New MacBook Pro Models and “Unified Memory”

[BillW]

I am likely to replace my 5-year old 15-inch intel MacBook Pro with one of the newly announced 16-inch versions with an M1 Pro or Max processor. Looking at them on the Apple Store today, I see that they have “unified memory” rather than separate CPU memory and graphics card memory. It looks like the first M1 models also had “unified memory.”

In using my intel-based Macs (the MacBook Pro and a 2019 iMac), it has seemed to me that speed for many photo programs has turned more on the graphics card and memory than on the basic CPU and memory. So I am wondering how the “unified memory” and processor will work.

I hope well. Certainly Apple should know what it is doing and I have heard that the M1 models are faster than previous models and now work well with photo software, including the Topaz AI products.

Any thoughts or experience?

 

[jeffnles1]

I have a 13” M1 with 16gb unified memory and it is blazingly fast. I just ordered a 16” with the M1pro and 16gb for my wife to replace her ailing 2 generation old 15”.
I use mine primarily as a desktop with an external 27” monitor. I have my photos library on an external USB-c SSD drive. Leslie doesn’t like the hassle of the external monitor and drive so I got a 1tb internal drive on the one I ordered for her.
The new ones should be even faster. I may trade my 13” in for a 14” but hard to justify now since the performance of the M1 is so darn fast.
The performance of it in processing photos and rendering video is really fast. I’m not a gamer so I can’t comment on that aspect. Recalculation on some fairly large spreadsheets is nearly instant.
I don’t think you will be disappointed.

 

[BillW]

I have a 13” M1 with 16gb unified memory and it is blazingly fast. I just ordered a 16” with the M1pro and 16gb for my wife to replace her ailing 2 generation old 15”.
I use mine primarily as a desktop with an external 27” monitor. I have my photos library on an external USB-c SSD drive. Leslie doesn’t like the hassle of the external monitor and drive so I got a 1tb internal drive on the one I ordered for her.
The new ones should be even faster. I may trade my 13” in for a 14” but hard to justify now since the performance of the M1 is so darn fast.
The performance of it in processing photos and rendering video is really fast. I’m not a gamer so I can’t comment on that aspect. Recalculation on some fairly large spreadsheets is nearly instant.
I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Thanks Jeff

 

[BillW]

As I look further at this, I see on the Apple store website that the new models (at least the 16 inch Pro and Max models I'm considering) have multi-core CPUs (10 core) and multi-core GPUs (16 or 32 core). They also add a multi-core neural processor (16 core). So there is still a separate GPU, its only the memory that is shared.

I normally max out memory on new computers, with the hope that they will last longer. So probably will go for a 16 inch, M1 Pro version with 64 GB of unified memory.

My 5-year old MacBook Pro is seeming a bit slow these days. Expect this will be a nice upgrade.

 

[wes]

As I look further at this, I see on the Apple store website that the new models (at least the 16 inch Pro and Max models I'm considering) have multi-core CPUs (10 core) and multi-core GPUs (16 or 32 core). They also add a multi-core neural processor (16 core). So there is still a separate GPU, its only the memory that is shared.

I normally max out memory on new computers, with the hope that they will last longer. So probably will go for a 16 inch, M1 Pro version with 64 GB of unified memory.

My 5-year old MacBook Pro is seeming a bit slow these days. Expect this will be a nice upgrade.

The GPU is not separate, the GPU cores are on the processor. I have the Mac mini with the M1 chip and editing on it is so fast and responsive, I cant imagine what these new systems will be like.