Pro Photo Buyers Guide to Apple Silicon, which one to get M2 PRO, M2 MAX, M1 PRO, M1 MAX, M1 ULTRA?

[@clintmallon]

Best tech reviewer on KZbin! I can sit for 20-30min and watch one video to find answers to all my questions. Thank you!!

[@ArtIsRight]

Wow, thanks!

[@clintmallon]

@@ArtIsRightYou deserve it man! Btw, I need your help. If you had $2,300 to get: 1. 16” M1 MAX (10/32, 32GB, 1TB) 2. 16” M3 Pro (12/18, 18GB, 512) Which one would you pick right now for that price?

[@clintmallon]

@@ArtIsRightcan you please help me? I just received the M1 MAX today and I’m not sure if I should have picked the M3 Pro instead. I will probably keep it for 2-3 years at the most and I mostly use the browser, Affinity, and CapCut for my KZbin channel. Which is the better machine in your experience? Thank you!

[@cpr4696]

Thanks a lot for this video Art. It was very helpful when buying my need MacBook and deciding on which specs allocate more money..

[@ArtIsRight]

You're welcome!

[@stefancondik]

thank you so much :)

[@ArtIsRight]

You're welcome!

[@andersblomster]

Amazeballs! By far the best channel for this kind of stuff in general, and this video in particular was super useful!

[@ArtIsRight]

Great to hear!

[@kjellrang7622]

Takk!

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you!

[@kevinhawkins82]

You have the BEST videos for photographers!

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you!

[@kevinhawkins82]

@@ArtIsRight I have a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 16gig Ram. When I run lightroom Classic, I run out of ram when editing a Project with 50 or so RAW images from a Nikon Z6. I did not see this much ram use with my MacMini M1 with 8 gig of ram. Is it possible that there is a memory issue with the M2 and Lightroom Classic? I have not seen anything on this on the web. I always shut down all active programs when I run Lightroom Classic. I have the latest MacOs and Lightroom Classic installed. Maybe I should stop watching available ram and just let it use the swap. I don't see any beach balls or slowness. What do you think?

[@ArtIsRight]

There might be a RAM leak issue with LRC. That is hard to track down and Adobe has not really acknowledged any thing of the sort. However, this has happened before about a year ago with Monterey as well. I think that on your 8GB machine, it was swapping as well. I know that LRC and OS uses more than 8GB regardless of the number of the images load in. LRC is a program that uses up and never give back momentary to start with. So I would say, as long as your computer does not lock up or significantly slow down then just don't worry about the SWAP. It will happen regardless on 16 GB machine. Also this is largely dependent on what your are doing with your files as well. Localized editing, brushes, etc uses significant more memory compared to just the sliders.

[@pahountisg]

great work thank you!

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you

[@chokenygren5426]

Hi - a very interesting and well done video. Thanks for sharing your ideas and conclusions. I have a question. I will replace my iMac 2019 27´ with the Mac Studio ultra and will go for your suggestions wit 1 Tb and use Nas and external SSD But for the memory - I have the GFX100S and the GFX50 so my files are a little bit bigger than your Nikons :-) what would you suggest - would it be a good choice for me to go for 128 GB? I am a landscape photographer, do some focus stacking and panorama. Using Lightroom Classic and Photoshop - my afterwork are most done in Photoshop. Thanks Best regards Choke

[@ArtIsRight]

It is not so much the file size itself but how they aggregate when doing stacking and panorama. So yes if you have the budget go 128 GB. For me, I am living 99% memory usage all of the time on my 64GB one.

[@chokenygren5426]

@@ArtIsRight Thanks. It will be Apple M1 Ultra and the 48-core and probably use 128GB thanks

[@joraphpictures]

Thanks for the information

[@ArtIsRight]

You're welcome

[@Flamamacue]

This is a great breakdown. I checked out of caring about tech stuff just before Apple silicon was released so Apple's current lineup wasn't making much sense at all. Seems like most reviewers of the Macbook lineup just want some clickbait title about "can the base Air do everything?!" and don't really compare the lineup effectively. This is easily the best channel on YT for such comparisons. As a pro photog/videographer I wasn't getting very good info on what chips are good at which tasks but decided Apples chips finally enabled a laptop workflow that made sense as a complement to my 5900X/2080 desktop for light editing tasks and tethering. Thanks to your breakdowns I picked up a refurb M1 Pro 14" (for 1/3rd less than a new 14" M2 Pro and it's amazing)- very glad as without your comparisons it may have been a 13" M2 model which wouldn't have suited as much

[@ArtIsRight]

Awesome, Yes M2 would suck for the work that you do. Lots of waiting.

