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New M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks!

Yeah they could also have an irregularly shaped bit sticking out the side and tell me it was free extra screen space and I'd still think it was fugly. ;)

What I find intriguing is that the massive notch seems designed to be big enough for a Face ID array and yet there isn't one in there, just a single webcam. Maybe they couldn't source the parts in time and released it like that anyway, planning to put Face ID in the next update as an "upgrade".

Don't get me wrong though, these machines seem awesome otherwise. Not currently in the market for one as my i7 Mini is fine for another few years but I like where the mac is going.
 
khollister said:
Part of the reason the 10 core M1Pro/Max isn't 2X the performance of the M1 is the Icestorm efficiency cores. The M1 has 4 vs 2 in the Pro/Max. From my testing with my M1 13" with Logic, they do make a difference. Enabling the efficiency cores does result in more tracks.
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You have a very good point there, that makes perfect sense. I don't know what I was thinking. So yeah, we are probably rather looking at something between 20 to 30% in performance increase, maybe. Looking forward to the first real world test results when the new models have shipped.
 
sourcefor said:
Keep in mind this computer comes with OS Monterrey, so how many devs are up to speed on this? Slate just sent an email stating not to update! That’s the only thing stopping me from getting this machine!
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Fair point, but given that anyone ordering today isn't getting a machine for at least 4-6 weeks, I wouldn't hit the panic button just yet. I do know the UAD stuff seems to work OK with the Monterey betas except for a driver bug that was fixed in a subsequent beta version.

I am encouraged by the recent speed of many developers releasing AS native versions. I think folks are realizing that telling people not to buy new Macs that blow away the Intel ones isa questionable business tactic. I was rather surprised by Waves and Eventide recently releasing native versions of everything.
 
I'd be interested to see how the new Macs perform under stress.

Intel i7 processors are notorious for ramping down performance rapidly on machines that cannot properly ventilate the heat build up.

Also these M1s seem to be optimised towards graphics and 3D, so I wonder what will happen once all the DAWs and plugins are properly supported whether we see any increased benefits against the equivalent Intel chips aimed at the same market segment.
 
Really excited about the potential of these chips and machines, and glad they now support a decent amount of RAM.

I'm waiting though, firstly:

- To see real-world reports of these used in the DAW context. A lot of companies are still catching up with hardware and software support. I want all my kit to be natively supported before I switch to AS. Also wait to see what glitches or hardware issues might be revealed when they come out.

- I don't want a laptop. I'll wait to see whatever it is Apple launch to replace the Intel Mac Mini.

Until then I'm going to stick with my 6 core Mini - probably for another 6-9 months at least.

Wayne
 
SupremeFist said:
So... are we just not going to talk about The Notch?
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stodesign12 said:
I love the CPUs, ports coming back, RAM, battery life and the general design of the laptop... but the notch is just not elegant, and I can't stand that they are trying so hard to make it look cool.
It isn't "free new space" for the menu bar above the standard aspect ratio (what an awful excuse), this is simply a bigger screen with a different aspect ratio and a portion of it hidden under the notch.
And what is even worse, the solution for full screen apps seems to be to eliminate ALL the horizontal space next to the notch, it's just ridiculous.
Anyway, after this rant I shoud say that I really love this new model lol.
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Like it or not, it's still a top notch machine (sorry, can't resist).
 
khollister said:
Part of the reason the 10 core M1Pro/Max isn't 2X the performance of the M1 is the Icestorm efficiency cores. The M1 has 4 vs 2 in the Pro/Max. From my testing with my M1 13" with Logic, they do make a difference. Enabling the efficiency cores does result in more tracks.
Click to expand...
I had forgotten that and it partly helps to explain why they quoted up to 70% CPU performance gain.

So they've gone from 4/4 to 2/8.
So if a small core equals half a big core and we ignore other differences for now, we are seeing a jump from 6 to 9.
So that's 50%, then you add in other gains, probably mainly from the massive increase in memory bandwidth and 70% makes sense.
The cut down 8 core version seems a poor choice for DAW users though.
 
wayne_rowley said:
Really excited about the potential of these chips and machines, and glad they now support a decent amount of RAM.

I'm waiting though, firstly:

- To see real-world reports of these used in the DAW context. A lot of companies are still catching up with hardware and software support. I want all my kit to be natively supported before I switch to AS. Also wait to see what glitches or hardware issues might be revealed when they come out.

- I don't want a laptop. I'll wait to see whatever it is Apple launch to replace the Intel Mac Mini.

