Mac choice questions for the Affinity-using brain trust

[nickbatz]

Much as I really like my early 2014 11" MacBook Air, I'm ready for a new laptop that's usable for more than basic computer activities.

So I'd appreciate some feedback about whether it's worth spending an additional 30% for a MacBook Pro than for an Air.

This machine won't be my main one, just a backup and portable machine. I have a Mac Studio for the heavy-duty music and art I do.

But I'd like the laptop to have enough of everything so I can work on it in a pinch if something happens to my main one. And who knows, I might use it for working away from my studio/office if I have it.

Now, my pictures often use well over 100 layers in Affinity Photo, and I might have 25 iPhone images loaded so I can "paint" with fragments of them in different ways. I do use most of the RAM in my 64GB Mac Studio.

But it's not worth spending $5000 to duplicate my 64GB desktop machine. A "basic" MacBook Pro with 32GB (less than half the cost of a full spec one) is a few hundred more than a 24GB MacBook Air.

Is it worth it?

TIA

 

[nickbatz]

Well, I guess the answer is that no one knows...

[RM f/g]

I think only you can answer this question.

[nickbatz]

Well, the question is whether an entry-level MacBook Pro (with more RAM and storage) will be usable for what I do. Someone who has one would probably have more insight.

What I want to avoid is getting a machine that's neither fish nor foul. If I only wanted to use the machine for the general computer things I use my current laptop for, the $700 MacBook Air would be fine.

[loukash]

Last year I decided that paying ~30% more for a correspondingly equipped MBP 14" wasn't worth it and bought a 15" MBA M2 instead, with 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD.
Strictly "technically", the only "extra" I had to buy was a USB hub that has a HDMI port because an MBA doesn't have one.
On the other hand, I truly enjoy the "extra inch" display estate.

That said, I don't do heavy image editing in APh.
(But I do a lot of audio editing with iZotope RX Advanced and multitrack mixing with Logic Pro. The MBA does what I need just fine.)

[kaffeeundsalz]

Coincidentally, I was faced with a similar decision: buy a 14 Inch MacBook Pro M4 or a 15 Inch MacBook Air M3, well knowing that waiting for the Air to get upgraded to the M4 was unfortunately not an option. But even with that being the case, I opted for the Air. After a few weeks with it (24 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD), all I can say is that the machine seems to be pretty bored with what I throw at it, including Affinity Photo files with 100+ layers. That's why I find it a bit surprising that you say you need the 64 Gigs in your Mac Studio, but I might underestimate the resolutions you're dealing with, and it probably depends on layer types and structure as well. Also note that memory management is not the same as it used to be twenty years ago. Modern operating systems try hard not to leave RAM unused, so you can't really tell how much is actually needed just by looking at memory usage. The memory pressure graph in macOS Activity Monitor is a better indicator here, but you may already know this.

To give you a bit of additional background: What I found so irresistable about the MBA is its fanless design. I do a lot of audio stuff, and having not even the slightest risk of ruining my voice recordings with fan noise (because there is no fan) was just too intriguing – even though you read a lot of reviews online telling you that noise is not really an issue with Apple Silicon laptops. Moreover, just like @loukash, I really enjoy the larger screen size compared to the 14 Inch MBP, especially for image editing on the go.

All things considered, I think I've found the perfect computer for my requirements – which, to be honest, have not grown to the same extent as the available computing power in modern Macs. As always, ymmv.

[George-Frazee]

It's difficult to be able to say what will be adequate for your needs since we aren't doing what you're doing day-to-day.

That said, I have the original M1 MBP with 16GB RAM and I have 0 issues running AD on it (I don't have the rest of the suite currently). I'm currently working with a (to me) very large file with tons of artboards and compound shapes etc, and there's no noticeable computing issues. Though I'm sure that if I compared performance on to a brand new M4 with tons of RAM I would notice the difference.

[MikeTO]

I bought an M4 Pro but if I used a Studio all day and I needed a MacBook for travel then I would buy an Air. The Air doesn't have the M4 yet which is a significant upgrade but at least it has increased base memory now.

Compared to my M1 Pro, I'm finding my M4 Pro to be 30 to 50% faster for most Affinity tasks that are long enough to measure.