[@jaimeduncan6167]

Not really buying Macs, I used the old guide to select the machine from the M1 generation. Even so thanks, excellent points.

[@ArtIsRight]

😀

[@Hawtload]

I went from an M1 Pro 16GB MBP to a M1 Studio Ultra 64GB. The weird thing is that sometimes I can export 50 photos from LR in 20 seconds, and other times it can take nearly 2 minutes. On a whole it's definitely better, but not nearly as much as I was expecting. Seems like single core performance (speed) is really the backbone of my workflow.

[@UlricWolf]

Because RAM for macs are overrated now. It uses swap beautifully as an "extension" for RAM. Your backbone probably is not single core, just M1 Pro already is really fast. Looks like Art is just reading marketing specs here, but real life is not that harsh. That difference between M1 pro, Ultra and M2 is not that noticeable in real life. M1 is very fast chip itself!

[@ArtIsRight]

Depending on the workflow and the tasks, Also export task time can varies based on the adjustments made to the file, export parameter and etc. Not all 50 photos are equal. Some takes more work, some less, it all depends. And based on my experience, Ultra compared to Max & Pro is a stark contrast, especially when it comes to preview and export time for images. I've showed this time and time again on many of my benchmark videos.

[@gonzaloviramonte]

Dear: I really appreciate your work. What would you think between a m2 max 38 core gpu macbook using a studio screen, or an m1 ultra 48 core gpu at a good price? thank you so much

[@ArtIsRight]

I would choose Ultra any day over any MAX

[@Saebaryo28]

Thank you for the great video as always! For a photographer that doesn't use camera to pay the bills, so as an hobby, but heavily uses Lightroom to edit its own photos, would you still recommend a Pro or would a M2 would be enough?

[@ArtIsRight]

I would still say go for the Pro. Reason why is because price ∆ is rather small compared to the gained in performance.

[@Saebaryo28]

@@ArtIsRight Thank you so much!

[@kimvh1457]

Art, always enjoy your in depth videos! I’m using a 100MP medium format camera. Have you ever compared the M1 Ultra with a windows pc (13900k, RTX 4090) for photography and video??

[@ArtIsRight]

I haven't done that yet. I'll have to see if I can get a machine like that in somehow. In general, I try to avoid that like some has done already because at large we are not just talking about power but a larger platform / ecosystem. To see which one has more power does make sense, however, only some will switch over what they are used to entirely for variables, x, y, z etc. And that is a big switch for many. I'll see if I can get one in.

[@kimvh1457]

@@ArtIsRight fair enough, I agree. I love the Apple platform but always kept a Highend PC (overkill) on the side for work. While I prefer Mac due to their ecosystem, my OCD side just hates all the external drive/dongles I have to use with my MacBook Pro. Having one (large) box with everything inside is so much more satisfying :)

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you!

[@justadropable]

Thanks for your in depth benchmarks. I'm about to buy new macbook for video editing (mainly for KZbin 1080p/4K with bunch of cuts), SSDs controversy aside, do you still recommend base M1 Pro 16" for $2K or should I go for base 16" M2 for $2.5k? I have external SSDs!

[@ArtIsRight]

There's not that much improvement in the M2 vs M1 for video editing. I would say save the Money and stick with M1

[@justadropable]

@@ArtIsRight Thank you very much! Yeah I'm saving $500!

[@ArtIsRight]

Nice!

[@justadropable]

@@ArtIsRight Thank you very much!

[@ArtIsRight]

😀

[@stefancondik]

How about thermo throttling of 14 inch versions, making them slower than 16 inch version with the same specs? You did great job on testing and explaining very popular "SSD speed" topic and I would be very happy if you could provide your opinion on the throttling topic too.

[@UlricWolf]

Throttling problem starts with maxed out (and near to it) M1/M2 Max laptops, because 14" is hard to cool them (smaller fans and body). But in Pro models, there is no throttling, especially on M1 Pro. SSD speed problem is not existant on M1. It is a problem just on base size M2 models (512Gb).

