M1/Intel - A question for the Macbros

Fapcop

Fapcop

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I’m seeing some amazing deals on the 2019 MBPs.

Like we’re talking 64 gigs of ram, 1TB SSD and the top of the line RX5600M with 8 GB of HDM2 memory for peanuts.

I need a laptop (renting a M3 MBP temporarily) and yeah: I know the M series SOCs are really good with battery life and heat.

Just wondering: In your experience in every day use… Is there a huge speed difference between the M series and Intel MacBooks?

Just every day browsing and movies and stuff.
 
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Don't buy an Intel Mac, they're hot, slow and have terrible battery life. This is due to Jonny Ives wanting to make the laptops ungodly thin while Intel chips started outputting nuclear reactor levels of heat due to consuming so much power. This also leads to suckass battery life.

Not to mention Apple is deliberately killing them off, which due to the os level tweaking to make sure they don't meltdown, running windows/linux will lead them to thermal throttle even more. On top of that, if you wanted to run windows 11, you gotta hack the windows installer to bypass the TPM requirement, not hard to do but more salt in the wound

An M1 isn't the most powerful laptop you can buy, but for a simple web browsing/media consumption device it does the task phenomenally well, no fan noise, doesn't get hot, and nearly all day battery life
 
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Fapcop said:
Just every day browsing and movies and stuff.
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You don't need an i9 and 64 GB of RAM for that. But regardless, the reason the Intel Macs are so cheap is because Apple Silicon is just that much more superior. The i9 in those 2019 MBPs has a tendency to overheat. So while it would be a decent choice, a refurbished M1/M2 MBP, or even MBA (with 16 GB of RAM) would be better IMO.
 
Intel-based Macs are a dead end.

The final Intel Macs shipped in 2021, and Apple provides MacOS updates for 3 years following the release of a new model. On this basis it's reasonable to assume that there will be no new versions of MacOS for Intel once 15 is released later this year.

I'd only consider an Intel Mac if it was very cheap (preferably free).
 
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Fapcop said:
I’m seeing some amazing deals on the 2019 MBPs.

Like we’re talking 64 gigs of ram, 1TB SSD and the top of the line RX5600M with 8 GB of HDM2 memory for peanuts.
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A $150 Intel N100 laptop can do "every day browsing and movies and stuff".

So let's see some of those deals. Or at least price+specs. Because if you are getting specs like that for say, $300, you can probably take measures to cope with the higher power usage.
 
The Mass Shooter Ron Soye said:
A $150 Intel N100 laptop can do "every day browsing and movies and stuff".

So let's see some of those deals. Or at least price+specs. Because if you are getting specs like that for say, $300, you can probably take measures to cope with the higher power usage.
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K, first of all I'm in Europe. So think 25% sales tax.

Where I'm at, a brand new M3 MBA is 1700 usd. A refurbished M1 MBP (Bottom tier) is 1100 USD.

And the 2019 16 inch MBP with 2.4 Ghz i9, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and the high end 8GB RT5600 is around 800-1000 USD. A little cheaper with a worse GPU and less RAM/SSD.

It's really tempting to get one of those, since I don't want to spend +2000$ on a new machine. (And Bootcamp!)

So aside from battery life, how would the last intel Macs compare to a M series machine in every day use?

(I've also noticed that the battery on my current M3 MBP isn't nearly as great if you use it for anything but browsing. Lost 50% in 3-4 hours just watching some MKVs and trying out World of Tanks. for half an hour.)


Pee Cola said:
Intel-based Macs are a dead end.

The final Intel Macs shipped in 2021, and Apple provides MacOS updates for 3 years following the release of a new model. On this basis it's reasonable to assume that there will be no new versions of MacOS for Intel once 15 is released later this year.
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Sure true. But the thing is... OS X kinda sucks these last couple of years in terms of new features. (No Sidecar?!? OHNOES!!) Going without the latest OS X in a few years is a solid meh.

And there's a boatload of existing software out there. Plus a huge install base, so I reckon they'll keep making software for the Intel Macs. And if not, I'll have a decent Windows laptop.

The main things holding me back on pulling the trigger are:

1: The screen. The Miniled on the new MBP is really good.
2: Kinda sorta battery life. And most importantly:
3: Most importantly... How snappy is it in every day usage. I've seen benchmarks, but we all know that's not the whole story.

Also: Fuck you Apple, I'm not spending 1700$ on a machine with 8 GB of ram in goddamn 2024. So if I wanted to get a 16/512 model, we're quickly talking 2000-2500$

Seems like I can get a lot of laptop for less than half of that with a refurb 2019 model.

