With all of the discussions about air vs pro, varying RAM/storage, and upgrading chips I’m wondering what factors can be used to argue for an upgrade. Most discussions and videos I see talk about two main use cases: programming and “creative work”.
In the next week or so I’ll be buying a MacBook to replace my Dell Inspiron 17-3000 series and I feel like a “base” user surrounded with suggestions to upgrade if you’re going to use more than 3 tabs and messenger.
I’m a grad student studying physical therapy and my laptop will largely be for school purposes: up to a dozen tabs, my note taking app (notion or I might try obsidian), where I’m taking notes from (a web lecture and PowerPoint imported to onenote), and a couple productivity/messenger style apps. Occasionally I use a 3d anatomy app but generally not for longer than half an hour at time.
Are there metrics outside of coding, Photoshop, and video editing to help me figure out where I fall along the upgrade spectrum? I would like this to last me a couple years into professional work while minimizing cost but man is it hard to figure out what I’ll actually need.
Tldr: there should be a sliding scale of a handful of functional activities to help us less computer-literate differentiate between upgrade factors within MacBooks.
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Pro user would rely on specific accelerators. Whether they are on board like Pro Res accelerators on a Mac soc, RTX cores in a nvidia gpu, or discreet like a chipset in an external audio interface.
You could require significant Pcie lanes for quad gpus, multiple nvme raid arrays, high bandwidth connection like multiple fiber channel/iscsi/thunderbolt 4 nics.
Your workloads could require an unusual amount of ram, like llms that require 64gb dedicated to the chatbot. So you’d be starting out at 96-128gb of ram to run your Os, applications separate of the llm overhead.
High performance core count could be your jam. Think virtualization, high concurrency transaction processing, chuggy builds like compiling the Linux kernel. 32 cores may not cut it at all, your workload starts at 192 cores and 384gb of ram. I don’t think any of the Apple Xeon configs ever got there but that’s a medium Linux host or racked workstation.
You would be fine with an Air. 16GB of memory would future proof it so it lasts you longer. What you described is definitely not a “Pro” workflow though.
16GB of memory would future proof it so it lasts you longer.
There’s no such thing as Future-Proofing. Apple can come out with a new product that has a specific feature that works only on M3/M3 Pro/M3 Max. That leaves M1/M2 users in the cold. Pumping up specs such as more memory or a bigger SSD does nothing to “future proof” a machine.
But let’s say there is such a thing as future-proofing, 16GB ain’t gonna do it. LOL.
A computer with 16GB of memory is going to remain useful longer than one with 8GB memory. That was pretty obviously my point. Please spare me your misguided pedantism.
A Pro would know that need it.
You have a similar workflow to myself and 8 GB is fine for me. You don’t need the extra RAM unless you anticipate doing more graphic heavy activities.
Money
the pros have fans so i have never bought a macbook that wasn’t a pro. if i work for a long time i hate having a hot macbook
the pros have fans so i have never bought a macbook that wasn’t a pro.
Before the M1 AIR existed all AIRS, the original MacBook and every iBook before it had fans.
If you get the 8gb model use Microsoft edge, it has some amazing features including sleeping tabs, which will save you quite a bit of RAM. For me, I can watch 4K video, play minecraft with shaders at 165fps, and render video with premiere pro without using the full 8gb of ram
I wouldn’t take “pro” literally, it is just a name to label their more powerful computers. I am an office worker (and front end developer) and I could do my job on any old computer. (but I did buy the 14 pro for the amazing screen in the Apple refurb store.)
I got you. If you know how to take mlst out of your PC, you should go for pro. Or you know that Air will be enough then go for Air. For your case forget about cpu… it will be cool unless you do 3D simulations or gaming. In this case i suggest even Max! Go and try both beasts at store, you will enjoy it.
I suggest 15in Air.
Upgrade that RAM!!!