Do I need more unified memory or more cores?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by BScout

The 512GB are reportedly 2 x 256GB. This was reported in some tear down.

The 2x may or may not give max performance, say vs. systems that have 4x or more chips. I'd just want to see a good SSD benchmark and I expect they are out there if folks look around. Tim Apple just wants us to buy 8TB laptops.

[Becharax]

Concerning the new M2 Max Macbook Pros .... Better to go for 1 TB or 2 TB ? in terms of Hard Drive Speed

[JFreak]

2TB

[dominicperry]

Early tests on the 1TB SSD on the M2 give a transfer rate of nearly 6000MB/s. Absolutely mentally fast.
So, buy the 2TB if you need the space, but I really don't think you'll need more speed. And I'm not sure there is much difference anyway - I can't find any references to 2TB being faster.

So, the very small drive sizes might be slower, but I'm not convinced there's much between the 1TB and the 2TB.

Evidence, not one word answers. That's what you need.

There's some information here about small vs 1TB, but nothing direct about 1TB vs 2TB.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/macbo...-slower-speeds
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/24...ro-ssd-speeds/

Dominic

[JFreak]

Agreed, 6GBps is insane. But then again, I remember saying the same words about 10MBps very long time ago.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by Becharax

Concerning the new M2 Max Macbook Pros .... Better to go for 1 TB or 2 TB ? in terms of Hard Drive Speed

Everything I’ve read says only the base models are affected by the speed drop, so I don’t think you’ll see any speed difference between 1TB or 2TB.

On RAM, I don’t think it’s quite as cut and dried as some of the replies here. I run a lot of heavy sessions (tons of VIs and a few sample libraries) entirely within Cubase and they rarely go above 20TB. If it’s a big orchestral thing I fire up the VE Pro template, but I run that disabled and only enable the instruments I’m using. That never hits 30TB, usually way below. (This method requires a lot of time to initially set up, but it has more than paid off over the years).

On top of that, the M series seem to be very efficient at using the blazing fast SSDs for virtual RAM. While you’ll run into trouble eventually, many users are reporting how well that works in practice. That RAM limit isn’t quite the brick wall it was, seemingly.

I know for my own work - tons of VIs and sample libraries, using a disabled VE Pro template - 32GB would be plenty. For a mobile rig that would be for simpler projects, I reckon even 16GB would go a long way. Of course if you can afford it the more the better, and you can’t increase it, but imo a lot of the advice in this thread is best practice from many years ago. With care and planning the need to max out RAM is not as pressing today as it was.

(T&Cs apply, YMMV etc)

EDIT - forgot one other important factor in the reduction of RAM use these days. With the blazing-fast SSDs, you can reduce the preload buffers of the sample players to something very low or zero, streaming everything straight from disk. In Kontakt or Opus you can use background loading, which just loads the notes and velocities you play on the fly. This has has HUGE impact on RAM use. Remember those libraries still need some RAM for scripts, GUIs etc, but your RAM goes a lot further these days.

[JFreak]

^^this.

I have been laughed at when I have presented this thoght about 16 gigs of Apple system-on-chip memory equalling 32 gigs of Intel conventional memory. So keep laughing, but smaller Apple memory is just as good as bigger Intel memory.

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by JFreak

^^this.

I have been laughed at when I have presented this thoght about 16 gigs of Apple system-on-chip memory equalling 32 gigs of Intel conventional memory. So keep laughing, but smaller Apple memory is just as good as bigger Intel memory.

I think some just disagreed with you. I saw a video last week with a M1 to M2 comparison and also a 16 GB to 32 GB comparison. Although one had 32 GB the OS didn't use it during tests and swapped with the disk instead.

So you may be onto something.

C

[audiolex1]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

Early tests on the 1TB SSD on the M2 give a transfer rate of nearly 6000MB/s. Absolutely mentally fast.
So, buy the 2TB if you need the space, but I really don't think you'll need more speed. And I'm not sure there is much difference anyway - I can't find any references to 2TB being faster.

So, the very small drive sizes might be slower, but I'm not convinced there's much between the 1TB and the 2TB.

Evidence, not one word answers. That's what you need.

There's some information here about small vs 1TB, but nothing direct about 1TB vs 2TB.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/macbo...-slower-speeds
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/24...ro-ssd-speeds/

Dominic

I don't think there is 1TB and above. My M1 MBP 14" gets 5500 read and write with 1TB

[BScout]

Originally Posted by audiolex1

I don't think there is 1TB and above. My M1 MBP 14" gets 5500 read and write with 1TB

My M2 Pro Mac Mini 4TB gets 7000 read/write.