Until then I'm going to stick with my 6 core Mini - probably for another 6-9 months at least.

Wayne
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when the event got close to wrapping up and it became clear that there wasn't going to be a Mac mini announcement. Do I need one? No. But this is the shoe that had been threatening to drop for almost a year, so I couldn't help but ponder,"Could I switch to a laptop and replace both my M1 MacBook Air and M1 Mac mini?" In the end, it just seems silly to spend that much on a laptop that is going to end up being used in clamshell mode 99% of the time. The Air has plenty of performance for my occasional mobile needs, and works well as a second computer otherwise.

I still wanted some new shiny, though.
 
Al Maurice said:
I'd be interested to see how the new Macs perform under stress.

Intel i7 processors are notorious for ramping down performance rapidly on machines that cannot properly ventilate the heat build up.
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There's very little similarity between Intel and Apple design philosophy, so I'm not sure how valid a comparison this is.....
 
mat1 said:
It's a shame 5k monitors never really took off. I'd love to move away from the 5k iMac onto a tricked out M1Max.
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I love the screen of the iMac, best value for money ever.
I think the only comparable monitor is that old LG Ultrafine 5K, or the lg-34WK95U-W if you love ultrawide.
I have an XDR display which is beyond outstanding for visual work, but the cost is very hard to be justified for music production.
 
tsk said:
Also, I would have liked details on the new headphone jack supporting high impedance headphones. What does this actually mean?
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I don't know whether anyone's answered this, but some older headphones - such as my ancient AKG K240Ms - are 600Ω rather than the <50Ω impedance of something like Apple Earbuds.

Higher impedance = more resistance = needs must more power.

Having said that, my hunch is that the $550 Apple headphones want it.
 
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rnb_2 said:
Yeah, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when the event got close to wrapping up and it became clear that there wasn't going to be a Mac mini announcement. Do I need one? No. But this is the shoe that had been threatening to drop for almost a year, so I couldn't help but ponder,"Could I switch to a laptop and replace both my M1 MacBook Air and M1 Mac mini?" In the end, it just seems silly to spend that much on a laptop that is going to end up being used in clamshell mode 99% of the time. The Air has plenty of performance for my occasional mobile needs, and works well as a second computer otherwise.

I still wanted some new shiny, though.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I went through that internal dialog as well. My situation is that I spend quite a bit of time in the summers away from home and need/want a fairly complete system. The biggest issue for me isn't that the M1 doesn't have enough grunt but that I have to configure and maintain/synchronize 2 different systems. The huge internal SSD on the 16" will mean minimal external drives and extra RAM sure doesn't hurt (the 16 on the M1 is pretty confining). Another advantage is I really don't have room for a 2nd conventional monitor, but the laptop screen becomes a mixer window while the DAW is on the big monitor. I also can get $2500 for my iMP.

The iMac Pro just feels so sluggish compared to the M1, I was getting impatient waiting (the real reason).
 
Hey ya'll. I'm looking at buying one of the new machines... I'm curious how much internal storage is necessary. All my libraries are already on external SSDs, so in an aim to cut costs, I'm guessing one could get away with a 1TB SSD for the new M1 MBPs. Thoughts? Concerns?
 
Twin monitor advice please, for a hobbyist composing in Logic.

OK... Like many here, I was hoping for a "Mac Mini Pro" to replace my 7 year old 27" iMac, and was planning to get a pretty good "photo editing" monitor to go with it. Now I am considering the MacBook Pro and a 27" or 30" 4-K monitor. I do not currently have a laptop. I do not actually need one, but I'd like some advice on how much two monitors would help my hobbyist composing in Logic. (MacBook Pro and 27-30 inch 4-K monitor) I do not compose to film.
 
SuperD said:
Hey ya'll. I'm looking at buying one of the new machines... I'm curious how much internal storage is necessary. All my libraries are already on external SSDs, so in an aim to cut costs, I'm guessing one could get away with a 1TB SSD for the new M1 MBPs. Thoughts? Concern Similar here. I'm currently on a 7 year old iMac with only 256GB internal.
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I'm on a 7 yr old iMac with only 256GB internal SSD. I only use the internal for Mac OS and applications. Everything else is in the cloud and on external SATA SSDs via USB 3.0. If I were to stick to that plan with a new machine, 1TB would be plenty. I may do that with a new MacBook Pro and keep all of my external drives as is, but gradually upgrade them to external NVMe drives running inside a Thunderbolt 4 enclosure.
 
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