Advice on buying a MacBook Pro 14" M4 Pro: 12/16 vs 14/20 CPU/GPU”

[kohlille]

Hello everyone,


I’m in a bit of a bind because my M1 Pro gave out this week…
I’m a videographer, and so far my Mac has worked pretty well for me, handling my video edits in Premiere without issues.

I’m now looking to upgrade, and I’ve narrowed it down to two options:

On the Apple website:

• Refurbished MacBook Pro 14" with Apple M4 Pro, 14‑core CPU and 20‑core GPU
• €2,459
• 1‑year warranty

On the Fnac (french website):

• Apple MacBook Pro 14" 1 TB SSD, 24 GB RAM, M4 Pro 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU
• €2,479 (I also get €240 back store credit so the effective cost is €2,239)
• 2‑year warranty

Is the difference in CPU/GPU significant? I haven’t noticed any other differences…
I’d like to stay “reasonable” with the Fnac offer, and the 2‑year warranty also seems appealing.


What do you think?


Many thanks for your valuable advice.

 

[goldmac2006]

Hello everyone,


I’m in a bit of a bind because my M1 Pro gave out this week…
I’m a videographer, and so far my Mac has worked pretty well for me, handling my video edits in Premiere without issues.

I’m now looking to upgrade, and I’ve narrowed it down to two options:

On the Apple website:

• Refurbished MacBook Pro 14" with Apple M4 Pro, 14‑core CPU and 20‑core GPU
• €2,459
• 1‑year warranty

On the Fnac (french website):

• Apple MacBook Pro 14" 1 TB SSD, 24 GB RAM, M4 Pro 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU
• €2,479 (I also get €240 back store credit so the effective cost is €2,239)
• 2‑year warranty

Is the difference in CPU/GPU significant? I haven’t noticed any other differences…
I’d like to stay “reasonable” with the Fnac offer, and the 2‑year warranty also seems appealing.


What do you think?


Many thanks for your valuable advice.

Hey there! I’ve got a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with 48GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and it’s a 14-inch model.

I’ve got a 12-core CPU and a 16-core GPU, and honestly, I’m not too worried about having so much GPU power. I do some video editing in iMovie and ProRes for school and scholarship applications, and I only need the graphics for gaming (like those graphics-heavy/rendering-based games on Roblox) and CAD stuff like AutoCAD and F360.

First off, about the RAM and GPU: how much did you have on your M1 Pro MacBook Pro 2021? Since you mentioned it gave out, wasn’t it having some issues when you were pushing it too hard? Like the fans getting mad, which is common on these machines.

A lot of people with the M1s are still keeping theirs, but your upgrade options will really depend on what you need.

I’d recommend checking out this video if you’re worried about a bunch of things. If you’re doing a lot of color grading and ProRes editing, 36GB of RAM and more should be enough. 24GB is better than the base 16, but if you’re doing a really intense workflow, you might want to consider upgrading the specs before you buy.

Take care, and have a fantastic weekend!

 

[kohlille]

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I had 16GB of RAM. The issue was actually the motherboard — there weren’t really any warning signs. The night before, it suddenly wouldn’t charge, then after a restart it worked again. But now it’s completely dead… Unfortunately, my budget won’t allow me to get more RAM on this model.

 

[goldmac2006]

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I had 16GB of RAM. The issue was actually the motherboard — there weren’t really any warning signs. The night before, it suddenly wouldn’t charge, then after a restart it worked again. But now it’s completely dead… Unfortunately, my budget won’t allow me to get more RAM on this model.

Seems like it! I did get more ram as I use virtualisation for Windows 11 to run work apps and altium. I would like to recommend you get the m4 pro MacBook Pro as it’s a new listing from Fnac, and that the RAM is a little higher than the base M1 you had.

The price difference between them and Apple saves you a few hundred euros 💶 and you get a little more power. The GPU is still good regardless of graphics cores you get; and since you are in the EU you get more warranty.