Any stress tests for office work?

[tweaknmod]

I'm curious if anyone knows of any videos or articles discussing stress tests for typical office work environments.

Note: I'm aware of the fact that everyone and their dog knows the M2 can handle regular office work. I just think people might be curious to see the numbers.

Rather than benchmark tests or exporting video file tests, which mean functionally nothing to a regular office worker, I was wondering if someone's tried opening all Office apps at once with big Excel files, then add a few Adobe apps, then maybe a streaming window, or a big download running, etc.

The end result might show people in the market for a MBA how they perform based on duties they're more familliar with; a more relatable frame of reference. "Oh, it looks like I'll be fine with 8gb of RAM" or "Maybe I'm doing more intensive things than I thought..." etc. etc...

Seeing these kind of test results, rather than trusting those who spout out benchmark numbers, might help people to have more confidence in choosing which mioel is right for them, without going overboard.

Has anyone seen anything like this yet?

Edit: Well, that was crazy timing... I just saw this thread by @iGeneo , which talks about the whole obsession with benchmarks, etc... Good discussion!

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

You won't find those types of tests by the YouTube crowd because they are actual real world usage. They won't create the kind of sensationalized/scare tactic results/headlines that the content creators need to increase their view counts.

 

[StellarVixen]

I'm curious if anyone knows of any videos or articles discussing stress tests for typical office work environments.

Note: I'm aware of the fact that everyone and their dog knows the M2 can handle regular office work. I just think people might be curious to see the numbers.

Rather than benchmark tests or exporting video file tests, which mean functionally nothing to a regular office worker, I was wondering if someone's tried opening all Office apps at once with big Excel files, then add a few Adobe apps, then maybe a streaming window, or a big download running, etc.

The end result might show people in the market for a MBA how they perform based on duties they're more familliar with; a more relatable frame of reference. "Oh, it looks like I'll be fine with 8gb of RAM" or "Maybe I'm doing more intensive things than I thought..." etc. etc...

Seeing these kind of test results, rather than trusting those who spout out benchmark numbers, might help people to have more confidence in choosing which mioel is right for them, without going overboard.

Has anyone seen anything like this yet?

Edit: Well, that was crazy timing... I just saw this thread by @iGeneo , which talks about the whole obsession with benchmarks, etc... Good discussion!

Word, Excel, Pages, Numbers...whatever, passes them all with flying colors.

Or if you have superhuman typing speed so it cannot handle typing 1000000000 WPM. Maybe... 👀

Curiously, since I have 24Gb of RAM, just yesterday I tried to limit my RAM to 8GB and do some stuff to see how it holds up. I had Firefox, Word, VSCode couple of other programs open. Worked well, and memory pressure was ok.

I guess 8Gb is not obsolete just yet. But if you want to keep your beloved machine for couple years, maybe going with 16Gb isn't that bad. Plus it will give you better resale value. People will be looking more actively for the 16Gb versions when you are about to sell your Mac in the future.

 

[DavidChoux]

You won't find those types of tests by the YouTube crowd because they are actual real world usage. They won't create the kind of sensationalized/scare tactic results/headlines that the content creators need to increase their view counts.

If you actually put some thought into it rather than written a hasty reply clearly trying to instigate an argument, you'd probably arrive at the most likely reason. That being that it's much easier to use readily available benchmarks like Cinebench, Geekbench, etc.

If there was a benchmark that recreated more normal workflows, where in which the review finds some problems with the new laptop, I'd hazard a guess that they could still use sensationalised titles and people would still care, maybe even more so considering it represents a more normal workflow.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

If you actually put some thought into it rather than written a hasty reply clearly trying to instigate an argument, you'd probably arrive at the most likely reason. That being that it's much easier to use readily available benchmarks like Cinebench, Geekbench, etc.

If there was a benchmark that recreated more normal workflows, where in which the review finds some problems with the new laptop, I'd hazard a guess that they could still use sensationalised titles and people would still care, maybe even more so considering it represents a more normal workflow.

Are you suggesting that content creators couldn't simply put the laptop through a few days of normal usage within their own workflow & just report back about whether they ran into any issues/how the machine felt while doing so?

 

[Scott-n-Houston]

Are you suggesting that content creators couldn't simply put the laptop through a few days of normal usage within their own workflow & just report back about whether they ran into any issues/how the machine felt while doing so?

I've seen videos like that. They're out there.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

I've seen videos like that. They're out there.

Of course. But are they as common as the cookie cutter "doom & gloom" stress test videos? Do you think they would garner the same type of attention?

 

[Scott-n-Houston]

Of course. But are they as common as the cookie cutter "doom & gloom" stress test videos? Do you think they would garner the same type of attention?

No. Not as common, but that wasn't my understanding of the question by the OP.
"If it bleeds, it leads" is what the idiots in the media would say... IOW, sensationalism sells and draws views. We all know that.

 

[Asiatic Black Hebrew]

No. Not as common, but that wasn't my understanding of the question by the OP.
"If it bleeds, it leads" is what the idiots in the media would say... IOW, sensationalism sells and draws views. We all know that.

You're right. However, I do feel bad for people in OP's position, because while it is possible to find videos like this, they're usually buried too deep in the Youtube algorithm, since they're unable to compete with the fear mongering. Which in turn, leads to these posts like this, wondering if they even exist at all.

 

[Danfango]

I just had a rant about this on another thread. AVOID YOUTUBE BENCHMARK REVIEWS. They are about attention, not objectivity. It's an ocean of excrement that you have to wade through. Even the ones that look good are thrown together by people who have no idea what they are doing.

