The M1 chip (aka SoC, or system on chip) was the first Apple’s silicon processor to replace Intel processors, which have been used by the company since 2006/7. Which processor should I buy is more complicated than ever. With the arrival of the first M1 Macs in November 2020 the question of If you want more storage you can at least useĮxternal drives for housing weighty folders and archives. However, there are considerable benefits to solid state storage: they are much faster at accessing the data and they are less likely to get damaged. We think it was a good move by Apple, but of course it does mean that you get less storage for your money (entry-level iMacs used to ship with 1TB drives for example). Some designers may be disappointed that Apple no longer sells Macs with Fusion Drives – which combined an SSD with a large hard drive. You’ll likely be looking for the Mac with the biggest SSD you can find – and it’s worth upgrading at point of sale because, as with RAM, you can’t upgrade the SSD at a later date. StorageĬhances are that as a graphic designer you can dealing with lots of huge files. Which ever Mac you buy our advice is to order as much RAM as you can afford when you buy your Mac, even if Apple’s pricing for this is akin to being mugged. It’s also worth noting that the RAM in the M1 Macs is limited to 16GB, if you want to be able to add more than 16GB then you need to look to the M1 Pro (maximum 32GB RAM), Max (up to 64GB RAM), or Ultra (for 128GB RAM). However, because M1 Macs ship with 8GB RAM as standard, we recommend updating an M1 Mac to 16GB RAM at point of purchase, just because you won’t be able to later. This means that 8GB RAM in a M1 Mac isn’t really comparable to 8GB RAM in an Intel Mac – so you could conceivably find that even if your current Intel Mac struggles with 8GB RAM a M1 Mac shouldn’t. This set up does have some benefits: the memory, the CPU and the GPU are all on the same chip and this speeds up the transmission of data and improves performance. The RAM (Unified Memory) in the Macs that feature Apple’s M1 series of chips (M1, Pro, Max and Ultra) can not be upgraded, because it is an integrated part of the M1 chip. Guide to replacing RAM in your Mac for advice. If you want to save money you could purchase the RAM from a third party rather than Apple – but do bear in mind that you will void your warranty if you add it yourself. The RAM in the Mac Pro and the Intel-powered version of the Mac mini can be updated though. You may still be able to find one on sale, but we wouldn’t advise buying one. However, as of March 2022, Apple is no longer selling this iMac. There were some Macs that do offer the possibility of updating the RAM later – the 27in iMac, for example, had a hatch at the back of the display that could be opened and new RAM added. Apple offers the option to upgrade RAM (referred to as Universal Memory by Apple) in most models at point of purchase so it’s good practice to choose the most RAM you can afford. With all that in mind we’ll start off by running through our recommendations in terms of processor speed and cores, RAM, graphics, storage, display quality and ports.Īs we mentioned above, design applications tend to be RAM-hungry and, since the RAM inside most Macs (or any Mac with a M1 series chip) can’t be updated at a later date, we’d advise that you choose the most RAM available when you buy your Mac. In both cases you can no longer later add extra RAM or storage at a later date, so you might need to configure at the time of purchase. Two things that haven’t really changed over the years is the tendency for design applications to be RAM-hungry, and for the majority of design projects to require a fairly hefty amount of storage. The nature of employment may also require them to be more mobile, plus in addition to that you have the increase in working from home due to the pandemic, so where historically many designers opted for a Mac Pro or iMac, now the MacBook Pro and a secondary display might appeal. With this in mind the choice of display can be of great importance to a designer, who may be drawn to 5K or even 6K displays. But today, designers are increasingly likely to be working on screen-based design with their work may be destined to be viewed on displays of all shapes and sizes. A decade ago, perfect colour reproduction might have been the main concern for a designer when it came to buying new kit. The extremely rapid shift towards digital further complicates matters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |