaded 16" model.

Still to come in Apple's lineup are the larger iMac (27"? 30"? 32"?) and a smaller but far more powerful Mac Pro, and a Mac Pro Mini. Apple is half way through their two-year transition to 100% Apple Silicon RISC architecture.

You can watch the same presentation I did, also on Apple's site. The Mac announcements are about 14 minutes into the timeline.

rwoodvira

It was interesting, but I was left a bit disappointed. I've been looking to upgrade my Mac which is 9 years old - the new Mac mini was thought to be updated as well, but wasn't. My tech guru buddy thinks it might be because of the chip shortage. He still think the 16gb M1 Mac mini with a 1 or 2tb drive would be sufficient for me as I'm not a pro photographer, I was going o match it with the Benq 2700.
Thoughts if that would be sufficient?

napabob Loc: Napa CA

was just watching as my MacBook pro is halfway between rigor and mortis battery wise, it's eight years old, tempted but will wait for the reviews of the early adopters............

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I bought essentially that same exact configuration, but in the M1 MacBook Air. I paired it with a 27" LG monitor that doubles as a two-port USB-A hub and a power supply.

The Mini is a little more capable at rendering, due to its internal fan, and it has a few more ports. Otherwise, they're very similar in function. If I didn't want to travel a lot with my computer (I'm in Daytona Beach right now), then the Mini would be great. I still have a 2010 Mini at home that I use as a media server.

I have zero reservations about recommending any of the M1 systems. This MacBook Air has NO fan, and DOES NOT EVEN get warm on my lap. The battery life is insane, and I can go nearly all day on a charge. It weighs under three pounds. The monitor calibrates and profiles well, and is almost an exact color match to my LG P3 display. The keyboard and trackpad are legendary. The speakers are great for watching movies or listening to music at my hotel desk. It is plenty fast for what I need to do. Anything more would seldom get any exercise!

My only complaints about the MB Air are the 720P webcam (should have been a 1080P, but they reserved that for their redesigned models), and the lack of ports. There are just two Thunderbolt3/USB4 ports and a headphone jack, so I had to buy a small hub for the road, in addition to the hub and power supply in my external monitor. I bought a 2TB Samsung T7 SSD for the road, as well.

The transition from Intel CISC to M1 RISC applications has been seamless for me. The few apps I use that ran under Rosetta 2 emulation at first are now Universal or Native to M1.

There is enough power in the M1 to do anything I need to do. If I were a full time working pro (I'm 66 and do project work now), I'd order a new MacBook Pro with midrange specs, but I really can't justify it.

I would not be surprised if Apple releases a Mac Mini Pro later this year or early 2022. They still have a larger iMac and the Mac Pro to replace, too. Those will probably come later.

What they have done with their own systems on chips is remarkable. It should light BIG bonfires under Intel's and AMD's butts!

A lot of folks misunderstood the nature of M1 as being a "first of its kind" chip. But Apple's been making similar SOCs for a decade or so. They're in all their iPhones, iPads, AppleTVs, and Apple Watches. The M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max are simply greatly extended versions of those earlier efforts.

I can't wait to see some video reviews comparing them to similarly priced systems from other manufacturers.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If my experience with this M1 MacBook Air is any indicator, they will be the real deal. This has been the best selling single laptop model in its price range on Amazon for most of 2021, for many good reasons.

I'm with you on waiting, though. I waited until August, 2021 to buy my Air. It came out in November of 2020. After a few kinks in the initial setup resolved by a call to Apple Tech Support, it has been flawless.

napabob Loc: Napa CA

I love happy endings.........😊

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Nice machines, but $2700 for a 16 GB laptop and $3500 for 32 GB Laptop? I get the 10 cores and the 8-16 GPU cores, but 2X the price of an AMD machine with a good graphics card, similar amount of DRAM and cores?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You cannot compare Apples to Intels or AMDs... RISC and CISC are very different. The way memory is shared among all cores of these whole-systems-on-chips is unique. It really does cut the amount of needed memory in half for many tasks. There are up to 64GB of unified memory and 14 to 32 graphics cores. 17-21 hours of maximum battery life. 10-bit 1000 nit displays with 1600 nits peak brightness. NO performance drop when unplugged from AC, like all those PCs with the fancy graphics cards. Up to 400 Megabytes per second of memory bandwidth... plus hardware still image and video encoders and decoders.

This time, their slick graphs do include the fine print listing compared system model numbers.

If you watch the video from 14:10 to the end, or go back and watch benchmarks AND real-world tests in independent reviews of earlier M1 machines, you'll understand the fuss. This is real.

These are not the machines for the masses. Those are the M1 Macs. These M1 Pro and M1 Max Macs are for the pros who always need more in remote places with no AC.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

I too watched the release and actually was happily surprised at the amount of power the new chips have. I will be ordering a 14" with the M1 Pro 16 GB memory and 1TB SSD. I do very little video but lots of large photo files and this configuration should fit my needs with power to spare for quite a few years. Going with the 14 inch over the 13 inch for the Pro chip the extra ports and ability to connect two monitors.

My son has an Air with 8GB and the M1 chip and says it is leaps and bounds over his other laptops.

The way the unified memory is used and the speed at which it is accessed is very amazing.

