Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

Hey there folks,

I know a lot has been talked about regarding this topic but I found myself in the middle of a conundrum. My old iMac just died (GPU) and I don't think it'll be worth to repair it. That leaves me the option to either buy an intel-based mac (more expensive and soon to be outdated) or a new M1, even though PT isn't yet supported officially.
I work mostly (90%) in music. Is anyone ACTUALLY using an M1 as their main machine without any major hassles?

Cheers

R.

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

The big question, what interface are you using? If drivers aren’t available, then no, it’s not going to work.

PT is unsupported but working. Plugins? Some yes, some no.

You could buy a cheap second hand machine to keep you running until everything is supported and then buy an M1 machine.


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Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

Big question here would be: how long you are prepared to wait until your new system is operational? If you need to work on it next week, you better buy some old Intel hardware. Apple Silicon is not there yet

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

The amount of RAM is also an issue. The M1's currently only come with 8 or 16 GB of RAM and cannot be upgraded. If you are heavy into VI's then the current crop of M1 machines are probably not a viable option.

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

Thanks for the input folks.
All valid points.

So the interface(s) are an Apollo 8XP and an Apollo Twin MK2. I'd buy the 16GB model and no, I'm not into a lot of VIs - I'm mostly mixing.

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

The 'cheap' option here would be fixing my iMac's GPU and carry on for a few more months or however long it's going to take until the M1s are 100% compatible with PT and the majority of plugins.

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

I just bought a 12 core 2013 mac pro trashcan on ebay for $1700. Lowest I've seen them. I figure this will hold me over a couple years till everything is running on m1's. So far everything is running fine on Big Sur.

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Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

If you have a decent monitor, keyboard, and mouse, the 16 GB M1 Mac Mini might be a the least expensive way to go. The 16 GB M1 MacBook Air and 16GB M1 MacBook Pro are more expensive but have a laptop form factor (including keyboard, trackpad, and monitor). Again, make sure the plugins you use are compatible with Big Sur and the M1 processor. I haven't kept up with the Universal Audio Apollo and UAD plugins for compatibility recently.

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

Mouse and keyboard are not a problem :)

Re: Need to buy a new mac asap - should I risk an M1?
 

AFAIK Universal Audio drivers for M1 are not ready yet.

Best

Mark