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Apple Silicon M1 chip in MacBook Air outperforms high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro

(www.macrumors.com)
1080 points antipaul | 13 comments | 12 Nov 20 00:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.617s | source | bottom
1. justinator ◴[12 Nov 20 02:00 UTC] No.25065565[source]▶
The 16GB max ram still seems a head scratcher. Not what would suppose I want for video editing.
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2. threeseed ◴[12 Nov 20 02:10 UTC] No.25065624[source]▶
The three models Apple chose are all the consumer, low-end ones.

You will see much higher specs on the Mac Mini Pro, MacBook Pro 14/16 and Mac Pro planned for next year.

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3. grecy ◴[12 Nov 20 02:14 UTC] No.25065651[source]▶
I've got 16GB in my 2015 MBP and editing 1080p in FCPX it never slows down at all.
replies(1): >>25065895 #
4. justinator ◴[12 Nov 20 02:55 UTC] No.25065895[source]▶
I currently have the same MacBook but everything seems to be breaking (keyboard, battery, screen, major OS upgrades fail, etc) and it needs to be replaced. But 16gigs seems not very future proof. I’m already having issues with some video codecs I can’t work with, example .360 GoPro files. (I bought an iPhone SE to handle that!)
5. justinator ◴[12 Nov 20 03:00 UTC] No.25065928[source]▶
I guess for those who desire more RAM the call is hold off on M1 based MacBooks until this ceiling is raised. I’m guessing an intel based MacBook is a better call, except resale price will suffer.
6. alwillis ◴[12 Nov 20 03:02 UTC] No.25065938[source]▶
With the unified memory, 8 CPU and GPU cores and super fast I/O and native FinalCut Pro, video editing will be just fine.
7. spideymans ◴[12 Nov 20 03:29 UTC] No.25066082[source]▶
To think... this is the performance we’re seeing from their low-end model
8. crazygringo ◴[12 Nov 20 04:51 UTC] No.25066571[source]▶
What do you need more memory for with video editing?

Video editing's all done on disk isn't it? It's not like editing programs are loading a 20 GB file into memory?

Even just 8 GB has never given me any problems with video editing.

What am I missing here?

replies(1): >>25090455 #
9. Existenceblinks ◴[12 Nov 20 05:51 UTC] No.25066892[source]▶
Timing is important here, M1 is not going to give you 32GB+, 1 year gap doesn't sound to me. M1 to M2 (whatevername) gap should be 2 years+
10. john_minsk ◴[12 Nov 20 10:53 UTC] No.25068556[source]▶
The question is which professional software for video editing is available for this new platform? Probably not much at the moment. So these machines will be perfect for those who do their work with browser, email and not much more.

I'm using Tableau Desktop in my daily work and until it is available on this new platform - these Macs are not an option for me even if they are 10x more performant. I guess there are a lot of professionals that are constrained in a similar manner. So we will see if M1 is adopted in such scenarios at all.

replies(1): >>25071700 #
11. justinator ◴[12 Nov 20 16:51 UTC] No.25071700[source]▶
> The question is which professional software for video editing is available for this new platform?

Final Cut Pro is one of the options for the new Macbook, on the item's page.

12. Beached ◴[14 Nov 20 05:12 UTC] No.25090455[source]▶
editing programs are loading a ton into memory though. edits are done in memory before their final output is saved to disk. if your viewing it on the screen, it is almost certainly in memory, and if your working with high res video you very well could exceed 16gb. more memory means larger (longer clips or higher res) video files loaded to memory means faster and more efficient working
replies(1): >>25094163 #
13. justinator ◴[14 Nov 20 18:08 UTC] No.25094163{3}[source]▶
Kinda my thought exactly. Although most any video editing software uses proxy files, so you don't have to load in the original hi-res footage.

It's just that... swapping data in and out of ram is far slower than clock speed, right? So if the bottleneck is RAM, would it make sense to get the most RAM? (ie: Intel Mac)