Huge step up for me from my iMac 27 (2015) and my old 2010 and 2011 Macbook Pros that are still chugging along.

Walkabout08

I will be purchasing one of these new laptops later this fall to replace my 5 year old 13” MBP. I’ll go with the 14” but need to assess which processor/ram configuration to go with. My first read of the specs would indicate I don’t need the power of the M1 Max chip for digital still photo post processing. How much ram though will require more investigation. I will also upgrade my large monitor to the Benq or equivalent.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

My 9 year old grandson has been obsessing over the coming/now announcement. Last night I asked him for a summary--and he did Apple proud ticking off the improvements. Now he will be constantly asking me when I will buy a new laptop! Just got the iMac 24" M1 for my office. Couldn't be happier.
Currently using 2018 MBPro 15" w/16GB/512SSD. Working just fine. I'll wait until I can't resist the new M1Pro; or absolutely find the need to run IOS apps on my laptop; or can't stand anymore the 'repeat letter typing' that seems to be endemic to my laptop. Looking forward to the real life comparisons and what the naysayers have to say. I agree that Apple's silicone is a game changer and will set a new bar for construction and performance.

AntonioReyna Loc: Los Angeles, California

I agree. I would not spent a penny on overpriced, underpowered Apple computers when I can get more for less with a PC.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Bill, I appreciate your devotion to Apple products - it’s well known, and I expected your reply. I hope we can have a friendly technical debate on the merits of Apple (and it’s higher price) without impacting our online friendship.

Without going into great and boring detail, let me just point out a few facts. The history is filled with both RISC (reduced instruction set) and CISC (complex instruction set) CPUs, and there is no inherent relationship to speed and the choice of instruction set. I would point out that the widely known RISC CPUs have ultimately not succeeded in wide popularity in the marketplace, the best known probably being the MIPS, the SPARC (which after pumping hundreds of millions into recent development and marketing, even Oracle has given up on) and IBM’s power series - once popularized in the Blue Gene Supercomputers, but now replaced by Intel and AMD in the world’s most powerful computers.

Regarding 400 MB/sec memory bandwidth, that may sound fast, but in fact compared to DDR4 2133 (commonly in use in all modern PCs that have not yet migrated to the faster DDR5 memory), it’s not even in the league. The slowest DDR4 2133 is spec’d at 17 GBytes/second. And unified memory is not necessarily an advantage. What it means is that the GPU cores must share memory (and memory BW) with the CPU - not a performance enhancer. When a PC transfers data from the CPU to a separate GPU, it’s transferred over the PCIe bus, which is many times faster than the 400 MByte memory BW you mentioned and GPU memory does not detract from CPU memory. I’d also add that if you look at actual RISC memory utilization, taking for example the best known of the RISC CPUs, the latest generation SPARC, they specify similar amounts of memory as CISC CPUs. I note that Apple is also realizing the limitations of the original M1 with a max of non upgradable 16 GB and is now offering 32 and 64GB on it’s new faster machines which exemplifies exactly my point - that RISC CPUs and unified CPU/GPU architecture do not equate to very different memory usage from CISC CPUs and separate GPUs.

I am not denigrating Apple or their products - the new machines have excellent battery life, which in fact, a key attribute and design goal of the M1 device. These are nice machines with good performance and very nice packaging. What I am saying is that the price/performance and upgradability (or lack thereof) is poor compared to the equivalent PC and the “features” such as unified memory architecture and RISC processor are not inherently better than the typical PC design - just different. Regarding the benchmarked speed, it depends on who is doing the benchmarking and what tasks are being run. For every benchmark and write-up showing Apple is superior, there is one showing the opposite. Again, nice machines and a good choice if you’re committed to/prefer Mac OS, but there is a high price to be paid for closed system computing.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

Unfortunately somebody has a typo somewhere here, the memory bandwidth is not 400 MB/sec it is 400 GB/sec which is why the performance of the unified memory works and works very quickly. The 400 GB is for the M1 Max processor and the M1 Pro has 200 GB/sec. The reason as I understand it is the additional memory capabilities are to drive those professional programs like video production.

As to price comparisons, any high end PC laptop that would match these speeds and throughput would cost at least as much money. I went shopping last year and was going to switch then realized there was no saving from the cost of a Mac so I waited for version 2 of the Apple silicon.

I agree with Bill (obviously) and think that Apple is moving the industry forward. What Intel and AMD do in the future will be interesting to watch too. I don't know what DDR5 bus speeds are but it will have to be a huge increment over DDR4 to get even to the first threshold of the M1 Pro.

All good I love all my computers and cannot wait for my new MacBook Pro.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I know that Apple advertises that speed, but think about how DRAM actually works. Each data transfer is strobed by the clock, and max clock speeds on silicon devices are running in the 5GHz region. So assuming an 8 Byte (64 bit) transfer at 5GHz = 40 GBytes/sec. There’s some marketing hype/specsmanship going on here somewhere (perhaps assuming 10 64 bit simultaneous transfers? Or maybe they mean Gbits instead of GBytes) because DRAM and clock speeds just aren’t that fast. It’s all about how wide the transfer is, and you can create any spec you want by just picking different transfer widths. Sounds impressive right up to the point you look at the actual specs of a DRAM or SDRAM memory chip itself (not packaged memory such as a DDR4 or 5 device)