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Why did you upgrade from an M1 / Pro / Max / Ultra?
- Thread starter Basic75
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Apple has observed that Mac replacement cycle is every 4 years. This aligns with Apple encouraging M1 users to upgrade to M5 when the M5 Macs were unveiled.
While Intel's every 5-6 years.
These are applicable to use cases that are performance critical.
Others replace based final OS Security Update. So that's 9 years?
I was waiting for a replacement of iMac 27" 1440p that was hopefully a iMac 32" 6K.
When a 32" 6K was released for under $1.2k I went for it and hooked ip up to a 2019 MBP 16" Core i7.
Because of the increase of RAM, SSD & HDD pricing I may scuttle my plan for the 2026 Mac mini M5 or M5 Pro and instead go with the 2025 Mac Studio M4 Max or 2024 Mac mini M4 Pro
While Intel's every 5-6 years.
These are applicable to use cases that are performance critical.
Others replace based final OS Security Update. So that's 9 years?
I was waiting for a replacement of iMac 27" 1440p that was hopefully a iMac 32" 6K.
When a 32" 6K was released for under $1.2k I went for it and hooked ip up to a 2019 MBP 16" Core i7.
Because of the increase of RAM, SSD & HDD pricing I may scuttle my plan for the 2026 Mac mini M5 or M5 Pro and instead go with the 2025 Mac Studio M4 Max or 2024 Mac mini M4 Pro
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i bought my m1 pro (16GB/1TB) macbook pro as a laptop only, whilst having a fairly high end desktop. however, the ownership experience of that was “almost but not quite desktop replacement”.
i upgraded to an m4 max with 64 GB to get more RAM and better GPU to basically be a do everything machine for me, expecting to decommission my desktop.
which it mostly has. i still play some games on the desktop, but for the most part my m4 max macbook can do it all, well enough. so the primary reasons for me were GPU (not quick enough, no RT on the m1 pro) and RAM (16 GB was enough for what i was using it for, pre LLMs, but now i want a lot more).
basically m1 pro was a taste that made me want more. if i had bought an m1 max originally, i’d probably still be on it for another year, waiting for m5 max.
i upgraded to an m4 max with 64 GB to get more RAM and better GPU to basically be a do everything machine for me, expecting to decommission my desktop.
which it mostly has. i still play some games on the desktop, but for the most part my m4 max macbook can do it all, well enough. so the primary reasons for me were GPU (not quick enough, no RT on the m1 pro) and RAM (16 GB was enough for what i was using it for, pre LLMs, but now i want a lot more).
basically m1 pro was a taste that made me want more. if i had bought an m1 max originally, i’d probably still be on it for another year, waiting for m5 max.
I'm still on my MacBook Air M1 8GB of RAM and the base model and I'm happy with that. It works very well and it's fantastic.
Yesterday I was at work and my work computer with Ryzen 5 and 32GB of RAM got suddenly a blue screen and Windows restarted itself and poof, all the work was gone. That's when I was thinking: "Even my Mac is way better" and on my work computer ChatGPT lags a lot and crashes. On my M1 Mac there are no issues.
Yesterday I was at work and my work computer with Ryzen 5 and 32GB of RAM got suddenly a blue screen and Windows restarted itself and poof, all the work was gone. That's when I was thinking: "Even my Mac is way better" and on my work computer ChatGPT lags a lot and crashes. On my M1 Mac there are no issues.
I haven't upgraded yet, but the primary reason I will be upgrading from the M1 Pro sometime this year is to go from 16GB of RAM to 32 or 64 GB. There's pretty much no other compelling reason for me. I'm sure other people have their own good reasons.
I have an M1 Pro 64 GB RAM, 2 TB HD. I run 3 external monitors with trading software but everything still seems smooth. I'll code with Cursor, and with Claude CLI in the terminal, and also have open Wispr Flow, Music, Messages, Quicktime, and also have probably 20 Chrome tabs open for various online apps like Replicate, OpenAI, Grok, X, Gmail, etc, all while the 3 monitor Thinkorswim runs... Nothing feels slow until I have around 50 Chrome tabs open which of course is too many anyway. I do move around with the laptop often so am planning to probably get an M4 Macbook Air or an M5 Air when they come out, but will keep the M1 Pro for trading given the 64 GB RAM and the monitor ports. Happy to be persuaded otherwise though. Perhaps it's the old situation that nothing feels slow or laggy until I experience what fast(er) really feels like?
I wanted to go into the tariffs with new equipment, so I wouldn't have to buy for another 3-4 yrs.
Sounds like you have an M1 Max like me, the M1 Pro was only available with 16GB or 32GB.
M1 Max. I'll upgrade when the new formfactor comes out. I want the more powerful GPU with raytracing and I want more RAM more than anything. The processor hasn't let me down... but the GPU is feeling its age.
