#How much does a macbook pro cost at best buy pro#

My choice: 32GB (+$400) Picking a MacBook Pro 2021: How much SSD storage? I don't want to look back and think 'I shouldn't have been so cheap.' I've done that with hotels too much in my lifetime. But, thinking about making sure this thing could last til 2030? I went for it.

#How much does a macbook pro cost at best buy upgrade#

In fact, this is the most expensive upgrade I made, at $400 on top of the already pricey $1,999 model.Īnd I wouldn't argue that everyone necessarily needs 32GB of RAM. The architecture of Apple Silicone (the new system-on-chip design that Apple's replaced Intel's CPUs with) changed things up so that you've got a unified pool of memory that serves both the CPU and GPU cores. On top of that, I also want those video and image editing applications to export and save speedily, something that RAM plays a big a part in as ever. I want to be able to have all of the Chrome and Safari tabs open, if I so choose.

#How much does a macbook pro cost at best buy windows#

I don't really want to need to close browser windows if I don't feel like it. And it's the kind of thing where 16GB, the starting amount on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, could probably be enough.īut I don't really want enough for this MacBook Pro. On my 15-inch MacBook Pro I had 16GB of RAM, which often felt okay. My choice: M1 Pro with 10-core CPU and 14-core GPU (+$200) Picking a MacBook Pro 2021: How much RAM? And since future-proofing is a priority of mine, I see that 20% higher general performance as something I'm willing to pay $200 more for. Taking a bunch of the results here, I found that the 8-core M1 Pro MacBook Pro's hit an average of 9,803.6, while the 10-core MacBook Pro averaged 11,852.4 - which is 20% higher. I could have just gone with the base-level, 8-core CPU, but then I saw the Geekbench 5 scores that hit the internet. The most graphics-related work I'll wind up working with (at least from where I see myself at the moment), with some video editing where I take live-streams from my Twitch channel or videos I shoot on my phone, and chop them up into something more easily digestible.Īnd I chose the 10-core CPU/14-core GPU version, because (again) I think my priorities will lean more towards CPU than GPU. I want something future-proof, sure, but I also don't want to overpay for power I'll never use.

Also, the M1 Max ran Rise of the Tomb Raider at 74fps, much faster than the 39fps rate of the M1 Pro.Īll of this had me leaning toward M1 Pro, as I do not plan to push this MacBook Pro to its graphical extremes. On the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited test, the M1 Pro took home a score of 10,386 at 62.17 frames per second, behind the M1 Max's 20,220 score at 121 frames per second. Graphics tests saw the M1 Max win out, though.

That happened with the multi-core Geekbench 5 scores (M1 Pro: 12,477, M1 Max: 12,683) and our Handbrake video transcoding test (M1 Pro: 4:51, M1 Max: 4:48, where lesser is better) and the PugetBench Photoshop test (M1 Pro: 806, 4:54, M1 Max: 877, 4:44). In my review, I compared the 10-core M1 Pro-powered 14-inch MacBook Pro to a 10-core M1 Max-based 16-inch MacBook Pro, and found that they often had similar (or similar enough) scores. As someone who only needs to connect to one monitor at a time at the most, I knew the Pro would be closer to what I needed.

#How much does a macbook pro cost at best buy plus#

The first sign of this was when Apple said M1 Max systems could extend their displays to up to 4 displays at once (up to three of 6K displays plus one 4K panel), while the M1 Pro could merely connect to up to two 6K displays. I know, for a fact, that I don't need that turbo-charged M1 Max power. Though the binary decision of Apple M1 Pro vs M1 Max was as easy as anything. Next up, was figuring out how much power I needed, and this was arguably the trickiest step of the entire process. My choice: 14-inch MacBook Pro ($1,999) Picking a MacBook Pro 2021: M1 Pro or M1 Max? Both feature MagSafe 3 charging, HDMI-out, three Thunderbolt 4/USB4 ports, a headphone jack and an SD memory reader.

This decision is also made easier by the face that neither model has more or less ports. This was the juuuuust right Goldilocks option, and the easiest call of the bunch. Holding it, I knew pretty quickly that I wouldn't want a larger chassis. But then I got the 14-inch model in my hands for my review.