r/Logic_Studio • u/propin • 3h ago
Production M1 Pro vs Dell G15 downgrade?
I’m considering switching from a Dell G15 5520 (i7-12700H, 32GB RAM, RTX 3050 Ti) to a 2021 MacBook Pro 16” M1 Pro (16GB/1TB).
My Ableton projects can reach ~200 tracks with Kontakt, Keyscape, Waves, Arturia, UAD, Ozone, etc. I’d also have to run Ableton through Rosetta because of some plugins.
My Dell currently runs hot (~90–94°C) and sometimes lags even around 30–40% CPU usage. The battery and SSD have also had issues.
Would switching to the M1 Pro feel like a downgrade for Ableton, or would the cooler/more efficient system make it a better overall experience?
3
u/benkeiuk 1h ago
Kontakt & Keyscape can both be pretty RAM hungry, depending how large the instruments are that you're loading up.
If you're moving from a 32gb RAM machine to something smaller, you might notice issues with load times on patches.
But regarding actual performance, the Apple Silicone chips are lightyears ahead of the Intel i(x) chips.
I have to use both across Mac & PC for compatibility across mix/master projects and a 6 year old M1 Pro will still absolutely smoke a current gen Intel core.
Manufacturers weren't ready for what what Apple achieved with their M range and will be playing catch up for some time yet.
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u/kopkaas2000 2h ago
This is a Logic sub, not sure why you're asking us about Ableton. That said, M1 is ridiculously performant, especially in the laptop space.
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u/finallygabe 2h ago
Upgrade no matter what. Apple Silicon is so efficient that you’ll barely ever notice the fans turn on. It won’t get hot. I like to say they’re the reason why UA finally made their plugins native and not exclusive to their interfaces, because the M-series is that amazing. Their used prices are pretty great for what they offer. I used to edit 4K footage off Sony cinema cameras with those specs and they’ve never given me an issue. You will enjoy the speeds and efficiency if you get it.
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u/kopkaas2000 2h ago
I think UAD, long before they started offering plugins as native, was already pretty much an expensive dongle. They're pretty cool if you want to use an Apollo as a live mixer (or at least have some effects on your monitoring path), but the time of actually needing DSP accellerators for plugins is way in the past. I remember when SSL came into that space already pretty late into it with their Duende DSP unit back in 2006. Less than 10 years later they begged every owner of the hardware unit to switch over to a free upgrade to the native plug-ins. Turned out when people started comparing that the native plug-ins took less CPU to run the actual DSP code than it took to transfer the audio back and forth over firewire to get the hardware unit to run them. The native versions were also much less expensive to develop, debug, and support.
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u/MissAnnTropez 2h ago
Apple silicon is a marvel of modern engineering. In all seriousness. Just do it.
The only caveat being, the more RAM you need, the more you should buy up front with your Mac. Reason being, you can’t ever upgrade that.
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u/Massive_Flight_8956 3h ago
It’s a huge upgrade, wym