u/karamvirchopra

The gist of this post: I need help choosing which new MacBook to get - figured this would be the best place to get some good advice and opinions. The price hike couldn't have come at a worse time, but fuck it I guess.

Going to lay EVERYTHING I possibly can out for you here (apologies in advance if this ends up being a long post, I just want to make a well informed decision):

1. My Current Laptop:

13 inch M1 MacBook Pro (2020), 256gb storage, 8gb memory, running MacOS Tahoe. Did me well for over 6 years, but it's just gotten too slow and laggy now that my usage has gotten more complex.

2. My Main Use Cases:

I'm a graphic designer, so a lot of the primary applications I use are design based. Listing them out here:

- Adobe Illustrator: Complex files get slow, 3d & materials nearly impossible to use

- Adobe Photoshop: Larger files with many layers get super slow, storage issues often hold me back from even opening some of the files

- Adobe After Effects: Very simple motion work (mainly because my laptop can't handle more than that)

- Figma

- Framer

- Logic Pro X: I also produce and engineer music. A lot of my sessions cross 100-150 tracks, and have many channels with heavy processing, which really slows my computer down. Tracking multiple layers of vocals is also a complete shit show

Important context here: Most of the time, I'm working between multiple applications at the same time (e.g. Illustrator + Photoshop + After Effects), or at least some combination of 2 or more applications. This goes alongside Chrome which I have open 24/7 lol

3. Additional Use Cases I Would Like my New MacBook to Handle:

What you read above is the extent of my use cases currently primarily because that's all my laptop can really handle. Here are some more that I would like to add:

- 3D Design: I want to get into 3D Design seriously, and the only thing stopping me right now is my hardware. I've tried Blender on my laptop but it's extremely slow (even moving things around in the viewport is laggy).

- 3D Animation: 3D Animation is a big part of that too - while I've tried Blender, I've been thinking about actually building this skill of mine on Cinema4D instead. Note here that Design is my profession, so I want the ability to add 3D Design to my arsenal at a professional level, not just as a hobby

- More Complex Motion Design: My current use case for After Effects is extremely limited. Granted, I'm not that well versed with the software, but I'd like to be able to do more complex motion work without my laptop being a roadblock. For context: I tried rendering a 60 second clip from after effects the other day (30fps, 1080p, literally just a fluid gradient background with a few elements appearing every now and then), it took my computer 24 minutes to complete...

- I also want to move back to using my laptop along with a secondary monitor or display. This is something I used to do back when my projects and work weren't as complex or heavy as they are now - not sure if this is relevant but it's something I'd like for the laptop to be able to handle well I guess

4. My Considerations for a New MacBook:

- Chip: I'm confused between the M5 Pro & M5 Max. I don't know if M5 Max is really overkill, but I just don't want to feel like I bought something that wasn't powerful enough and regret it later if my 3d animation work for example becomes more complex in the next couple years (considering I'll use this laptop for at least another 5 years). I'd also love some suggestions on what core CPU and GPU I should be getting

- Size: I'm pretty set on the 14", only because the 16" is far too expensive

- Display: Just curious whether the Nano Texture display is really worth it?

- Memory: This will obviously depend on what chip I choose, but I'd be open to what you think would be sufficient for me and my use case

- Storage: If I could, I'd max it out lol, but I'm sticking with 2TB

- Budget: I'm actually unsure about this, which is why I've left it for the end. I'm willing to spend a little bit extra if it's really going to help and make a significant difference in performance

That's pretty much everything from my end. Feel free to ask me for any other info about my usage or what I want to achieve that you think I may have left out. Thank you in advance for the help 🙏🏻🙏🏻