Unless you are a video editor, you might not appreciate M1. Let me Explain

[NLLV]

Hello all.

In September I became a Mac user after years of frustration with PC computers.

Windows is fine, it is a good OS, but hardware configurations and software quirks in Adobe products led to me purchasing a 2020 iMac as I am a video editor with a blog that I rely on to help support my family.

This is a 10 core i9 machine with the very best video card. The only thing that I did not upgrade on this machine was the SSD, so suffice it to say, without purchase a "Pro" line machine from apple, this is as powerful as it gets.

I purchased an M1 MacBook Pro on Black Friday.

Why? I already have a "powerful" Mac right? Yes, however I cannot edit video much of the time when at home, and I wanted a way to spend my lunch hour at my day job working on videos.

This MacBook is just an 8gb model (16gb is impossible to find and I did not want to wait).

Because I am able to put Final Cut Pro projects on an external SSD, I now move from one machine to the other and edit the same project on both.

Here are some observations between the 2020 iMac (fully upgraded in terms of CPU and video card) and the M1

1. Faster at this about everything

The M1 is faster just about everywhere. From how fast the apps open to loading and rendering webpages, it is a dream.

2. Crazy Memory management

The iMac has 40gb of ram and the M1 8gb, however I have had zero problems working the same way that I do on the M1 vs the iMac. Often times CleanMyMac will tell me that I have less than 200mb of ram left on the M1, and it still is not an issue whereas the iMac will have several gigabytes and what seems like the same amount of programs and browser tabs open.

3. Speed of video rending is a BIG indicator of apple's genius engineering

This will be the big indicator at how much better these SoC's are.

If I do a task called optical flow on the M1 and then do the same thing on the Intel machine, the times are literally doubled on the Intel machine for rendering.

If you are unfamiliar, optical flow will take a video that is 30 frames per second and then do massive amounts of calculations to make it 60fps. It is essentially guessing what frames need to be created by the software, and there are often 10,000+ frames that need to be calculated and created.

This and rendering (putting together the final file that regular devices can play) is so much faster on the M1 as opposed to the Intel machine.

I am certainly impressed with everything, and I will likely hold onto the intel machine for a while as it can boot windows if I need it for things, however the future my friends, is crazy bright.

The M1 is certainly a game changer.

 

[cycling_pete]

I'm a little confused by how your title matches with your post. The M1 is certainly faster at "just about everything" (at least cpu related) than the intel macs, but doesn't this mean just about everyone, not just video editors, will appreciate the M1?

If anything, I would argue the reverse of your title -- everyone but video editors (and other users who would benefit from a heavy duty discrete graphics card) would appreciate the M1 MBs. As noted elsewhere, the integrated gpu on the M1 doesn't stack up to the e.g. 5600m or even 5300m of the 16inch MBP in benchmarks (nor is it designed to). Not questioning the performance gap you've personally seen on your M1 vs iMac, but it seems a bit misplaced to say that the M1 is catered towards heavy duty graphics users.

 

[NLLV]

I'm a little confused by how your title matches with your post. The M1 is certainly faster at "just about everything" (at least cpu related) than the intel macs, but doesn't this mean just about everyone, not just video editors, will appreciate the M1?

If anything, I would argue the reverse of your title -- everyone but video editors (and other users who would benefit from a heavy duty discrete graphics card) would appreciate the M1 MBs. As noted elsewhere, the integrated gpu on the M1 doesn't stack up to the e.g. 5600m or even 5300m of the 16inch MBP in benchmarks (nor is it designed to). Not questioning the performance gap you've personally seen on your M1 vs iMac, but it seems a bit misplaced to say that the M1 is catered towards heavy duty graphics users.

I understand, I think I should have specified that for most tasks most people would do, a modern Mac will feel fast. When it comes to productivity however, these make tasks happen literally half the time, and because of the way that they are set up to deal with video, that is something that shines when you use them for this type of work.

I hope that better explains it.

 

[jdb8167]

I understand, I think I should have specified that for most tasks most people would do, a modern Mac will feel fast. When it comes to productivity however, these make tasks happen literally half the time, and because of the way that they are set up to deal with video, that is something that shines when you use them for this type of work.

I hope that better explains it.

Not really. Why is this a problem?

Are you saying a previous generation of Mac is less performant than a new one? That should be the norm. The fact that it hasn't been recently is the problem Apple is trying to solve with Apple Silicon.

 

[matrix07]

Because I am able to put Final Cut Pro projects on an external SSD

I heard many video editors converted to Mac because of Final Cut Pro, so M1 is a no brainer. For me, I don't edit video anymore but still appreciate everything else it's giving me.

 

[Chompineer]

"The iMac has 40gb of ram"

So you're intentionally crippling your iMac by using unmatched stick sizes.