Evaluating M1/2 Mac with 8GB RAM against Komplete Ultimate
Posted: 19 Feb 2024
I'm in the process of getting a cheap temporary Mac for the next year or two.
It's either going to be 8 GB or 16 GB, and I'm veering more towards an M2 Mac Mini as I don't see much use for it on the bus
I've installed Komplete Ultimate on my mum's old M1 Macbook (fresh OSX install) with only 8GB RAM and 256 GB internal SSD (with my external 2 GB SSD).
I've barely seen the CPU bar whisper when running a few of my tracks. I had the buffer size set to 128, I'm still installing stuff at the same time (NI installations are slow) and I've about 9 tabs open in Chrome.
I haven't tested every track, and I don't have lots of orchestral instruments in all of them, but the fact it didn't flinch in the slightest tells me I might lose nothing by getting one with 8 GB RAM. And these tracks laid my old laptop to rest (which is why I had to upgrade to a 10th Gen a couple of years ago).
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Note: I configured Kontakt with a minimal cache so that it streams as much as it can from the SSD (the whole point being to leverage the SSD to minimize RAM use).
I'll be uber busy for the next few days so I doubt I'll get a chance to put my old tracks through it before the weekend.
Will share my results ASAP.
It's either going to be 8 GB or 16 GB, and I'm veering more towards an M2 Mac Mini as I don't see much use for it on the bus
I've installed Komplete Ultimate on my mum's old M1 Macbook (fresh OSX install) with only 8GB RAM and 256 GB internal SSD (with my external 2 GB SSD).
I've barely seen the CPU bar whisper when running a few of my tracks. I had the buffer size set to 128, I'm still installing stuff at the same time (NI installations are slow) and I've about 9 tabs open in Chrome.
I haven't tested every track, and I don't have lots of orchestral instruments in all of them, but the fact it didn't flinch in the slightest tells me I might lose nothing by getting one with 8 GB RAM. And these tracks laid my old laptop to rest (which is why I had to upgrade to a 10th Gen a couple of years ago).
---
Note: I configured Kontakt with a minimal cache so that it streams as much as it can from the SSD (the whole point being to leverage the SSD to minimize RAM use).
I'll be uber busy for the next few days so I doubt I'll get a chance to put my old tracks through it before the weekend.
Will share my results ASAP.