Hi all,
Now that the new Mac Minis are ready for preorder, I’m in the market. It looks like the M5 pro is a few hundred bucks or so more than an M6 with roughly equivalent specs — I’m considering 24gb ram, 1TB drive. I often work in large scores with Dorico, which get VERY slow on my M1 16gb. I also use Logic with a good amount of VSTs, and my M1 can’t quite keep up. Should I go with the M6, or will the M5 pro be worth the extra cash?
I’m curious to see what others think. If budget is a concern, I would be considering a little extra RAM (32GB) for the few extra bucks instead of the proM5.
— Jim
IIRC at a certain RAM level (>32GB), the more expensive chip is required.
Everything about the M5pro is more powerful than the m6. (it has double the memory bandwidth, for instance) If you have the $, go for pro. I have an m2 pro machine at work with 32gb ram and I love it. I can only imagine how much better the newer machines are. On paper, no small amount.
The M6 has a faster single-core speed than the M5 Pro; and it has 12 cores, which should be plenty, even if the M5 Pro has 15 or 20 cores. It also has faster memory bandwidth (not that the previous b/w was a limitation) and a faster GPU.
I’d recommend getting the M6, and upgrading to 32 Gb RAM. More RAM is always the most useful, and you’re unlikely to be pushing the CPU to the limits for the extra cores in the M5 Pro to be of benefit.
Plus… I recall Daniel mentioning Dorico still uses only one core, so single core speed still rules.
How do playback “engines” (correct term?) like NP, Cantai, Pianoteq, etc., factor into the choice-of-chip equation? If I understand correctly, their system demands are different then those of sample libraries.
Dorico benefits both from multiple cores and from a fast single core. Some aspects are sequential, particularly layout; but some things can be done in parallel. So: yes, fast single core and yes lots of cores.
Things like NP and Cantai do more processing and need less RAM than traditional sample libraries. Cantai now uses CPU and GPU for processing. They are separate processes, so more cores are better; but Cantai also benefits from fast cores, for the rendering time.
It might be worth comparing how much real orchestra time I could get for the price of a maxed out Mac Studio (£18,500)…?