MacBook Pro with M4 Pro (2024) [+]
Jan 20 2025
I bought a 14" MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip (12-core CPU, 16-core GPU), 24 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD fro $1750 ($250 off) + tax and have been using it for about 4 months. My previous MBP was a 16" Intel (the last Intel version before M1 MBP was released) with 64 GB RAM, 8 GB Video RAM, 8 TB SSD for over $6k.
First off it's really fast. MacWhisper was transcription at about 1/2 real-time speed (6 hour recording taking 12+ hours to create a transcript) and now it's more like 8x real-time speed. AI transcription taking advantage of the M4 AI cores. Handbrake (video encoding which I use to re-encode Twitch VODs to a smaller format) is about 3x as fast.
I was worried about memory but it has not been a problem. Like right now it's:
20 GB used (App memory 7.4 GB, Wired 3.6 GB, Compressed 7.4 GB)
5 GB cached files
3.8 GB swap used
And I have lots of apps open including Xcode. Whenever I check it's about 18 GB used even running DDO or Tiny Tina's Wonderlands via CrossOver. Which coming back to speed DDO runs great with graphics on medium or high and two instances running where before two instances could lag with low graphics (especially on warm days). Tiny Tina's on medium graphics runs great and before I had to keep it on low. Mind you CrossOver is not Silicon-native so it's going through Rosetta 2 translation.
I haven't tried running Windows via VMWare Fusion, mostly because I haven't been able to get one of the free personal licenses. At this point I'm back to "avoid running Windows at all and depend on CrossOver", though CrossOver didn't work with Red Dead Redemption 2 and that runs ok on the Intel MBP Bootcamp-ing into Windows 10.
As regards to performance the fan is usually off and when on much quieter than on my Intel MBP. It comes on for MacWhisper and Handbrake. Sometimes for CrossOver DDO and always for Tiny Tina's.
512 GB SSD is rather small. I bought Samsung T7 Portable SSD, 4 TB size for less than $300 and I don't notice it's any slower than the internal SSD (though I suppose if I had to run macOS from the external SSD I'd notice). Moving everything off I could (you can set Music, Photos, TV, Steam, CrossOver to use an external drive; App Store install too but only for applications bigger than 1 GB) I have 300 GB free on the internal SSD.
Still, an external drive is not the most seamless solution. macOS doesn't really support user home folders on external drive (you can set it in advanced options but in my experience login would have issues like some dock icons being blank because external drive doesn't mount until later in the login process). User Library folder is still on internal drive. Download file option in Safari (e.g. when you look at a PDF and then cursor to bottom a download button shows up) goes to downloads folder you set. Mail though will download to user Download folder if you use one way to one-click download and will use the download folder you set in settings if you use the other way to download. And recently I can't set a file type default app to an application on external drive.
External SSD uses a USB-C port and MBP M4 has only three of those. Luckily it has a dedicated MagSafe 3 port for power and an HDMI port for a monitor so turns out I didn't have to buy a dock for extra ports. I use MagSafe for power; USB-C for external SSD, 27" monitor, USB hub on the monitor; HDMI for 24" monitor; audio out for headphones. That leaves the SDXC card slot which I guess can also be an external drive although looking it up its max 2 TB and USB 2 transfer speed.
14" monitor is a bit smaller than my Intel MBP 16". You can set it on max space and with good eyesight it's fine and for me usable if I keep close to the monitor. When I visit my parents it's usable and I can play DDO or other games fine. But even the 16" was kind of small and much prefer a 27"+ monitor.
I haven't really tested battery life. Seems to last longer but I'm rarely on battery. WiFi 6 is a bit faster connected to a WiFI 6 router like I now have. Running Intel apps I don't notice any difference as Rosetta 2 is really good and the M4 is really fast.
