NotePerformer and MacBook Pro M3 Max?

Dorico
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I’m looking at these new MacBook Pro computers, and the M3 Max seems excellent - although its RAM options are limited. The one I’m looking at can do either 36 or 96 GB of RAM, but nothing in between.

Right now I have NotePerformer NPPE with BBCSO Core, and it’s working well (2019 MBP, 16 GB RAM). If I ever step up to another sample library, do folks think 36 GB of RAM is going to be enough? Would I be better off with an M2, but more RAM?

I’ve been eagerly waiting for someone else to ask this, but I haven’t seen anything here, and not a whole lot on vi-control. So any advice is appreciated!

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Regarding music, I have a 2,5Yo MacBook Pro with M1 Max 64 GB for almost three years and it is still a powerhouse for music production. I use Noteformer with Spitfire Symphony Orchestra full version without any issue with additional Kontakt instrument (piano, choir, soloists, etc.). I am running three screen, 2 Full HD and one XDR. I suppose switching to M2 with more RAM would be a better option in your case if you want to save money. But my advice would be to go for the M3 96 GB for a long term investment. My guess is that M3 compared to M2 or even a M1 will be faster when exporting to audio your project, but nothing noticeable otherwise as M1 Max do already the job perfectly well from what I see.

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I’d get as much RAM as you can.

From what I’ve read, most comparisons of the M3 are to the M1 which makes me suspect that it’s not that much better than the M2. It’s what I’ve read.

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I have an M2 Pro Mini with 32Gb of RAM, and BBCSO Core works fine. Loading all the instruments uses 15 Gb.

Screenshot

If you had the full “Professional” library, that requires a bit more than 32Gb RAM. (Though some people have still got it to work on a 32Gb rig!)

The new M3s are a little bit faster, but there have been some concessions – there are more efficiency cores (slower); and the memory bandwidth I think is halved. Some suggest that compared to an M2 Pro or Max, there’s not much in it. (The base M2 to M3 may be a larger delta.)

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Did you decide on this? There is the M3 Max 48GB 16 core version @ £3700-£4100.
This is the one I am thinking about, but mindful that in June they may anounce the desktop Max and Ultra’s. There is even talk of these being released as M4 and skipping the M3.

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The M3 max is significantly faster than the M2 max - it’s almost as fast as the M2 ultra.

I would go for as much memory as you can afford. Using NP, NPPE, BBCSO string instruments and Spitfire solo strings in my latest project takes 35Gb.

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I ended up with the M3 Max, 36 GB RAM - it’s an excellent machine, and the battery life is amazing. Surprisingly heavier than the 2019 MBP.

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Excellent. Did yiu get the 16 or 14" as a review i watched showed the 16 to be much quieter.

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16”, the display is awesome. Never any fan noise.

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I had started with an M3 Air, but I upgraded to a 14-inch Pro. I lost a tiny bit of screen size and went from 24 to 18 GB, and it was almost the same price.

I’m amazed at the performance. It used to take me 22 minutes to export a 900-page score in InDesign (that was with a 11th-gen i7 and 64 GB RAM). Now it takes 9 minutes. :flushed:

Also, I’m still getting used to being able to work all day and not need to charge the battery.

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Welcome, Dan. :smiling_imp:

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@dan_kreider, I am about to make a choice between the same two machines. Did you notice differences in abilities to edit large Dorico files or get good playback with third-party libraries? Were there other factors that influenced your choice?

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No, I didn’t do it for the speed difference, as they are so close. I did it for better screen, more ports, and better cooling.

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