[@ArtIsRight]

You'll get some throttling but not much really. I would look at this test kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3nTY4SDh6itoqc you'll see there are some variation but for the most part, most task that you will do will not sustain the usage long enough to throttle, and even if it does, it is not much. Personally I would just get the size that you need. Throttling is by design.

[@stefancondik]

@@ArtIsRight thank you so much. I like how you are putting things into real world perspective and crushing those "myths" that serve great as a clickbait, but are not that important during real tasks. I am not worried when it comes to work with photos - yes, I am creating panoramas (with PTGUI), I am creating composites from panoramas, but I am still not in range of those crazy 56GB files. Probably more in the range of 10-15GB when it comes to my "extremes". And most of the time, I am fine to wait a bit longer for the pano to stitch or when some NIK plugin is being applied, I just want super smooth feeling when editing and working with sliders. Still, as I said, I am not worried when it comes to photos at all. Where I am a bit unsure is working with video. I am creating timelapse videos (with LR Timelapse, After effects and Davinci) and scrubbing throught timeline in After effects and performing some edits can be extremely stuttery if the machine is not powerful enough. My files that I am working with are always 6-8K PRO RES 4444 and can be anywhere from 1 GB to ...way more, like 50 - 100 GB files. Still, I do not need fastest export, I need smooth timeline scrubbing and responsiveness without dropping frames and stutters :)

[@ArtIsRight]

Depending on the machine specs that you have, you should be ok. Interestingly enough, Video is where Apple Shines with the various encoder / decoder engine and a dedicated PRO RES engine. You should be fine provided that you configured the system with enough RAM. If you can DM me, I like to chat further about the Timelapse that you are doing. You can find me on fb page or insta, if you so inclined.

[@stefancondik]

@@ArtIsRight thank you so much again, I appreciate it a lot :) I will gladly follow the discussion :)

[@rachelg7371]

Hi Art, It’s been a decade or more since I had a laptop but need one now for photography travel. I’m looking at the 14” M2 Pro with 32gb RAM and 1TB SSD. The apple rep is suggesting I also upgrade to the next level CPU/GPU cores based on my workflow. Do you think it is worth adding this upgrade to the M2 Pro? My current desktop is a 2017, 27” iMAC with 64 GB Ram and all else upgraded to the max at the time, but this is all Intel stuff. My original SSD had failed so I only now have 512 storage, which isn’t enough but I use external drives for backing up images. Until I can afford to upgrade my desktop, the M2 Pro will sort of be the main machine, but definitely will be using it for when attending photo workshops/travel so that I can do some editing on the road, get images critiqued, etc. Presently I shoot mainly stills but very large Raw files and lots of them. Hope to learn more about video. Programs I plan to use on this machine: Lr, Ps, Nikon NX Studio, Topaz Labs, Nik, Portraiture. Hope this is enough info for you base a recommendation on. If not let me know. Thank you.

[@UlricWolf]

You totally dont need to upgrade to more GPU cores to work on it smoothly. To be honest, You even dont need 32Gb RAM, because Macs are working beautifully with swap memory. You will see huge difference with Your oldish iMac. In video he seems like just mostly reading specs... For Myself I use M1 Pro 14", and it runs beautifully with LR and PS. I am doing videos as well and 4k H.265 in Premiere runs smooth.

[@ArtIsRight]

Personally, if you are doing inline upgrade on the Pro SoC, it is a costly upgrade with very little performance gained per $ spend. I would look at this kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaCZmpiHl5Wrbbc You are not going to get that much more from 2 extra CPU and 3 Extra GPU. Personally I would recommend spending the money to upgrade RAM and SSD which you already have. You'll see in the video that the variation is really small for the extra $300 spend. I would say it is not worth it. Hope this help!

[@rachelg7371]

Thank you Art, yes it helps a lot!

[@FabianFree]

Art is right 😮😊

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you!

[@FabianFree]

@@ArtIsRight 💯 true

[@ishikawaryo]

If you’re outside the US in a country where apple increased the price with the M2 Pro/Max, a refurb M1 Pro/Max is now amazing value

[@ArtIsRight]

Totally agree!

[@longlivechina7538]

Your my hero

[@ArtIsRight]

😀

[@watrobkasmaczna1]

I stick to M1 because BigSur works :P

[@ArtIsRight]

👍🏼