Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

I have been in the market for a new computer to edited 5.7K video from my DJI drone and was considering going with an Apple product, but I noticed that most of the Apple products only came with the base of 8gm of ram. Very frustrating to say the least till I read this article.

https://www.howtogeek.com/865066/its-okay-to-buy-a-mac-with-only-8-gb-ram/

SteveR Loc: Michigan

Going video? Go with the Macbook pro M1 or M2, 16" The M2 is configurable, probably at purchase, to 16 or 24 gigabyts. I'm not sure about the M1. Check the specs. My son has an M1 and it's fast as lightning.

Remember, though, its processor is not Intel or Intel compatible, so a lot of the programs that you run on Windows may not run on M1 or M2. You won't be able to boot-camp on an M1 or M2. There are trade-offs.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

The M1/M2 is ONLY configurable at purchase. (Actually only configurable at manufacture).

Not sure whether the M1 goes down to 8 but it does have 16 as an option (and 32 and 64 I believe).

I am of the camp that you should get more than you need today because who knows what tomorrow will bring.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I was all ready to jump on an M1 until I heard that I couldn't boot camp.

rmcgarry331

My experience is my wife’s M2 MacBook Air with 8gb runs circles around my Lenovo i7 with 16gb when using Photoshop 2023.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Parallels Desktop is Windows 11 virtualization software for M1/M2 Macs and is officially approved by Microsoft. VMWare Fusion is coming, too.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You don’t need Boot Camp to run Windows on Mac.

https://www.parallels.com/pd/general/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pl-dd-all-paidads&utm_id=9639096&utm_content=31859794596&utm_term=parallels%20for%20mac

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I wouldn’t do it. Notice in the article that imaging SW isn’t tested and only briefly mentioned ( “had a couple of images open in Adobe”.) While Macs with M1/M2 devices do manage memory differently from PCs, and when they run out of DRAM, they page to SSD, which is certainly MUCH faster than HD, paging is still a performance killer since the access time to DRAM is orders of magnitude faster than SSD. If you plan to keep it awhile (SW is getting bigger all the time) or use any advanced AI tools such as Topaz or ever stack or do a panoramic, going to 16GB and as much SSD as you can afford is a good investment, since neither can EVER be upgraded. Yes, 8GB is OK, but 16 is what I’d choose for advanced image processing and to future proof my investment.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

My son has an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB memory and 512 GB storage, plus external drives.

After using it for light video editing and Photoshop/Lightroom Classic work, he will tell you that it is capable but not ideal. Once you add titles, transitions, and effects to 4K video tracks, performance bogs down. When the SSD is more than half full, it slows down. So working with a FAST Thunderbolt 3 or 4 external drive (1TB or larger!) is essential for video.

MOST people, those who do not do video production or heavy photo editing, will be fine with 8GB memory. However, my recommendation is to consider 16GB memory and 1TB storage to be the sweet spot for entry level M1/M2 Macs. My M1 Air is configured that way, and it has plenty of breathing room for simple 4K video editing. Audio is a breeze up to more than 50 tracks, even with complex processing plug-ins. Lightroom and Photoshop still run fine after two years of heavy use.

My other twin has an M1 PRO MacBook Pro with 32GB memory and 1TB storage. It is a very solid machine for video editing in Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere, and for use with Adobe Photography Plan applications. Jay has never complained of any slow downs.

You want 16GB or more memory to avoid the paging/swap memory that Tri-X talked about. You want 1TB storage so that when paging/swapping does occur, you have plenty of space to do it!

There is an old rule of thumb that your computer WILL slow down gradually when the boot drive becomes more than half full. That is certainly a factor in my recommendation to get 1TB storage. You can live in half a TB most of the time, by using external drives for all your data. You're going to need a conventional backup drive for Time Machine, and a two or four terabyte SSD for use as a working drive. Then you should use some larger conventional drives for use as data storage.

One thing to consider about the M1 and M2 series Macs is that the single core performance of M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra systems is almost exactly the same! The the single core performance of M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra systems is almost exactly the same! Where the higher level Pro, Max, and Ultra systems shine is in multi-threaded applications that can use more than one processor core, and when processing video or graphics that are supported by the dedicated processors on those chips.

On the M2 machines, AVOID THE BASE *STORAGE* MODELS if your applications are input/output speed dependent. I'm talking to Lightroom Classic and Photoshop users here. UNLIKE the M1, the M2 chip uses just one 256GB RAM chip instead of two 128GB RAM chips configured as a RAID array. So get 512GB or more. On M2 Pro and Max, you'll want 1TB as a minimum, for the same sort of reason: The use of two DRAM chips in a RAID configuration improves speed dramatically for I/O operations.

rwoodvira

Hi Rac: I agree with burke photo who gave me suggestions. I have a Mac Air M1 16gb, 2 tb. The reason I went with the 2TB is my Sony a7riii has a large sensor. I would recommend at least 1TB. On the Air there are only 2 USB C ports so you will need eventually a hub or some kind. I have an Anker 8 port that I think is under $80.

If you do decide to buy check out Appleinsider.com. They show the latest apple prices and usually have a link to save money via Adorama. I also recommend getting the Applecare.

Good luck.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

As usual, great advice from the Mac Guru.

marquina Loc: Richmond, Virginia

I purchased a Mac Mini M1 with 8 GB RAM, for general apps like MS Office, Safari, Keynote the Mac Mini performed fine. I got the beach ball too often when running Photoshop, Photos, Lightroom, etc. I like the user experience using the Mac OS very much, but I would have purchased the Mac Mini with 16 GB RAM.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Thank you all for your input and recommendations, it is much appreciated. I am taking all of your recommendations into consideration and will be making my decision soon enough.