What do you mean with your M Pro oder Max with 64 GB RAM is too slow for 50 Chrome Tabs? I regularlely have over 50 Tabs in Safari or Brave open on my M1 Macbook Air with 8GB Ram and no problems.
Still on regular M1 which is plenty fast for me.
Because my previous Windows machine can't be upgraded to Windows 11 (it's stuck on Windows 10) and Windows 10 support has ended. So it was time to buy a new Windows machine.
The CPU is similar to a M3 Max while the GPU is on a whole other level that Mac's can't offer.
But I still use the 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro + Apple Studio Display because Windows is simply less secure than Mac OS.
The CPU is similar to a M3 Max while the GPU is on a whole other level that Mac's can't offer.
But I still use the 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro + Apple Studio Display because Windows is simply less secure than Mac OS.
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Like some others I have not upgrade my M1 Max. Also have no plans too for the foreseeable future. There is no benefit I would notice working with Adobe CC (Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop) so Apple is not getting any more of my money. I previously I was using a 5K iMac from 2014 that would still be useful today if it could support a modern OS to run the latest versions of Adobe CC. Few people will notice anything major when upgrading and I would make an assumption that the reason many upgrade is because of marketing and hype. I could easily upgrade with no strain on the wallet, it just makes no sense.
I haven't upgraded from M1 Max Mac Studio refurb (10/24, 64GB memory, 1TB internal storage). Has felt like the M4 Max speed increase would be worth it for my photography and video editing needs. My video editing is pretty light, my photography editing can be pretty heavy, and the M4 Max benefit hasn't felt worthy of upgrading.
However, I do have an old 2018 Mac Mini 6-core i5 that I'm itching to get rid of, as it really struggles with simple tasks. I'm using the 2018 Mac Mini as my back-up archive machine, and hosts my music and movie libraries. Even scrolling through one of my music app playlists can choke it, and the wheel of death starts up.
I'm on the fence about, do I just replace the old Mac Mini with a fairly inexpensive M4 or M4 Pro Mac Mini and call it a day?
...Or, for funsies, do I grab an M5 Max Mac Studio or Laptop, and swap out the 2018 Mac Mini with the M1 Max Mac Studio, and use the M5 Max computer (whichever option I purchase) as my new workstation. ...or just wait for the M6 Max gear to come out. The biggest difference I'll see is with exporting large photography galleries. Will probably cut my 1000 image export down to 5 or less minutes from 15 minutes with the M1 Max. ...not sure if that's even a big deal.
Upgrading to a laptop would make sense for editing files on the road, and shooting tethered on location for client shoots.
The other benefit of swapping out the 2018 Mac Mini with the M1 Max Mac Studio is, if the M5 Max/M6 Max Mac has issues, I know I can use the M1 Max as a back-up workstation without dropping any performance lower than the M1 Max.
***Should also note we just upgraded our 2013 13" 1.7GHz MacBook Air with 8GB of ram (bought for $1,400) with the 13" M4 MacBook Air with 16GB if memory for $750.
However, I do have an old 2018 Mac Mini 6-core i5 that I'm itching to get rid of, as it really struggles with simple tasks. I'm using the 2018 Mac Mini as my back-up archive machine, and hosts my music and movie libraries. Even scrolling through one of my music app playlists can choke it, and the wheel of death starts up.
I'm on the fence about, do I just replace the old Mac Mini with a fairly inexpensive M4 or M4 Pro Mac Mini and call it a day?
...Or, for funsies, do I grab an M5 Max Mac Studio or Laptop, and swap out the 2018 Mac Mini with the M1 Max Mac Studio, and use the M5 Max computer (whichever option I purchase) as my new workstation. ...or just wait for the M6 Max gear to come out. The biggest difference I'll see is with exporting large photography galleries. Will probably cut my 1000 image export down to 5 or less minutes from 15 minutes with the M1 Max. ...not sure if that's even a big deal.
Upgrading to a laptop would make sense for editing files on the road, and shooting tethered on location for client shoots.
The other benefit of swapping out the 2018 Mac Mini with the M1 Max Mac Studio is, if the M5 Max/M6 Max Mac has issues, I know I can use the M1 Max as a back-up workstation without dropping any performance lower than the M1 Max.
***Should also note we just upgraded our 2013 13" 1.7GHz MacBook Air with 8GB of ram (bought for $1,400) with the 13" M4 MacBook Air with 16GB if memory for $750.
I REAALLY hope the upcoming Macs will be enough to get me to upgrade from my M1 Max MBP (32c GPU/32GB/1TB) because I have disposable income right now that's just sitting there. I develop on my machine while powering a 4K OLED monitor and 1440p secondary monitor and play OSRS on it running Runelite all day.