32gb vs 64gb for GPU memory

[Lucas Curious]

Reading reddit posts I see that people have a smooth video editing process on both the 32gb and 64gb Macs. People who edit on 32gb claim the RAM fills to 24gb while it fills to something like 44gb ram of the 64gb. Both claim to get smooth performance during editing.

I would be using a Studio Display which probably also uses the GPU and wanted to ask if anyone can give advice from experience if I should get the 32 or 64 model for HEVC 6K editing in Davinci Resolve and color grading.

Im going wiht the idea that since the RAM is shared memory and since the editing programs mainly use the GPU cores to full potential, the more RAM, the more fluid the actual editing process once you pile on motion graphics and colors.

I'm also curious if it's worth getting the 38 core vs 30 core gpu for the reasons stated above. The project is a 90 min 6K HEVC and I care about very smooth performance during editing and playback.

I know I'll get people telling me to get 64gb and future proof but im not sure if I'll want to upgrade in a couple years when these Macs double or triple in performance. Seeing the lowball trade in deals apple has offered for the M1 Macs, I smell a big value loss once M3 coms around.

Any practical advice is appreciated.

 

[ondioline]

From what I've observed on my M1 Max MBP and M2 Pro Mac Mini, there is ALWAYS free space maintained. I don't know if this is reserved for the GPU, but going by 'free' says very little. Pressure is the actual metric that represents anything afaict.

 

[handheldgames]

Reading reddit posts I see that people have a smooth video editing process on both the 32gb and 64gb Macs. People who edit on 32gb claim the RAM fills to 24gb while it fills to something like 44gb ram of the 64gb. Both claim to get smooth performance during editing.

I would be using a Studio Display which probably also uses the GPU and wanted to ask if anyone can give advice from experience if I should get the 32 or 64 model for HEVC 6K editing in Davinci Resolve and color grading.

Im going wiht the idea that since the RAM is shared memory and since the editing programs mainly use the GPU cores to full potential, the more RAM, the more fluid the actual editing process once you pile on motion graphics and colors.

I'm also curious if it's worth getting the 38 core vs 30 core gpu for the reasons stated above. The project is a 90 min 6K HEVC and I care about very smooth performance during editing and playback.

I know I'll get people telling me to get 64gb and future proof but im not sure if I'll want to upgrade in a couple years when these Macs double or triple in performance. Seeing the lowball trade in deals apple has offered for the M1 Macs, I smell a big value loss once M3 coms around.

Any practical advice is appreciated.

IMO.. Editing programs use the onboard Media Engines more than the GPU.

 

[MacGizmo]

I've never regretted buying more than I ended up needing. I have, on the other hand, had regrets several times for thinking I would save a few bucks by not buying enough.

 

[anticipate]

The only caveat (which does not apply for Studio or even the Pro laptops, but definitely does for basic M2 I found...) 8GB is no way enough. Yes most of the time the encode engines are doing the work (this is why m2 ultra is so much faster than M1 ultra; both enjoined can be used on the same video file at once finally). But you still need RAM to feed the GPU for effects, etc. Doing anything but the most basic video editing with no multitasking just kills the machine. 16GB is fine, but still causes a lot of swap. I would say 32GB is the min for serious creative work (video). 64GB I have never been able to saturate unless I was heavily multitasking. Think Davinci and FCP running at once.

 

[emmab2006]

I had no issue running X Plane 12 on my 24 Core M1 Studio with 32GB ram , and that was with extra programs open for flying online and running GPU heavy Orthophotos , i think you will be fine with 32GB personally

 

[Chancha]

From what I've observed on my M1 Max MBP and M2 Pro Mac Mini, there is ALWAYS free space maintained. I don't know if this is reserved for the GPU, but going by 'free' says very little. Pressure is the actual metric that represents anything afaict.

Go into iStat settings, in the Memory pane there is a check box saying "hide inactive memory", default is checked, but if you uncheck it the graph will show close to no RAM free, while having the 24GB classed as inactive in your case.

What this means is that logically those 24GB are in fact filled with actual data, but probably from applications you have already closed thus are practically free to be used right away, but the data inside is still not yet flushed away.

 

[Lucas Curious]

I did a test monitoring iStatistica Pro
Using the MBP M1 Pro 16gb ram and a 10 minute HEVC video in Final Cut. I see that the GPU wants to take up 13gb ram but uses 5gb RAM with some color grading. RAM pressure kicks up to 60%. The performance is fine and I had MacBook open and Studio display connected. So it's doable with 16gb. No idea how performance changes when you add motion graphics.

Im curious if the Decoder on this MBP M1 Pro is the same as on a Mac Studio M2 Max. I guess the decoder and ram would be key players in performance during the edit. If the decoders are the same in these machines than there shouldn't be much of a difference with matching Ram.

 

[mcnallym]

I did a test monitoring iStatistica Pro
Using the MBP M1 Pro 16gb ram and a 10 minute HEVC video in Final Cut. I see that the GPU wants to take up 13gb ram but uses 5gb RAM with some color grading. RAM pressure kicks up to 60%. The performance is fine and I had MacBook open and Studio display connected. So it's doable with 16gb. No idea how performance changes when you add motion graphics.

Im curious if the Decoder on this MBP M1 Pro is the same as on a Mac Studio M2 Max. I guess the decoder and ram would be key players in performance during the edit. If the decoders are the same in these machines than there shouldn't be much of a difference with matching Ram.

New Media Engines for M2 series compared to M1. New Neural Engines as well.