Which M1 Pro MacBook Pro

wilmer567 wrote:

I'm thinking of buying one of those new MacBook Pros with the M1 Pro chip. I'm not sure if I should go with the base model or upgrade from 8 cores to 10 cores or upgrade from 16 GB of memory to 32 GB of memory.

I would prefer to buy the base model (because the base model is already expensive enough) but will there be some difference in performance with 10 instead of 8 cores and 32 instead of 16 GB of memory? The main job I do is to edit videos in Final Cut Pro with a resolution of 1080p.

So my question is if it makes any sense for me to upgrade any specification or if the base model is enough..

For most user the base model is more than adequate.

If in doubt —talk to your professional colleagues and see what they are using for insights and real world feedback and compare notes.

Final Cut Pro - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

Final Cut Pro - Apple Community

+1. Leroy's advice is, as always, excellent.

My additional thoughts: I think the place to put extra money is in more storage, not RAM or processing power. Nothing inside a Macbook Pro can be upgraded/increased after the computer comes off the assembly line, so looking ahead is the "new normal."

Recommendations can depend on the purpose of the computer. If this is to be your only computer, get all the storage you can afford. If you think a 512GB SSD is enough storage today, get the 1TB SSD.

We see to many sob stories here from users who bought too little storage or too little RAM. And then they discover that nothing can been upgraded and they are stuck with it. See this recent post:

I don't have enough storage to install MacOS Monterey

☝🏻Remember: what you order today will be your "forever storage and RAM," at least until you replace the computer.

If this is a backup or travel computer and you have a powerful desktop at home, extra RAM and storage are less critical. My old Macbook Pro is for when I travel or have meetings away from the house. Work-in-progress files needed across my devices are in Dropbox. My 9-year-old Macbook Pro (the last the could be upgraded) works perfectly in that roll with an aftermarket 512GB SSD and 8GB RAM. Anything more would be overkill.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Get a reliable external backup drive and use it! For the same reason you cannot upgrade storage, you cannot remove the old SSD for data recovery should your logic board fail. Lacking an external backup drive, you will lose everything if disaster strikes.

Go out to YouTube and watch the many videos on this very subject. So many people came to the conclusion 16GB in the base (if anyone could call any MacBook Pro with an M1 chip, base) was more than adequate for their needs using Final Cut Pro.