Thinking of Switching to a Mac

Kosmology · 2023-02-16T17:58:21.822Z

I have a base model Mac mini I’ve had for about a year & it’s great, if it does have a slower ssd it’s still insanely fast. But last week I bought a 2017 15” 2.8 for programming whilst away next month, and I’m pretty blown away by it tbh. It doesn’t have the CPU power of the mini, but after installing windows on an external SSD it’s a surprisingly capable gaming machine. I’ve limited the CPU in the power plan to stop the fan kicking in, & once that’s done it’s nice & quiet. The onboard Radeon is impressive.

I run parallels ARM Windows on the M1 to compile for windows & whilst it’s amazing being able to compile from the same folder in the same session for MAC & PC, windows is slow. Having the Intel gives me the option to work in full speed windows. I was planning on getting a M1 air but this is actually a better solution for me, they both offer different things & getting another M processor at this point wouldn’t add much beyond portability.

The one I’ve bought does have the stage light thing going on so I guess at some point the screen will die, but I got it cheap because of that.

mleaf · 2023-02-16T21:01:12.907Z

Yeah, it’s still plenty powerful. And it’s a better portable canvas at 15”. Generally this MBP needs to live in Low Power / Turbo Boost Off mode, as anything from Adobe to Ableton does make it pretty toasty. I’m getting replace battery warnings (read: come give us your money) - but am genuinely wondering if a replacement would see it run a bit better.

Still, it’s the best of both worlds - Air for portability and lightness, and a crazy amount of power. Now at my desk while docked its completely silent, whereas the MBP in that mode pretty much rolls its fan the whole time. And the MBP for a powerful portable canvas when I need it.

I did some After Effects render tests - the MBP did it in about 20 minutes the Air in about 10. After a few renders the Air does get crazy hot and the only way to cool it down is to leave it alone. Whereas the MBP can manage itself quite easily.

This new rumoured 15" I think will be the replacement for me, but it’s funny, even though it will have crazy performance something tells me it will be more crippled than the one I have now - ie less thunderbolt ports, less display outputs. So yeah this 15" does have its use. If my Air is plugged up on both thunderbolt ports I just grab the MBP with an SD card dongle, use Air drop etc. It’s a nice mix for now.

But yes very interested to see what that new 15" offers. If it’s got MagSafe, two thunderbolts, and an SD card reader, that would be very handy. M2 Pro inside with dedicated thunderbolt controllers? That would do the job I reckon.

Xpm · 2023-02-17T14:46:05.850Z

I’ve just switched over to a mini, 16gb ram, 512gb drive. I’m just wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for external drives and connectivity expansion (usb hubs or what have you)? I’m in the UK.

Also, anyone got any good tips for a small (10-12" or so) secondary screen with camera for zoom calls etc? I currently have a Facebook portal that I use for this, but it would be better to do it all on one machine. I know I can extend my desktop to an iPad with sidecar, but that doesn’t give me access to the camera.

submoogian · 2023-02-17T19:50:06.465Z

Just thought I’d mention the battery on my 2015 MBP at 650 cycles was getting the yellow triangle warning, for about 6 month’s. I re-calibrated which fixed it one time. Finally, the battery expanded like a pillow one night and bent the chassis…now it won’t turn on. ifixit kit on the way, hoping it works. Watch out!

1st post. super forum y’all got!

Robobot · 2023-08-18T20:50:37.918Z

I am thinking about buying this Mac for using bitwig and internet day-to-day life, home use only:

Apple MacBook Air 13" MLY33HB/A M2 8C CPU 8C GPU, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Midnight, EU Layout - Mid 2022.

My main use is to have fun with Bitwig’s note fx/note grid, and sequencing 30 midi channels (2 drum machines and 5 synths), each with a midi chain fx (containing latch+note transpose+note repeat/arp+echo/note delay, and I extensively use modulations per midi channel.

Audio recording-wise, I am not planning to record more than 16 tracks simultaneously. no album production

I am not planning to mix ITB or using vst’s or sample libraries.
I will use the bitwig sampler though (not heavy on multi-samples).

Should I consider upgrading to 16g memory or 512g storage (i have 2t on Google one so i can upload files i don’t use) ?

I like the price without upgrading, and I’m tight on the budget.

I use rme digiface usb and motu midi xt usb.
I might use an external 27" very simple monitor from time to time.

donato · 2023-08-18T21:32:35.994Z

Definitely encourage anyone to switch. Especially for audio. I still keep PC stuff around for gaming and some tricky OS update hardware stuff.

nfim · 2023-08-18T22:26:33.787Z

I picked up a Satechi hub, the one that sits under the mini like a dock, and it killed my wifi speed. Still looking for other options.

Re drives, if you want full speed (5GB/s) there’s an orico NVMe enclosure that does it, but it’s not cheap. Otherwise any old SSD will do fine.

Kammo · 2023-08-18T23:18:09.370Z

donato:

Especially for audio.

