New M1 chip (Page 3): I don't compare specs. Why the hell should I? I'm a 90 yo sitting at my kitchen table hitting a few 'net sites. Specs??? ROFLMFAO I can tell you what to do with...

hrblaine

burkphoto wrote:

Time to look again… just don’t compare specs between M1 and Intel PCs. They’re very different architectures now. (SOC vs discrete components). Memory is managed very differently, and it’s RISC vs CISC.

I don't compare specs. Why the hell should I? I'm a 90 yo sitting at my kitchen table hitting a few 'net sites. Specs??? ROFLMFAO I can tell you what to do with your "specs"! Harry

hrblaine

[quote=burkphoto]Be patient, and you'll be rewarded with an opportunity to get an Apple Silicon iMac (27" or 30" or 32"? rumors abound) or a MacMini Pro next year. A new Mac Pro is in the works, too. Apple announced about 18 months ago, its intentions to replace all their Intel offerings with their own SOC based architecture. They're around half way through the process now.

WOW!!! And I bet the price will maybe even be below $10,000.00! What a bargain, sign me up for two! Harry

DennisC. Loc: Antelope, CA

[quote=hrblaine]

burkphoto wrote:

Be patient, and you'll be rewarded with an opportunity to get an Apple Silicon iMac (27" or 30" or 32"? rumors abound) or a MacMini Pro next year. A new Mac Pro is in the works, too. Apple announced about 18 months ago, its intentions to replace all their Intel offerings with their own SOC based architecture. They're around half way through the process now.

WOW!!! And I bet the price will maybe even be below $10,000.00! What a bargain, sign me up for two! Harry

It’s only money, you can’t take it with you so just spend it on some fun toys!

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

Thank you very much for your comments. You seem very knowledgeable and I always pay close attention to your comments on things

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

Thanx for your input. You are very knowledgeable and I always pay attention to your response to others questions

moonhawk Loc: Land of Enchantment

brian43053 wrote:

Thank you very much for your comments. You seem very knowledgeable and I always pay close attention to your comments on things

Hi Brian. If you hit the "Quote Reply" button below the comment you are responding too, we, and the person to whom you are replying, will know who that is.

scubadoc Loc: Sarasota, FL

foathog wrote:

I'm looking for a new Mac. Mine is ancient. Ive been an Apple guy since 1993. I would love to get an M1 computer but the largest monitor available is 24". I currently have a 27". Why would I downgrade?? Oh yeah I could get a 27" but it has the old fashioned Intel chip. PLUS if you look at the new iMacs they all look like toys. They appear to have been made for grade schoolers with pastel colors.. I'm not happy with the quandry I've been presented.

Buy the M1 Mac Mini (soon to be upgraded with the M1 Pro) and buy BenQ monitors. This is a much cheaper alternative than a standalone Mac Desktop. BenQ monitors that are great for photo editing cost around $450 or so, depending on size. You can buy the Mac Mini and two BenQ 27” monitors for around $2000, depending on current pricing.

Bankshot Loc: Henderson, NV, USA

Replying to OP question about new MacBooks, I just bought a new MacBook Pro 14" because my old MacBook was from 2010, and wasn't working so good anymore. I discovered my standalone version of Photoshop (CS 5) is 32 bit and doesn't work with a 64 bit machine, so I am looking for a new photo editing program. I don't do enough of it to justify paying almost $200 a year for CS. I am trying Affinity Photo, but it's just not the same and very difficult to navigate so far.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Bankshot wrote:

Replying to OP question about new MacBooks, I just bought a new MacBook Pro 14" because my old MacBook was from 2010, and wasn't working so good anymore. I discovered my standalone version of Photoshop (CS 5) is 32 bit and doesn't work with a 64 bit machine, so I am looking for a new photo editing program. I don't do enough of it to justify paying almost $200 a year for CS. I am trying Affinity Photo, but it's just not the same and very difficult to navigate so far.

There really isn't any substitute for the combination of Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, if you don't want to acclimate to a new set of applications.

That said, those who want to buy a $2000+ MacBook Pro 14" and then use "cheap, one-time purchase software" are not going to find a much better combination than Apple Photos (free), plus Gentlemen Coders' Raw Power, plus Serif's Affinity Photo. Total cost is around $100. Throw in Thorsten Lemke's classic, Graphic Converter, if you do a lot of automated file manipulations. It's about $40.

Photoshop Elements is another alternative to consider. It's not nearly as powerful as Photoshop 2022, but it is pretty capable.

