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#1
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Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Howdy!
Can you share some wisdom? I've suddenly learned I've got to work a little while traveling this spring and need to make a quick, informed decision about a new Macbook Pro. BUT, I'm out of the loop the last several years w/ Macs and PT and am hoping to get some guidance... (FYI, for a bit of context: my plan had been to wait until PT caught up with the M processors before upgrading. But since I gotta buy now, one variable to consider is: how much is this machine is gonna be more of a stopgap vs. an upgrade that I'll live with for several years?)... My Goals:
My Work Needs:
Benchmark Scores for a Few Points of Reference: 2012 12 core Mac Pro:
2015 Macbook Pro 6-core:
2018 Macbook Pro 6 core:
Obviously theres lots in between these particular models. What I'm Confused About:
Thx for your POV. Prolly TMI here, just trying to wrap my head around it all as quickly and thoroughly as a need to make a decision has come suddenly. I'm fishing for things "I don't know that I don't know", folks with experience in a similar boat and/or similar rigs, and anyone with insight on any of this. Thanks so much... |
#2
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
It all comes down to how long are you expecting to keep that machine. If you only need it a short time, why not try the M1 macbook even though it is limited to 16GB memory? If you plan to keep it for 3-5 years or even longer, forget M1 and buy the best Intel Mac you can afford. You said you are using VI's so perhaps 16GB is not enough and you need at least 32GB
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Janne What we do in life, echoes in eternity. |
#3
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
thx for the reply...
The m1 is a compelling idea. Looking around it seems like folks are having success at things being pretty functional. Would love to know if anyone reading has happened to have had success/failure specific to izotope plugs....and/or complex bussing/routing, offline multiple stem bounces. RE: the RAM issue, agreed more ram is better for VIs..that said I've heard this new RAM doesn't exactly compare to RAM for intels. Read somewhere its easily twice as powerful gig for gig...but idk how accurate that is. If anyone has experimented with VIs and an M machine, would love to know your impressions. |
#4
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
It really depends how the plugin has been optimised. For example piano VI's of Synthogy (Ivory) are very memory friendly and require a lot of storage performance, but some others load everything into memory and a gigabyte is a gigabyte whatever processor is using it.
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Janne What we do in life, echoes in eternity. |
#5
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
I agree with everything others have said here. I am optimistic about Apple Silicon and hope it becomes the performance beast it is hyped to be in future iterations. The current M1 as configured is still an entry level performer in entry level systems.
Given your immediate need and mentioned uses (VI's, Video, extensive Plugins, etc.), you will best be served with a high end Intel based Mac for now. An 8-core i9 16" MacBook Pro with 32GB or 64GB RAM will give you years of great performance and capacity for your needs. If portability is not a requirement, you might consider a used Mac Pro (trashcan) or iMac Pro (discontinued). These are still great performers for Protools and can run the current OS (Big Sur) still.
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Obsidian Dragon
MacbookPro14,3 - Intel Core i7 3.1 GHz, 16 GB MacOS 13.6.6 running Protools 2024.3.1 Mac Studio M1Max - 64GB MacOS 14.4.1 running Protools 2024.3.1 |
#6
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Thanks for the responses everyone. I opted for a 2019 MacBook Pro 2.3 i9 w/ 32 gigs of ram. A bit more than I was planning on spending, but it benchmarks about 15% better than my 2012 12 core, so hopefully it'll buy me a few extra years before thinking about m1 machines. Should be here in a couple days.
