MBA vs MBP (again)

[nph]

I realized I should post this in the MBA session since I would look at MBA owners to tell me if what
I plan to use it for is enough or it would make sense to go to MBP

I am looking to either get a MacBook Air M4 (hopefully M5) with 24 Gig of RAM and large SSD
OR
MacBook Pro M5 with 24 Gig of RAM or MBA M5 Pro if not too expensive.

Here is what I will use it for:
- Garageband connected with a electric keyboard.
- MS Office
- Parallels Virtual machines.
- Xcode to learn Swift
- Learn Python
- Run LLMs locally
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Run many apps in parallel.
- Video editing in iMovie
- lots of Safari tabs open
- Photo editing and updating photo library
- WhatsApp for text and calls.

I care about swift responses (pun intended) and good battery life and easy access/light to carry.

Recommendations?

 

[maflynn]

Given the list of apps you want to run, I'd recommend the MBP simply because MacBook Pros are actively cooled with a fan, and MBAs are passively cooled. Playing games, video editing will stress the CPU/GPU and you could incur throttling in the MBA. Additionally you'll get more cores with the Mac Book Pro, so you have that going for you

 

[edubfromktown]

With what you plan to run on it, I'd vote for MBP.

I use an 13" MBA M3 16 GB at work and it generally does fine. One thing I absolutely hate is having only 2 USB-C ports that are inconveniently next to each other!

At home I have both 14" Pro M3 MBP 18 GB / 1 TB and M1 MAX Studio 32 GB / 512.

I run Activity Monitor on all 3 at times and none have memory pressure issues (running less apps total and no Parallels)

 

[Howard2k]

I think the Pro too.

I do some light gaming on my MacBook but via cloud, so it's not processor intensive, and that works great. But BG3 running locally could certainly put some load on.

I also run some LLMs every now and then, not for professional use but just for fun or whatever. I find it's responsive enough and performs well enough but it does hammer the CPU/GPU and it does generate quite a bit of heat.

For both of those things, for any sort of extended period, you're going to want the active cooling of the Pro.

 

[jmoore5196]

Pro as well. I own both - a 14" M4 Pro MBP and a 13" M4 MBA. While I reach for the MBA when I'm traveling, I'd always opt for the MBP when I'm stationary. Given the choice, I'd buy the MBP again.

 

[nph]

in the past I had 2 computers but now I only want one so I think MBP it will be.Will be interesting to see next week what will be new.

 

[kharys415]

Pro is the better choice obviously, but that doesn't mean an Air won't be capable of this, you'd just have to deal with occasional throttling in games or with particularly heavy AI which can be an up to 30% performance penalty (although if you don't mind modding, it can be made to run even cooler than MBP by adding a thermal pad and combining it with a laptop cooling pad). So it really depends on your budget.

What I can guarantee is that an M5 will be much better at AI than an M4, even M4 Pro (the chip). It's a solid gaming improvement over base M4 too, but nowhere as crazy as AI.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I realized I should post this in the MBA session since I would look at MBA owners to tell me if what
I plan to use it for is enough or it would make sense to go to MBP

I am looking to either get a MacBook Air M4 (hopefully M5) with 24 Gig of RAM and large SSD
OR
MacBook Pro M5 with 24 Gig of RAM or MBA M5 Pro if not too expensive.

Here is what I will use it for:
- Garageband connected with a electric keyboard.
- MS Office
- Parallels Virtual machines.
- Xcode to learn Swift
- Learn Python
- Run LLMs locally
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Run many apps in parallel.
- Video editing in iMovie
- lots of Safari tabs open
- Photo editing and updating photo library
- WhatsApp for text and calls.

I care about swift responses (pun intended) and good battery life and easy access/light to carry.

Recommendations?

The only thing in this list that makes me think MBP is Baldur's Gate 3. How important is BG3 to you? The M5 MBA is still going to be able to play that game, it just won't be quite as performant as the MBP. And an M4 Pro isn't exactly going to scream in that game either.

I wouldn't let a single game influence you to buy a bigger, heavier, more expensive computer if that isn't what you actually want.

 

[CSAppleFan]

I think the MBA would be able to do all of those things you are looking for but would get hot if you do a lot of it at the same time. But with the MBP you get the fans, better speakers, and better screen. Are you able to get both with the intention of testing them during the return window and then return one of them?

 

[TFrank2]

Air would be more than capable for most of those things but you’d likely run into some performance limitations if you were really going heavy all at once like others have mentioned. That being said, I guess you know your flow/routine better than we do. If you value the cost/portability of the Air, you’d probably get away with it for most of the items listed above. If you want to really push the limits, a Pro makes more sense.

 

[Tdude96]

My opinion aligns with the other comments. I have both. A 13" M2 MBA - Fully specced minus the drive which I only bumped to 1TB, and a 16" MBP M3 Max. I bought the Air almost exclusively for personal gaming use while traveling, since I also carry a 16" MBP for work and didn't want to be hauling around two chonky machines. It works perfectly for that. I can say that my M2 Air is capable of everything you listed, and the M5 will be even better at it. I game on it, I run generative AI on it, I run Adobe Creative Suite on it for graphics & video. Even the throttling on the M2 Air due to not having active cooling is overblown in my opinion, at least for my purposes. It does get hot, but performance doesn't noticeably decline right away with intensive tasks. It can take upwards of an hour of gaming before I'll see a significant drop in FPS, for example. But for any sustained task, you'll eventually notice it. There's more power running through the later Mx chips, so throttling may occur sooner with an M5 than with my M2. YMMV. If you want more sustained performance, you really want the MBP. If you don't mind a drop in performance after awhile under intensive load and ultimate portability is essential, you want the MBA.