Yes, the cost of updating hardware often involves other purchases such as upgraded software, printers, scanners, monitors, calibrators, hubs, docks, dongles, trackpads, keyboards, mice, Internet routers, etc. It isn't cheap! (Whoever said digital photography was less costly than film may have been telling a cruel joke!)

brian43053 Loc: Buffalo, NY

burkphoto wrote:

Yes, my 2010 Mac Mini won't run the latest Adobe a... (show quote)

Thanx a lot for your response. You are obviously very knowledgeable and I appreciate your input. In your opinion would the 16” with the M1 chip, 16 gig unified ram and 1 TB SSD drive be sufficient for me? I use LR CC, photoshop, luminar and Topaz, also some video editing. Would there be a noticeable difference if I got the 32 gig of ram? TIA

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

Bankshot wrote:

…I don't do enough of it to justify paying almost $200 a year for CS. I am trying Affinity Photo, but it's just not the same and very difficult to navigate so far.

The photography package is $9.99/month plus sales tax so it’s well below $200/year. You get LR and PS and a couple other things for that. Well worth it in my opinion. Regular updates included.

YMMV

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

brian43053 wrote:

Thanx a lot for your response. You are obviously very knowledgeable and I appreciate your input. In your opinion would the 16” with the M1 chip, 16 gig unified ram and 1 TB SSD drive be sufficient for me? I use LR CC, photoshop, luminar and Topaz, also some video editing. Would there be a noticeable difference if I got the 32 gig of ram? TIA

About the only time you would notice the difference between 16 and 32GB Unified Memory is when performing huge numbers of exports of very large images (300 to 500 MB files), or when rendering very high bit rate video (ProRes 4:2:2 10-bit).

I have a MacBook Air M1 with 16GB UM and 1TB solid state storage, and I see no real need for more memory. Now, if I were doing more commercial work, I might change my mind. But I don't do enough to justify it. The M1 is sufficient for all my current needs.

One thing I saw reported today is that MacOS Monterey 15.0.1 seems to have issues with multiple monitors waking up in a timely manner. People with Big Sur have a few of the same issues, but not to the scope that Monterey users do. This should be fixed in a future update. Until then, I'm sticking with Big Sur 11.6.1, which seems very stable.

The usual YouTube reviewers are beating the feet off of the new machines in an attempt to reach their limits. So far, there are few negatives in regards to speed, power, and efficiency. But the multiple monitor wake from sleep issues are annoying some.

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

burkphoto wrote:

About the only time you would notice the difference between 16 and 32GB Unified Memory is when performing huge numbers of exports of very large images (300 to 500 MB files), or when rendering very high bit rate video (ProRes 4:2:2 10-bit)...

Memory requirements seem to creep up with time, so I think it would be advantageous to get extra memory for the future since you can't add it later to Apple products.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

DirtFarmer wrote:

Memory requirements seem to creep up with time, so I think it would be advantageous to get extra memory for the future since you can't add it later to Apple products.

Unless you have an Apple Silicon system, I agree with this sentiment. The new SOC architecture is radically different.

> evolved from ten years of making SOCs for hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads

> RISC, not CISC — Fewer processor cycles and lower clock frequencies are needed for the same tasks

> UNIFIED memory is shared by all processor cores (data does not have to be copied from RAM to VRAM and back, which saves time)

> STORAGE is on the SOC die, so it takes far less time for swap operations to complete.

> super-fast memory and storage speed up everything.

If you have an iPhone, you know you can keep dozens of apps open before the phone bogs down. That’s due to Apple’s swap technology. My iPhone has 33 apps open in 4 GB memory right now! It runs fine.

In early tests of the 8GB storage in base M1 machines, reviewers were amazed at how many apps with active operations could be run simultaneously. It seems that the 256 GB storage limit on the base models was more limiting to performance than 8GB memory. If you fill up the memory, swap can’t happen efficiently.

That said, I put 16GB memory and 1TB storage in my MacBook Air. It has plenty of room to “breathe.”

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

brian43053 wrote:

Thanx a lot for your response. You are obviously very knowledgeable and I appreciate your input. In your opinion would the 16” with the M1 chip, 16 gig unified ram and 1 TB SSD drive be sufficient for me? I use LR CC, photoshop, luminar and Topaz, also some video editing. Would there be a noticeable difference if I got the 32 gig of ram? TIA

Hi Brian, I just got the 14" M1 Pro with 16gb memory and 1tb ssd. My use is pretty much the same as yours. There are no memory issues at 16gb with multiple files open in Lightroom and photoshop, creating HDR's or stacks, big psd files with many layers, etc. The computer is fast and a pleasure to use. In reality the processor is more than I can really use but I like it. Build quality is great, the speakers are pretty impressive too!

I replaced my old late 2010 MacBook Pro 15" with this. I have a late 2015 27" iMac with 32gb memory and a 1tb ssd, the new laptop runs circles around it. I am going to probably retire the iMac and just set up a dock for the new laptop to connect to keyboard mouse, Wacom tablet and a monitor or two.

Then it will be my only computer (well maybe, lol). I have 15tb of network storage that I use for my photos.

I went with the 14" for ease of travel, a little bit lighter.