Apple M3

[jbuhler]

Did they ever do that in the past?

Point updates have only recently started breaking things in major ways. Well, that’s not entirely true. I remember going through similar trials many many years ago, where point updates routinely broke drivers and the device would become inoperable until the fix was made.

IIRC that’s when Apple moved to reserving point updates for security and bug fixes and stopped doing intermediate feature enhancements. People had stopped updating because they rightly feared the update would break something, which meant the computers were increasingly vulnerable.

And here we are again.

 

[Kslovelace]

Sooo… I have plugins from all the companies that I have seen release warnings this far over the .4 update on M series computers…. And I have not had a single issue since the update.

Not advocating for updating or not. Everyone can set their own priorities. But things get blown up all the time.

I stay up to date on OS and all software always. In fact, every Sunday I spend the morning opening all hubs and going to plugin websites to grab the latest installers for any updates I have received notifications for throughout the week. The last time I had an issue as a result was a few years ago.

I used to stay a least and version behind on Mac OS and would wait for any major software updates and honestly, since I have started keeping everything up to date over the last few years, I have had less problems overall.

 

[vitocorleone123]

Rumor has it Apple is moving up M4 due to falling sales and the threat of Intel's forthcoming processor (Arrow Lake/Core Ultra). AMD also releasing Ryzen 9000 series shortly.

Just as it was good for us buyers to have Apple apply market pressure to Intel and AMD, so, too, is it good to have Intel (finally) apply pressure back.

 

[Jett Hitt]

Rumor has it Apple is moving up M4 due to falling sales and the threat of Intel's forthcoming processor (Arrow Lake/Core Ultra). AMD also releasing Ryzen 9000 series shortly.

Just as it was good for us buyers to have Apple apply market pressure to Intel and AMD, so, too, is it good to have Intel (finally) apply pressure back.

I saw this report as well. I was scratching my head thinking that my M1 is pretty fast already and what would actually make Macs more attractive would be reasonably priced RAM and hard drive space.

 

[thaeo]

M4 looking to be focused on AI processing. Currently unclear whether the upgrade will be game-changing over the M3 or not. But considering the release is rumoured for Oct or Nov of this year, if you're thinking of upgrading, may be worth the wait.

 

[HCMarkus]

M4 looking to be focused on AI processing. Currently unclear whether the upgrade will be game-changing over the M3 or not. But considering the release is rumoured for Oct or Nov of this year, if you're thinking of upgrading, may be worth the wait.

Whether it will be game-changing for DAW users is less likely than for other aspects of computing.

 

[Pier]

But considering the release is rumoured for Oct or Nov of this year, if you're thinking of upgrading, may be worth the wait.

Interesting. I wasn't expecting the base M4 until next year.

Mark Gurman reports that:

"it’s all but assured that at least some of Apple’s high-end desktops will bypass the M3"

"A Mac Studio with a high-end M4 chip, coming around the middle of 2025. A Mac Pro with an M4 Ultra chip, due in the second half of 2025.".

So it seems no M3 Ultra, no M3 Mac Studio or M3 Mac Pro either!

 

[HCMarkus]

Sooo… I have plugins from all the companies that I have seen release warnings this far over the .4 update on M series computers…. And I have not had a single issue since the update.

M1? or M2/M3? I've not seen any reports of M1 being effected by recent issues.

 

[khollister]

This is making my decision on the next upgrade more complicated. I admit to being a little worried that optimizing the M4 for AI might affect the traditional CPU power, i.e. devoting silicon real-estate and R&D bandwidth to more GPU/NP cores rather than CPU P-cores. So do I go for a M3 Max MBP this year or wait on a possible M4 Max/Ultra Studio next year?

I currently have a M1Max MBP (8P + 2E) w 64GB, and a current non-binned M3 Max (12P + 4E) with the 30-35% single core improvement over the M1 would be a huge step up (75% by the Geekbench multicore numbers as well as by the P-core count and performance increase. I would have a really hard time arguing that a 128GB 16 core M3Max wouldn't be enough for the foreseeable future given I do not use huge templates or have 500 track projects.

A vaporware M4 might crush the M3 or not, depending on how Apple prioritizes the architecture. I originally wanted/needed a laptop rather than a desktop due to imagined "composing while traveling" use cases, but the last couple years with the M1Max MBP have demonstrated that is not really the case. I also just replaced my "everyday laptop", a 13" MBP M1, with a 14" 12 core M3Max MBP which has enough HP to do some lightweight (only 18GB RAM) music doodling while on the road).

So - another high end M3 MBP now or take mychances on a M4 Studio next year?

