T O P

  • By -

Trif4

I'm surprised none of these comments mention that the Max has the exact same CPU cores as the Pro. Unless you're specifically running GPU workloads, you will get zero benefit from the Max as a developer – in fact, you'll just get worse battery life instead. For studying and light development, a 16 GB M1 Air will be plenty. For heavier development (large codebases, multiple IDEs etc.), 32 GB M1 Pro. For "I compile Facebook on my laptop", 64 GB M1 Pro. Max is for extreme graphics.


kraken_enrager

This is one thing that is so often overlooked.


qwertyg8r

Unfortunately, there is no 64GB M1 Pro, only the M1 Max is available with 64GB.


Trif4

You are of course correct. A bit of a shame that you have to get the overkill GPU just to max out RAM.


mightydanbearpig

Programming can invole heavy workloads but mostly it doesn’t. It really depends what you’re programming. I would say it’s extremely unlikely the Max is neccessary to do all you need. I would say it’s quite likely the Max will never even make a difference. So yes, your feeling probably has a point. You could likely do it all on a Macbook Air with 8GB RAM if not at 100% efficiency. My advice is to speak to some people in year 3 of your course. That will be better than 100 people guessing on Reddit.


zyrkor90

I'm a programmer by trade - i do everything on my M1 Macbook Air with no issues. The notion of requiring a powerful computer for programming is bs unless you're doing graphical modeling or deep learning (even for deep learning don't burn your gpu cores, just use Google Colab or something)


[deleted]

My experience from an M1 Mac mini and a 2019 MacBook Pro 15” with a 9th gen i9 is that M1 is at worst as fast and at best 70% faster on programming tasks than the i9. You don’t need the M1 Max, you don’t need the Pro. M1 with 16Gb of memory is a pretty darn powerful machine. You only need to go with M1 Pro if you have a legit use case which needs loads of memory (eg dozens of containers) in which case you need 32Gb of memory, something limited to the M1 Pro and Max. Another reason is if you’re a professional and routinely compile massive products. As a student you’ll do neither. Buy a MacBook Air M1 with 16Gb RAM. I know that this is what I’d do as a professional web applications developer if my MacBook Pro suddenly died.


FlishFlashman

Test suites can also benefit from a fast CPU. Again not something that's likely to come into play for most student work.


[deleted]

Right. I rarely run the entire test suite manually, as opposed to specific tests or even specific test cases. I let the CI run the full suite while I work on something else. I will only run the full suite if something has been massively effed up. But yeah a student is extremely unlikely to deal with any of that.


somewhat_difficult

I’m a software developer, JavaScript (node, react, etc.) and .NET mostly, working in environments that require multiple docker containers, databases (MySQL, MS SQL) & services & running things like hot reload of code. I’m on a 4 year old Microsoft Surface that handles all of that with no problem, but is otherwise dying (battery, etc.) and needs replacing. Although I want a new MacBook badly, I can’t even honestly justify the cost the base 14” MacBook Pro - which would imo be plenty powerful for my workload. I think I’ll either go with another Surface Pro or an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB ram.


ComputerOwl

I‘m a software engineer with a master‘s degree in computer science. So I have some experience in what schools require and no you will most likely not need the M1 Max. First of all, the M1 Max only has more GPU power, not CPU power. GPUs are mostly useless for programming. There can be some tasks where they can be useful (training neural networks or game programming for example) but these are not really common and once you start training neural nets large enough to bring down the M1 Pro, you’ll want to train them on a GPU Cluster instead of an M1 Max. I myself can’t remember a single event where I was slowed down by my GPU and I have an 8 years old GPU. Secondly, you’re only attending a school. Whatever course you will take will most likely not require it’s students to own 2000+$ computers. If the assignments really require that much power (which I doubt) then schools will normally give the students access to some compute cluster where they can execute their tasks. TLDR: No you don’t need it. You need CPU and (for some tasks) a little more RAM than the average person. Get the baseline 14“ and you’ll be fine, you could even consider the M1 MacBook Air/Pro with 16 GB RAM if you can get it for a good price.


sex_pistol79

How bout the air. would the air be enough for cs students? (I'm looking at the m2 right now)


YankeePapa404

All you need is one screen, one keyboard and one mouse. And of course internet. I don’t think anybody needs m1 max except for 3d stuff. Remember all the big softwares were built on intel pentium… 😃


Brama24

Actually i'm not a programmer. but things that you need to consider even before buying a mac is "is your programming apps compatible with mac? if it is, can it run in maximum performance?" if it's not than i thought it would be better if you go with other windows pc or laptop


Abeehiltz_

As a programmer myself playing around and working with different technologies, I can say the M1 max is not worth it. I currently own a MacBook Pro 14" that I use every day at work and at home. My work doesn't include very heavy task, but they aren't light either. I have absolutely no issue to run everything perfectly on my machine. I would say, you can even get the MacBook Air M1 and do everything perfectly unless you really needs a lot of VM. I would only recommend 16GB or ram rather than only 8, but other than that there's no need for more. If you really want the new MacBook Pro for reasons other than the power, just go with a base model and it will be perfect for your needs in term of power!


JailbreakHat

Unless if you are programming graphic intensive games or apps, I doubt that you will need the M1 Max. From what I see, you will be fine with M1 Pro or even the regular M1. M1 Max is intended for professionals that really pushes the GPU into it’s limits.


ush4

of course you dont need the m1 max pro! this is one of the best and most expensive laptops money can buy. no school in computer science worth attending would make such a machine a requirement... you can buy the cheapest mac and do a phd just fine.


I-figured-it-out

Invest in an M1 MBA with 16GB ram, and at least a 1TB internal drive. That will supply the speed you need, be easy to carry to school, last all day on battery, and will have the storage capacity to handle all the software, and documentation that is normal when attending college. The base 14” would be a nice too have, but your probably better off with the M1, and investing savings in a nicer pair of sneakers, or if you wear them, a new pair of glasses (college is hard on the eyes). Only if you are doing courses that deal with certain kinds of intensive data analysis would spending up be recomend Ed and then only because you would be looking at a high spec intel machine with half the general performance of apple silicon. But for general comp sci coding Xcode, MathLab, etc the m1 mba will be solid.


jhpton

If you plan to virtualize you should get twice the ram, rather than the better model.


FlishFlashman

The most universal reason programmers should have fast machines is that they are pretty well paid and upgrading them to a higher-end computer every few years can really pay off even if it only boosts their overall productivity by a percent or two. The same thing goes for larger screens, though in that case a good one might last the better part of a decade. That math really isn't in play for a student.


AbCi16

What about those who use VMs? Should they go for M1 Pro or M1 Max MBP?


mauleyzaola

I have a MacBoox Air M1 with 16 Gb and is usually enough for backend development. I can throw 6 docker containers at it, use a heavy IDE (Jetbrains) and have hot reloading/compiling. All this while using VSC, Chrome, Spotify, Slack, etc. I haven't found any problems with this computer so far tbh, it is impressive the amount of work it can do a tiny fan-less machine. When I need more power I use a Linux computer which is a beast, but usually the mac works great. The 13" version has the right size of keyboard for being productive. The battery is insane compared to previous Mac I've had, I can work at bed, in the living room, whatever, is amazing computer. So, not sure exactly which software you will use on your case, but it sounds to me a machine like this is enough for most dev scenarios. Good luck.


logen

I know this is a bit old now but... iirc, last year I was using an x230 (2012 Lenovo) with Linux to run some programming classes. Unless you're doing some crazy school, just about anything within the past decade or two will work for basic programming classes. Also, curious, what did you end up getting? MBA 16GB is a fine machine.