Unique Username KF said:
You don't need an i9 and 64 GB of RAM for that. But regardless, the reason the Intel Macs are so cheap is because Apple Silicon is just that much more superior. The i9 in those 2019 MBPs has a tendency to overheat. So while it would be a decent choice, a refurbished M1/M2 MBP, or even MBA (with 16 GB of RAM) would be better IMO.
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Yeah, that's the thing...

For the same price, a little more actually, I can get a 3-4 year old M1 MBP with 8GB RAM. A top of the line max specced out Intel Mac is really tempting even if it's a year older.

For even a refurb M series mac with 16 GB RAM, I'd end up paying 2000$. Fuck spending that much on a laptop that someone has been using for 2-3 years. (Also, I like bootcamp!)

I could get a brand new one, but I don't want to spend 3000-4000$ on something that loses 20% value the moment I walk out the store.
 
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Fapcop said:
And the 2019 16 inch MBP with 2.4 Ghz i9, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and the high end 8GB RT5600 is around 800-1000 USD. A little cheaper with a worse GPU and less RAM/SSD.

It's really tempting to get one of those, since I don't want to spend +2000$ on a new machine. (And Bootcamp!)

So aside from battery life, how would the last intel Macs compare to a M series machine in every day use?
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I don't have a lot of experience with the Apple ecosystem, or prices in the EU other than they're worse than Uncle Sam. Since you are willing to run Windows on it, you might want to check the wider world of refurbished corporate/pro laptops/workstations (e.g. Dell).




I take it this is approx. the model, and 32 GB RAM is soldered. An 8-core i9-9880HK doesn't sound bad. The system overall doesn't sound too bad, especially at $800.

You are getting an AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, but I don't think it's anything special these days even with the High Bandwidth Memory. It's a little faster than the maligned RX 6500 XT desktop GPU on TechPowerUp's list. APUs will be beating that soon.
 
The Mass Shooter Ron Soye said:
You are getting an AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, but I don't think it's anything special these days even with the High Bandwidth Memory. It's a little faster than the maligned RX 6500 XT desktop GPU on TechPowerUp's list. APUs will be beating that soon.
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To add to this, in terms of graphics ability, it translates to just a hair more than an Nvidia 3050 TI Laptop GPU, which these days, compared to what one would generally want for "reasonable performance", it would be left wanting. If you don't mind being able to play recent games at 1080p at medium settings at a reasonable frame rate, and have no interest in playing games coming out in the next 1-2 years at even "medium" performance, then it shouldn't be a problem.
 
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Unique Username KF said:
It doesn't. More like 6 years, and that's not counting security updates which continue for years after that.
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Your already almost 4 years in to that now.
Apple is really good at supporting older hardware with security and major bug issues but any new features and software isn't going to get backported. It will be just like when PPC was phased out.

I wouldn't mind a mint Intel MBP but its going to have to be cheap. Like $300 cheap.
 
Fapcop said:
Just every day browsing and movies and stuff.
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Get yourself a Windows system from like 2015 or before then, far cheaper and will do the trick just fine providing you're not buying a shit celeron/atom system.
 
posting on a 2020 M1 macbook air r/n. got it for $675 6 months ago. it's got 16gb ram. never owned a mac before. would recommend.
 
Misericordia said:
posting on a 2020 M1 macbook air r/n. got it for $675 6 months ago. it's got 16gb ram. never owned a mac before. would recommend.
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That’s nice. Must be great to live somewhere where a refurbished 16GB Mac costs less than 1500$.

Now how about the performance of an Intel Mac vs M-series Macs?
 
Misericordia said:
a place like ebay?
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Great idea.

Except for the part where a letter may arrive from customs, telling you that you need to pay up 1000$ in fees and taxes if you want your laptop.
Misericordia said:
dunno, from what I've heard the Intel Macs are pretty terrible, which is why I never bought one.
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They’ve been selling oodles of them for years. Can’t be that bad. Never seen owners complain all that much until it became trendy to shit on Intel, because you paid 3000$ for an M series MacBook.
 
Fapcop said:
. Never seen owners complain all that much until it became trendy to shit on Intel,
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Good or bad you would still be spending $1000 to buy in to a dead end architecture.

I ran PPC for years after it was killed off. But I didn't spend money to do that. I was already in it.
Buying an intel mac now would be like buying a G5 2 years after the intel macs came out.
 
I've never liked apple products personally and their philosophy really goes against how I like to use my machines. With that said, the M Series chips are a really impressive feat of engineering and have given me alot of respect for them. I could see myself trying a Mac for those chips, and I would have never considered doing so in the past. Buying an Intel Mac is going against one of the best reasons to invest in that platform imo.
 
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