 

[Nachivnik]

I originally wanted/needed a laptop rather than a desktop due to imagined "composing while traveling" use cases, but the last couple years with the M1Max MBP have demonstrated that is not really the case. I also just replaced my "everyday laptop", a 13" MBP M1, with a 14" 12 core M3Max MBP which has enough HP to do some lightweight (only 18GB RAM) music doodling while on the road).

So - another high end M3 MBP now or take mychances on a M4 Studio next year?

I just barely got an M1 Max MBP. I like being able to travel to the couch and work on boring stuff while sitting with family. This is my first fully-powered laptop and I like so far than I am not anchored to my chair any longer.

Regarding M3 MBP now or future M4 Studio, a couple of thoughts. 1) Are the capabilities of your M1 Max MBP hindering you? 2) An allegory. Google Maps plugged into my car shows only the next immediate turn. I'm always bugging my wife as navigator about what comes next. She observed that Google Maps is for most people, who do not need to see the big picture. It is not made for me, who wants to see the big picture. When buying computers, I try to fight my big picture nature and look at my immediate needs.

 

[Vik]

So - another high end M3 MBP now or take mychances on a M4 Studio next year?

If you're not sure whether you need a new M3 MBP now or not – you probably don't.

 

[khollister]

If you're not sure whether you need a new M3 MBP now or not – you probably don't.

Killjoy

I'm not sure I was clear in that scoring a M3Max MBP this year would only make sense if the M4's were all about AI and not traditional CPU power. I have seen some thoughts that the M4 Ultra would not be just 2 Max chips stuck together but a different design to target the desktop use case (possibly not having E-cores at all).

No reason to do anything until the end of the year at the earliest since the M4's are vaporware at this point.

Just doing a bit of "what if" and FOMO.

 

[HCMarkus]

Killjoy, perhaps, but absent extremely prejudicial insider information, the best time to buy a new computer is when you really need a new computer. And then, for at least two years, stop reading abut what's on the horizon and get some actual work done.

I bought my M1 Studio Ultra two yeas ago...

 

[Pier]

Just doing a bit of "what if" and FOMO.

Wait until the M4 is out to get a M3 Max with a discount

I wouldn't expect a huge CPU improvement from M3 to M4. The M4 is going to be 3nm like the M3 so probably similar to what we got from M1 to M2.

I do expect a huge bump on GPU performance but this is irrelevant for audio.

 

[Vik]

I'm not sure I was clear in that scoring a M3Max MBP this year would only make sense if the M4's were all about AI and not traditional CPU power.

I see, but Apple probably wants to milk their new cow – their ARM stuff – in every possible way. Things will get cheaper, smaller, faster, generte less heat, weigh less etc for many years to come. So if they launch a M4 Ultra with less than expected CPU power (very unlikely, IMO) they'll make one with clearly more CPU power within not too long. We'll see Ultras, 2nm technology, 1 nm technology – and after nanometers come picometer. Maybe these node names partially is about marketing (Some claim that)? I have a M3 Max MBP, but it's kind of heavy – and it's probably only a question of time before we see Mac Book Airs with the same kind of power... and phones. On another note, since you mention that you have a M1 Max MBP w/ 64GB: my feeling is that the M1s cant offer the kind of power etc needed for heavy orchestral stuff. And personally, I don't plan to buy anything portable anymore – maybe not more computers at all. Once they sort out some current M3 quirks, these Macs will be totally brilliant (and 128 vs 64 gb does make a difference).

I've noticed that YouTube is already full of M4 rumours, and will be full of M5 rumours shortly after the M4s are out. As we already know, this will never stop. Don't let FOMO get you!

 

[Kslovelace]

M1? or M2/M3? I've not seen any reports of M1 being effected by recent issues.

M2 Max.

 

[nitrateaudio]

I am on a M2 Pro.. no issues. But I haven't updated my DAW to the latest and greatest OS. I just sit back and keep patching the current OS until something forces to me to upgrade.

I am curios to see what M4 performance will be like.

 

[Aymara]

... until something forces to me to upgrade.

Security? I updated my MBP M3 to macOS 14.4.1 for this reason and everything works fine.

 

[jamie8]

Same here but my MacBook Pro m3 6 core with 36 of ram is just for a live rig with MainStage,I’m still on a 2020 iMac with 128gbye ram for my main and it works fine

 

[Aymara]

I’m still on a 2020 iMac with 128gbye ram for my main and it works fine

I'm also still using an iMac Pro, but even those older machines have security issues

I usually update for security reasons half a year after a macOS release, because often some 3rd parties need so long to get compatible again.

But things are getting more complicated, now that Apple introduced major issues with point updates with 14.4, so we need to check every update now, if it's fine or could cause issues.