Affinity v1.10.5+ on Mac M1 Chip Question

[Glennsart]

So I'm getting ever closer to upgrading my current iMac for a new 24" iMac M1 w/16 GB of RAM. I believe I read that Affinity programs (v1.10) are native now to the M1 chip (and M2?). Are there folks here who are running Affinity on the M1 Macs now, and if so, can I ask how stable it is and how the performance is please? I don't have to upgrade right away as Affinity is running beautifully on my current system, but as it won't take Ventura (which I realize could be a whole different matter) I feel it's time to upgrade.

Thanks very much for any info.

[jmwellborn]

@Glennsart  I have the 24” with M1 chip and Big Sur.  All three apps (v. 1.10.5) are as smooth as silk.  Incredibly fast, no crashes, no fuss.  Wonderful.  It is the best Mac I have had.  I won’t update to Monterey because I am not so sure about potential glitches.  Haven’t a clue about Ventura, but if you are seriously thinking about a new Mac, it could just possibly be an idea to buy now, before Ventura is installed, and see how it goes first with Monterey.

[Glennsart]

@jmwellborn That's great to hear! I'm running Monterey on my current Intel iMac and Photo and Designer work great under it. I will say, very occasionally when I'm testing brushes, I will see a little graphics corruption (have to look to see it) but I've never seen it on a working painting which is very much larger in size. Either way, that sounds like good advice re getting the machine now before Ventura comes out just in case. My guess is when v2.0 is released, it will be tested with Ventura, but I guess that depends on when it's released. 

Can I ask how much RAM you have on your machine? I'm planning on going with the 16 GB, but I really wish Apple would allow for more.

Thanks very much for this. Really appreciate your time.

[v_kyr]

25 minutes ago, Glennsart said:

Can I ask how much RAM you have on your machine? I'm planning on going with the 16 GB, but I really wish Apple would allow for more.

See @jmwellborn signature, which already tells you ...

Quote

24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Big Sur v. 11.6.8.

... and yes, as a rule of thumb (and due to Murphys laws), the more RAM the better! - So in order for having enough in reserve, for possible multiple concurrent running heavy app tasks, possible very huge doc contents handling and last but not least, also for all in future coming software higher demand RAM usage aspects!

[Glennsart]

@v_kyr - Of course, I should have seen that right off . Thanks for pointing that out. Agreed on the idea of getting as much RAM as possible. I have 32 (max allowed) in my current iMac and hate the thought of going down to 16, but I understand the Silicon machines are much more efficient with the RAM, especially since it's unified.

Appreciate you taking the time to respond . 

[jmwellborn]

@Glennsart  I purchased the 24" iMac with the M1 chip right after it came out.  I was told by the Apple techs that 16 GB RAM would probably handle anything I could toss at it because of the M1 chip and it has.  I also went for the extra storage.  I have never needed 2 TB, so I opted for 1 TB.  I can have all three Affinity apps open — flipping back and forth between them — plus Safari, plus Photos, plus Mail, plus Finder, plus who knows what else and everything is smo'o'o'o'o'oth.  I don't do gaming or any of the other things that might slow me down.  By the way, I chose Silver.  Very easy on the eyes!☺️   

[Glennsart]

@jmwellborn Many thanks for this. That sounds very much like the scenarios I'd be using the new machine under, so I'm very encouraged by that. I *may* opt for the 2TB storage as I'm a former photographer and my current disk usage is about 1.2 TB. However, I may opt to buy a dock and get an external drive instead and simply go with the 1 TB drive. If I don't load in the photograph library, I can save about 100 GB or so. Anyway, I'll think on that a bit.

This really helps, so once again thanks a bunch .