That was the main reason I switched from PC to Mac. Sometimes I miss a PC for certain things, but never for audio.

mleaf · 2023-08-19T00:55:14.286Z

I recently picked up an M2 Max Mac Studio, thinking it would be powerful enough to explore some 3D stuff, but I was kinda wrong. Wishful thinking maybe, but later looking at Blender opendata, I realised how far down the chain the M2 Max sits in terms of GPU performance, a 4060 is like 3 times as fast. Even the top M2 Ultra is like, only equivalent to a 4060 and for that, on the Mac side you are paying some serious top dollar.

So I returned the Mac Studio, and now building a PC with a 4070ti, which is exciting. I haven’t done a build in a long time, but parts are starting to trickle in. Cost will wind up about 1/4 less what I paid for the Mac Studio.

I still have my M2 Air which is basically fantastic for everything else, while the PC can cover 3D and gaming. I guess that’s always been the case but I’ve just never taken the plunge. Crossing my fingers the build goes well…

Blender - Open Data

Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests - provided by the public.

Robobot · 2023-08-19T01:28:07.919Z

mleaf:

I still have my M2 Air

Did you upgrade the storage or ram?

mleaf · 2023-08-19T02:05:16.757Z

yeah 16/512. it flies

fish233 · 2023-08-19T06:51:50.008Z

interesting, i thought the mac studio would fly for 3D/graphics. i don’t get why they make the mac pro not competitive with top of the line Nvidia cards, since you pay big bucks for that + to me it feels they are targetting video/post/3D audience with that machine (i’ve only been toying with shaders for fun on my m2 pro mbp and they run smooth if translated to metal)

mleaf · 2023-08-19T07:29:37.495Z

I think yeah, Pshop, FCP, after effects, all that content creator jazz, sure, it runs fine. And 3D yeah you can do it, but yeah in heavier scenes and viewport render is where it starts to chug. At least that was my experience, maybe the 38 core would have helped?

But yeah, for non linear editing and compositing the current line smashes it, particularly pro res output, but I think the next line will start to see some serious gains - with their AR thing on the horizon they’re going to need to put some cash behind that or what are devs going to make their work on… Windows?

Even still, by the time that drops the 5000 series will be here. But I do think Apple want to start being a competitive platform for gaming. M3 will show signs… ie M3 Max will be where the M2 Ultra currently is. So Apple Silicon is gaining pace. But for the minute you still just get more bang for the buck by going a dGPU.

And I think for me in the end - all of that Adobe stuff and video editing software - it all runs fine on my MacBook Air - like totally fine. So I didn’t see the point of the Mac Studio in my case. Too little gain for too much dosh.

Jazzmess · 2023-08-19T07:42:25.876Z

I have been doing this journey backwards. I don’t find Ableton on my Mac mini pro M2 to handle well heavy workloads. I really love the Slate and Ash libraries, but it puts me off when the load is allocated to the efficiency cores, while the performance are just idle. For the usual loads, it does the load spreading across the cores quite well. But still with all those great M4L devices, I don’t feel like dropping Ableton, so I’ll be building a 7950x desktop.
Still I feel the Macbook air M1 is an incredible all rounder, nearly 3 years after it’s launch. Gonna keep that one !

fish233 · 2023-08-19T08:25:11.932Z

Did you run at 128 buffer size? I read somewhere using higher buffer sizes Live switches to efficiency cores more often. TBH i ran the ableton 11 demo and was a bit disappointed with CPU performance in general but i’m so used to Reaper its awesome efficiency.

Soarer · 2023-08-19T08:33:12.930Z

I bought a MacBook Pro M2 when it came out and I am very happy with it. It runs my Resolume projects without any problems and they are quite heavy with generators and effects (the fan is rarely running). I’m surprised to hear that a maxed out Studio M2 cannot run some 3D stuff. Could there have been some problems with it?

Jazzmess · 2023-08-19T08:40:22.608Z

Yes, I tried of course, that the only way to force the allocation to the perf cores, you don’t have process lasso on macs. That’s to do with the way Ableton handles buffering so that’s to be expected. Still pretty impressive what a 25w tdp can do !

mleaf · 2023-08-19T08:58:55.620Z

Well yes Resolume is not 3D work exactly. I’m not saying there were problems explicitly with the Studio, but that, I could feel the ceiling of performance in certain apps (Blender, Unreal Engine, for example). And some native game titles to Mac OS gave a mediocre experience also.

But yeah I’ve run Processing and VDMX and apps like that even on an Air and it flies, as would Resolume, it’s the specific use case of runtime 3D apps where the horsepower became obvious to me.

Soarer · 2023-08-19T09:03:19.435Z

I see. That’s too bad for such an expensive machine.

mleaf · 2023-08-19T09:06:03.695Z

I think it’s pretty clear tho, the consensus at the moment is that that is absolutely the case, but I sort of jumped in all wishful thinking like, and you’re right and as I said you can certainly get on making some stuff. If you have a certain workflow that matches the Studio/M2 Max you’re good. But for certain apps it’s another generation or two off. Which is cool, Apple absolutely smashed it for most tasks. I bet their sights are absolutely on 3D for the next couple iterations