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#7
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Quote:
If you buy an Intel MBP 16", make sure to get the 5600M GPU, rather than the 5500 or 5300, especially if you intend to use an external screen. The problem is that, in MacOS, the 5300/5500 GPUs ramp to 20 watts consumption as soon (most) external screens are connected, and also for almost any/all video work, or for Chrome, or for any other excuse really. And that, along with the CPU being rather hot, makes the fans come on and stay on. The 5600M seems to exhibit the problem a lot less. There's a 4000-post thread on MacRumors about it. (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads...nitor.2211747/) I bought one and sent it back for this reason - and it also wouldn't power my 49" 32:9 screen at the maximum resolution. It's a pain as the MacMini has a bunch of other problems, so I've ended up with a Mac Pro, which was offensively expensive and completely not portable. I also bought (and returned) an M1 Air, which was impressively fast (and of course quiet) but had an even worse problem with large screen resolution (my 5120x1440 became 3008x846 !!). Running the latest Logic benchmark, I get 160 tracks on the 16-core Mac Pro 7.1 and 95 tracks on the M1 Air. Pretty awesome power, but lack of ports and Big Sur being a mess put me off (along with the screen problems). The 5600M wasn't available when I tried the MBP 16" - if it had been, I might have ended up with that machine. Good luck! Dominic |
#8
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Is there an ETA on native PT functionality on M1 macs? I'd like to avoid Rosetta on the forthcoming 16" MBP but may have to hold out for the M3
Looking to upgrade my 2011 MBP which runs loud n hot...
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2011 MBP / PT 12.7.1 OSX Yosemite 10.10.5 16GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 2.3 Ghz Intel Core i7 Noise Buffet Last edited by tonejunkee; 05-09-2021 at 04:29 PM. Reason: grammur |
#9
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Quote:
Will be a few days before I can test extra displays bc I've not figured out what kind of usb-c configuration to get. I wonder if certain usb-c adapters are a link in the chain to consider that would help/hurt this problem? BUT, I did run across this article a couple days ago. Says plugging power in on the right instead of the left mitigates a kernel/cpu spike/fan noise issue. I wonder if its essentially the same issue you're describing? Or if there's other workarounds that have surfaced should I get into trouble? I'll take a look at that macrumors thread and poke around some more to try and learn more, but if anyone has any more insight that might guide my next steps, I'd be grateful to hear about it. I'll also post back once I start to test my situation with monitors for anyone else that's interested... Ugh. I HATE upgrading. Its always something . |
#10
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Re: Seeking Macbook Pro Buy Advice From Geniuses :-), (plz)
Quote:
The long and the short of it is no, you can't "fix" the problem. Apple have crammed a high wattage CPU and GPU into a small chassis with inadequate cooling. But the 5600M is better behaved by far, partly because it's based on different memory technology - HBM2 instead of GDDR6. It uses less power and so it gets less hot. I've read all of the first 2000 posts in that MacRumors thread and checked back periodically across the remainder. There is no fix, but there are some things you can do to mitigate the problem under certain circumstances. 1) Buy the 5600M instead of the 5300 or 5500. I think we've covered that Sadly a 5500 with 8GB is probably the worst offender - more memory is more heat.... 2) Use the USB port on the right hand side for power (as per your linked article) 3) Choose an external monitor that doesn't provoke the problem - this is luck of the draw if you already have one, but if you have more than one, you might find that one is better than the other 4) Try clamshell or not-clamshell mode (i.e. lid open vs lid closed) - one may be worse than the other 5) Use SwitchResX to fiddle with the refresh rate - this makes a big difference for many users. Not just the big jumps (60/100/120 Hz) but some of the alternative frequencies (59.88 vs 60 Hz). 6) Use TurboBoost Switcher to stop the CPU turbo boosting. This is hobbling your CPU to reduce the total heat generated but it helps in some circumstances. Seems a shame to buy a shiny new CPU and then stop it from going flat out... Most people use iStat menus to check whether 'Radeon High Side' is drawing ~4 watts or ~19-20 watts. iStat Menus itself doesn't change anything, it's just a quick way of knowing whether your GPU is behaving well or badly at idle. There may be other tools that can tell you this but iStat is the most commonly used one. One thing to be sure of - don't wait around for Apple to fix this in an OS update. They haven't for well over a year, and they won't - they've wasted a huge amount of engineer time and money testing and replacing user machines and have never explicitly acknowledged the issue or intimated that they will change or fix anything. Some people have convinced Apple to replace their 5500 machine with a 5600 long after the return period. Most have not. Good luck, sorry that I didn't catch this before you made your order. As I said, I ended up with a Mac Pro for this very reason. Dominic Last edited by dominicperry; 05-10-2021 at 02:44 AM. |
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