PT on MacBook Air M1 processor 16Gb RAM

[marcnyc]

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if one of the newer MacBook Air M1 with 16Gb of RAM are enough to run PT and do some basic recording (2-10 audio tracks).
I am aware that PT is not yet stable/officially supported on M1's but I was curious weather the CPU/RAM is enough for that kind of recording/playback on PT in general.
Thanks

[Ben Jenssen]

Oh it's stable alright!
My experience w/M1 is limited to a couple of weeks with a M1 Mac Mini, but that thing is fantastic!
A very few 3rd party plugins won't run, else it's solid.
A few tracks of audio, you could even do fine with 8gb ram.

[marcnyc]

I tried this on an old 2016 MacBook Air with 8Gb of RAM and couldn't even record 1 track over a stereo playback hence my question.
Is the Man Mini M1 more powerful than the MacBook Air M1? The latter's performance is what I am really interested in

[Ben Jenssen]

Same power.
Tiny difference in gpu processor, but they are basically the same power.
Believe me, you can run dusins of tracks with plugins in PT on that MB Air.

[marcnyc]

Thank you for confirming Ben

[Emi]

Definitely. I tested my Mac mini m1 recording 48 tracks at 32 samples buffer size with no issue. I even put plug-ins on. It's a hack of a powerful little thing. And also whisper quiet.

I also did a power test and could insert 1280 instances of waves ssl e-channels. Just in case I would need it 😂

[EdgarRothermich]

It looks like that whole concept of how we look at RAM is now different from the Apple Silicon.
Pre AppleSilicon you need as much RAM as possible to avoid the Page Out to the Swap Drive. Now it seems that Apple managed to change the game of the Swap Drive that it uses super-fast memory on the motherboard that the amount of installed RAM becomes less of an issue.

Would be interesting if some websites could look into that and do some stress tests with 8GM and 16GB RAM M1 machines to get a new ballpark figure.
Or anybody has some more info about that?

Many people are waiting for newer AppleSilicon Macs with more RAMs. Maybe that isn't even necessary.

[JFreak]

Less of an issue, yes. But it will not work for you when you need to fit a 50GB sample library into 16GB memory. Swapping will happen.

[BCnSTL]

I have a M1 MBA - 16GB RAM - coming from a 2019 16" MBP i9, 32GB of RAM - the M1 performs *far* better on every session than the i9 MBP. RAM is not an issue for my sessions but the M1 MBA is simply fantastic ime.

[Rich Breen]

Originally Posted by marcnyc

I tried this on an old 2016 MacBook Air with 8Gb of RAM and couldn't even record 1 track over a stereo playback hence my question...

Then something else is wrong - I take my humble little 2013 MBAir/8GB out every few months when I need to record remotely; just did a few hours of 32-track recording over a Dante network, and it's not unusual for me to do 16 tracks at 96k with plugs with that machine on a remote - never had a hiccup.