I just picked up one in Tustin, CA. Posting because the previous deal was only for Space Gray. This deal is for the Silver color which is usually more desirable and kinda rare to see in a deal. I confirmed the laptop comes in a sealed Apple Certified Refurbished box so it's good like new (battery cycle count = 6). I used Microcenter CC for additional 5% off. Out of the door cost was $1330, thought it was pretty good especially IMO the base M1 Pro 14" is better than the comparable base M2 one.
https://www.microcenter.com/produ...ed)-silver
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The M2 is a nice jump faster than the M1, CPU and GPU. Around 20% for each. Not massive, but if it's a choice between each, the M2 is clearly faster.
The M2 does have a different SSD setup, so for sequential disk io (if you have to copy a single big file to a thunderbolt ssd all day long for your job, for instance) the SSD in the M1 is faster. Otherwise, for random io tasks, the SSDs are about the same, or the M2 SSD is a little faster. Obviously, most people will care most about random io, as that's what the OS & apps mostly use.
If anyone said apple customers don't care about specs, I give you this thread.
Okay. I will admit I was wrong.
I found this.
Apple used four 128GB NAND chips used in the M1 Pro 512GB MBP, but only used two 256GB NAND chips in the M2 Pro 512GB MBP.
The M1 Pro 512GB MBP had a 3,950 MB/s write speed and a 4,900 read speed. The M2 Pro 512GB MBP had a 3,154 MB/s write speed and a 2,973 read speed (3,950 vs. 3,154 write and 4,900 vs. 2,973 read).
Writes are 20% slower and reads are 40% slower.
So the issue comes from the fact that Apple stopped sourcing 128 GB SSD's. The MacBook Pro is still using two SSDs, so it is definitely faster than the MacBook Air that is using a single 256.
But this is still way blown out of proportion.
I actually saw a demonstration of somebody that went through a common video editing workflow. On both computers, and compared them side-by-side. The workflow had like four steps.
The M1 laptop was faster in one of the steps, the M2 was faster in the other three. The end result was the work was still completed faster on the M2 laptop.
Things like a more powerful CPU, and a more powerful GPU will give the computer more longevity. This might not matter to everyone, but Apple is starting to make some progress bringing games to their silicon, and the more powerful CPU and GPU would definitely make the M2 computer have a longer lifespan if you were interested in playing games.
I found this.
Apple used four 128GB NAND chips used in the M1 Pro 512GB MBP, but only used two 256GB NAND chips in the M2 Pro 512GB MBP.
The M1 Pro 512GB MBP had a 3,950 MB/s write speed and a 4,900 read speed. The M2 Pro 512GB MBP had a 3,154 MB/s write speed and a 2,973 read speed (3,950 vs. 3,154 write and 4,900 vs. 2,973 read).
Writes are 20% slower and reads are 40% slower.
But this is still way blown out of proportion.
I actually saw a demonstration of somebody that went through a common video editing workflow. On both computers, and compared them side-by-side. The workflow had like four steps.
The M1 laptop was faster in one of the steps, the M2 was faster in the other three. The end result was the work was still completed faster on the M2 laptop.
Things like a more powerful CPU, and a more powerful GPU will give the computer more longevity. This might not matter to everyone, but Apple is starting to make some progress bringing games to their silicon, and the more powerful CPU and GPU would definitely make the M2 computer have a longer lifespan if you were interested in playing games.
https://www.reddit.com/r/macgamin...appl
How to make it faster? Get the latest Apple M-chip that you can, with the most GPU cores that you can, but don't spend too much, because next year (and the year after that, and the year after that, etc.) Apple will keep iterating and offering significant improvements.
Just buy what you need now.
The Microcenter $1299 / $1399 offerings are very good compromises, if you need portability. Otherwise, the basic M2 Mac Mini Pro at $1099 or so after (Edu) gift cards is a very good price. The advantage of it over the basic $399 M2 mini is 50% more performance cores and 60% more GPU cores, plus more ram and disk.
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