You'll find some data in the Affinity benchmarks thread but we're missing a lot of models for the 2.5 era benchmarks. Please share your own benchmarks even for older computers - it helps others planning their upgrades. The instructions are in the first post of the thread.

Cheers

 

[nickbatz]

8 hours ago, loukash said:

Last year I decided that paying ~30% more for a correspondingly equipped MBP 14" wasn't worth it and bought a 15" MBA M2 instead, with 24GB RAM and 2TB SSD.
Strictly "technically", the only "extra" I had to buy was a USB hub that has a HDMI port because an MBA doesn't have one.
On the other hand, I truly enjoy the "extra inch" display estate.

That said, I don't do heavy image editing in APh.
(But I do a lot of audio editing with iZotope RX Advanced and multitrack mixing with Logic Pro. The MBA does what I need just fine.)

Same here. I'm also a composer and music/audio tech magazine editor, and I use large sample libraries and softsynths in Logic. The laptop doesn't need to run large productions, but I would like to be able to work on the same machine-taxing pictures I do on the Mac Studio M1 Max.

Right now I'm leaning toward a refurbished 13" MBA M2 with 24GB/1TB, since it's just over half the price.

 

6 hours ago, kaffeeundsalz said:

That's why I find it a bit surprising that you say you need the 64 Gigs in your Mac Studio, but I might underestimate the resolutions you're dealing with, and it probably depends on layer types and structure as well. Also note that memory management is not the same as it used to be twenty years ago. Modern operating systems try hard not to leave RAM unused, so you can't really tell how much is actually needed just by looking at memory usage. The memory pressure graph in macOS Activity Monitor is a better indicator here, but you may already know this.

Loading large sample libraries uses a lot of RAM for their head-start buffers. It wasn't long ago that we needed multiple machines to load an orchestra, and there are quite a few composers who couldn't get by with less than 128GB of RAM or even a single machine - especially when they use multiple mic positions.

One thing that's changed is that the M-series computers are able to swap memory with disk storage very quickly. I wouldn't want to rely virtual memory for real-time applications, but you can get by with less physical RAM than you need in a pinch - especially on Mac Studios, which have very fast internal storage.

My pictures in Affinity Photo also use a lot of RAM, especially when I have more than one with many layers open - which I do all the time even though I'm just working on one picture.  (www.NickBatzdorf.com if you're interested in how I use the program; sorry if it looks like I'm just trying to get clicks! [I'm not])

Affinity Photo can also get very slow in the Mac Studio when I pile up layers, but I just merge visible and put everything below it in a folder that I turn off when that happens.

One of my questions is whether using virtual memory with Affinity Photo would be a problem. Probably not, because it's not real-time.
 

6 hours ago, kaffeeundsalz said:

To give you a bit of additional background: What I found so irresistable about the MBA is its fanless design. I do a lot of audio stuff, and having not even the slightest risk of ruining my voice recordings with fan noise (because there is no fan) was just too intriguing – even though you read a lot of reviews online telling you that noise is not really an issue with Apple Silicon laptops. Moreover, just like @loukash, I really enjoy the larger screen size compared to the 14 Inch MBP, especially for image editing on the go.

All things considered, I think I've found the perfect computer for my requirements – which, to be honest, have not grown to the same extent as the available computing power in modern Macs. As always, ymmv.

Thanks. Yeah, many years ago I had a hole cut in my studio/office wall for a trap door so I could put all the computer stuff in the garage on the other side. Before that, the noise with just one external hard drive was literally giving me a headache, never mind the early 2000s when I had three Pentium 4 machines going (for sample libraries).

But the Mac Studio is here in the room, 3-1/2' away from me. I haven't heard it once in the 2-1/2 years I've had it.

[nickbatz]

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

The Air doesn't have the M4 yet which is a significant upgrade but at least it has increased base memory now.

The M4 will be more expensive, of course. And while 16GB is better than 8, I'd still upgrade to 24GB and a larger drive (512GB is way too small).

3 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Compared to my M1 Pro, I'm finding my M4 Pro to be 30 to 50% faster for most Affinity tasks that are long enough to measure.

No doubt, and the M5 will be faster, but it'll be worth waiting for the M6 when it comes out... etc.

Seriously, the M1 Max still has a silly amount of power for what I do, and I bring machines to their knees!