Overall I find that this is a great machine that is not limiting, other than SSD space. This plus the external SSD were both less than $2500 including tax but no extended warranties. I feel like 24 GB memory is good though I'd benefit from 32 GB to eliminate swap space usage (just noticed 4K Video Downloader+ is using 5.7 GB memory but it's not doing anything, yikes).
First off it's really fast. MacWhisper was transcription at about 1/2 real-time speed (6 hour recording taking 12+ hours to create a transcript) and now it's more like 8x real-time speed. AI transcription taking advantage of the M4 AI cores. Handbrake (video encoding which I use to re-encode Twitch VODs to a smaller format) is about 3x as fast.
I was worried about memory but it has not been a problem. Like right now it's:
20 GB used (App memory 7.4 GB, Wired 3.6 GB, Compressed 7.4 GB)
5 GB cached files
3.8 GB swap used
And I have lots of apps open including Xcode. Whenever I check it's about 18 GB used even running DDO or Tiny Tina's Wonderlands via CrossOver. Which coming back to speed DDO runs great with graphics on medium or high and two instances running where before two instances could lag with low graphics (especially on warm days). Tiny Tina's on medium graphics runs great and before I had to keep it on low. Mind you CrossOver is not Silicon-native so it's going through Rosetta 2 translation.
I haven't tried running Windows via VMWare Fusion, mostly because I haven't been able to get one of the free personal licenses. At this point I'm back to "avoid running Windows at all and depend on CrossOver", though CrossOver didn't work with Red Dead Redemption 2 and that runs ok on the Intel MBP Bootcamp-ing into Windows 10.
As regards to performance the fan is usually off and when on much quieter than on my Intel MBP. It comes on for MacWhisper and Handbrake. Sometimes for CrossOver DDO and always for Tiny Tina's.
512 GB SSD is rather small. I bought Samsung T7 Portable SSD, 4 TB size for less than $300 and I don't notice it's any slower than the internal SSD (though I suppose if I had to run macOS from the external SSD I'd notice). Moving everything off I could (you can set Music, Photos, TV, Steam, CrossOver to use an external drive; App Store install too but only for applications bigger than 1 GB) I have 300 GB free on the internal SSD.
Still, an external drive is not the most seamless solution. macOS doesn't really support user home folders on external drive (you can set it in advanced options but in my experience login would have issues like some dock icons being blank because external drive doesn't mount until later in the login process). User Library folder is still on internal drive. Download file option in Safari (e.g. when you look at a PDF and then cursor to bottom a download button shows up) goes to downloads folder you set. Mail though will download to user Download folder if you use one way to one-click download and will use the download folder you set in settings if you use the other way to download. And recently I can't set a file type default app to an application on external drive.
External SSD uses a USB-C port and MBP M4 has only three of those. Luckily it has a dedicated MagSafe 3 port for power and an HDMI port for a monitor so turns out I didn't have to buy a dock for extra ports. I use MagSafe for power; USB-C for external SSD, 27" monitor, USB hub on the monitor; HDMI for 24" monitor; audio out for headphones. That leaves the SDXC card slot which I guess can also be an external drive although looking it up its max 2 TB and USB 2 transfer speed.
14" monitor is a bit smaller than my Intel MBP 16". You can set it on max space and with good eyesight it's fine and for me usable if I keep close to the monitor. When I visit my parents it's usable and I can play DDO or other games fine. But even the 16" was kind of small and much prefer a 27"+ monitor.
I haven't really tested battery life. Seems to last longer but I'm rarely on battery. WiFi 6 is a bit faster connected to a WiFI 6 router like I now have. Running Intel apps I don't notice any difference as Rosetta 2 is really good and the M4 is really fast.
Overall I find that this is a great machine that is not limiting, other than SSD space. This plus the external SSD were both less than $2500 including tax but no extended warranties. I feel like 24 GB memory is good though I'd benefit from 32 GB to eliminate swap space usage (just noticed 4K Video Downloader+ is using 5.7 GB memory but it's not doing anything, yikes).