Trite answer: can the M2 do generic office work and the odd bit of streaming. Hell yes the absolute bottom end Macs since the M1 came out are perfectly capable machines and you're unlikely to exceed any capability any time soon. If you do you might have to wait a couple of extra seconds here and there which isn't going to kill you.

The other option is buy a windows PC and well you know where that leads to...

 

[DavidChoux]

Are you suggesting that content creators couldn't simply put the laptop through a few days of normal usage within their own workflow & just report back about whether they ran into any issues/how the machine felt while doing so?

No, never said that. Odd for you to think that's what I'm suggesting lol.

They could do what you said, but how could you accurately compare one laptop to another? If the reviewer only has the M2 Air for example how can you compare it to another laptop? Another reviewer would have to follow the exact same routine that the first reviewer did.

That's the point of benchmarks, a standardised test that anyone can do that allows for easy comparison between laptops. So if a benchmark was designed to simulate real world use, that would be better than a user simply using their laptop normally and reporting back, because then you can reliably compare it to other users doing the same benchmark on different laptops.

 

[Chateaunole-du-Pape]

No, never said that. Odd for you to think that's what I'm suggesting lol.

They could do what you said, but how could you accurately compare one laptop to another? If the reviewer only has the M2 Air for example how can you compare it to another laptop? Another reviewer would have to follow the exact same routine that the first reviewer did.

That's the point of benchmarks, a standardised test that anyone can do that allows for easy comparison between laptops. So if a benchmark was designed to simulate real world use, that would be better than a user simply using their laptop normally and reporting back, because then you can reliably compare it to other users doing the same benchmark on different laptops.

Right, but I'm not aware of any benchmarks that accurately reflect how a machine performs in Excel when generating and manipulating an Excel pivot table off a data set with 500,000 rows and 60 columns, including multiple fields with VLOOKUPs, while having multiple browser tabs open, one of which was the source of the data set in the first place. That's a benchmark that would be interesting for me to see. How a machine does with 3D rendering or video exporting, well, I really could not care less, and that's why I don't give benchmarks too much weight. They're good for evaluating the relative capabilities of machines when doing tasks that I don't do.

 

[DavidChoux]

Right, but I'm not aware of any benchmarks that accurately reflect how a machine performs in Excel when generating and manipulating an Excel pivot table off a data set with 500,000 rows and 60 columns, including multiple fields with VLOOKUPs, while having multiple browser tabs open, one of which was the source of the data set in the first place. That's a benchmark that would be interesting for me to see. How a machine does with 3D rendering or video exporting, well, I really could not care less, and that's why I don't give benchmarks too much weight. They're good for evaluating the relative capabilities of machines when doing tasks that I don't do.

Well yes hence my point that reviewers use these Geekbench/Cinebench type benchmarks because those are the only ones available, not because of the reason Asiatic Black Hebrew was saying.

 

[cosmogrammar]

Right, but I'm not aware of any benchmarks that accurately reflect how a machine performs in Excel when generating and manipulating an Excel pivot table off a data set with 500,000 rows and 60 columns, including multiple fields with VLOOKUPs, while having multiple browser tabs open, one of which was the source of the data set in the first place. That's a benchmark that would be interesting for me to see. How a machine does with 3D rendering or video exporting, well, I really could not care less, and that's why I don't give benchmarks too much weight. They're good for evaluating the relative capabilities of machines when doing tasks that I don't do.

Agree 100%. This guy did something like it:

Why I Chose the MacBook Air over the MacBook Pro as a Data Scientist

Benchmark tests and other considerations to help you decide between the latest and greatest Apple laptops

towardsdatascience.com

I need this test to see if 16GB vs. 512GB is the smarter upgrade with the M2.

 

[darngooddesign]

I'm curious if anyone knows of any videos or articles discussing stress tests for typical office work environments.

Note: I'm aware of the fact that everyone and their dog knows the M2 can handle regular office work. I just think people might be curious to see the numbers.

Rather than benchmark tests or exporting video file tests, which mean functionally nothing to a regular office worker, I was wondering if someone's tried opening all Office apps at once with big Excel files, then add a few Adobe apps, then maybe a streaming window, or a big download running, etc.

The end result might show people in the market for a MBA how they perform based on duties they're more familliar with; a more relatable frame of reference. "Oh, it looks like I'll be fine with 8gb of RAM" or "Maybe I'm doing more intensive things than I thought..." etc. etc...

Seeing these kind of test results, rather than trusting those who spout out benchmark numbers, might help people to have more confidence in choosing which mioel is right for them, without going overboard.

Has anyone seen anything like this yet?

Edit: Well, that was crazy timing... I just saw this thread by @iGeneo , which talks about the whole obsession with benchmarks, etc... Good discussion!

Benchmarks under those conditions are way less important than general system responsiveness. You can't really time that, but you can see if everything feels responsive and under which conditions it beachballs, if at all. Also, if your workload really is office apps, 20+ browser tabs, video conferencing, and Adobe apps with big files all running simultaneously, don't be dumb and buy either base Air.

 

[Caviar_X]

Did anyone bother to answer the op’s question?

 

[tweaknmod]

Did anyone bother to answer the op’s question?

A couple of people said they exist, but no links or suggestions for sources yet. No worries, it was just a thought.

 

[Scott-n-Houston]

Not exactly "office" but here's a video that shows a 'day in the life' with it (as opposed to benchmarks).

 

[tweaknmod]

Not exactly "office" but here's a video that shows a 'day in the life' with it (as opposed to benchmarks).

Just watched this; it's really close to what I was looking for! Thanks for sharing!