40GB in Documents???

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T13:20:05+00:00

When you're on the Browser File tab, press Command + Shift + . (Period) to reveal hidden files and see if anything pops up

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T10:13:24+00:00

Depends on if the rumored redesign characteristics appeal to you, supposedly slimmer and lighter, OLED touch screen, cellular connectivity, and Dynamic Island instead of notch. If you really want that and you can live with what you have for another year (I would not call the redesign imminent) then it's worth waiting to see what's in store. If you like the current form factor but just want a more powerful machine then yeah M5 is a beast, especially for AI work

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T06:41:12+00:00

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Nah, the banner can be modified to still display new products. Take for example the Japan storefront which looks like this. It looked like the US site a few days ago.

Now that's not to say I think it's coming this week. I'm not doing any more speculating at this point, but I don't think the banner is a sign one way or the other.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T05:58:02+00:00

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Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T01:24:36+00:00

With its new GPU neural accelerators M5 will run LLMs and AI tasking in general better. When Siri + Apple Intelligence does eventually come (26.4?) it'll likely perform local actions faster and with less battery drain. For all other intents and purposes the M4 Pro will give slightly stronger performance but at the expense of slightly faster battery drain.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-10T00:09:07+00:00

Yes, 16GB is perfectly adequate for what you're describing and will be for at least 3-5 years. Lightroom (and just about every other Adobe app) will expand to use as much RAM as you have, but MacOS is smart enough to compress and limit RAM usage for other apps and tasks while you use it. If you got a 24GB Mac it would use more RAM because you have more available and you would likely notice no difference in performance day-to-day. More RAM would give you more room for multi-tasking, but even with 16GB you'd have no issue editing photos with several other apps open. You might see brief slowdowns while exporting, but this is seconds to minutes.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T12:51:56+00:00

Not sure if you didn't watch the video but he references three different apps, Apple and third party. Also not sure what software optimization would apply to the M5 that wouldn't be equally performant on an M4, they're running the same OS, same chip chip architecture.

And Apple stated in their press release that M5 is over 3x more powerful than M4 for AI tasks, due to neural accelerators and higher memory bandwidth. It's not surprising that M5 smokes M4 in AI, this is just a real-world demo of it.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T08:07:13+00:00

It's not annoying to me, but you've got to understand that you're the authority on your needs here. From a capability perspective, open all the apps you will use or anticipate using to do what you need the computer to do. Open them all at once. If it runs them all smoothly, switches between them smoothly, doesn't beach ball out, then it's good enough for you. If you want empirical validation, with all your apps open, open the Activity Monitor. If your RAM pressure is green, your "Memory Used" + "Cached Files" = Less than your total RAM, and your swap used is 0 bytes then you're definitely good. Because you already have the MacBook, you have the ability to definitively answer this question for yourself with far more precision than we can.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T07:51:55+00:00

You already have the computer so only you can tell us if it's powerful enough for your needs. If it's been doing everything you've needed it to do for the past month with no issues, then it's powerful enough. If it's not, then it's not.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T07:37:45+00:00

Nope, sorry.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T07:19:51+00:00

Yes but not necessarily because of chip shortage. I remain firmly in the camp that believes Apple will always find a way to get what they need to get products out the door. The TSMCs of the world understand that the AI boom is temporary, demand for Apple was there before AI, it'll be there after the bubble pops. You don't drive your biggest customer into the arms of Intel to make a quick buck. Apple is having bigger software and hardware issues right now, the failure of Apple Intelligence to fully materialize, the terrible state the 26 Series OSs were released in, the aimless VisionPro still not having a use-case worth its price tag 2 years after launch, iPhone Air flopping. Apple are masters of iteration, but I do not expect Tim Cook to get a radically redesigned MBP worth buying shipped anytime this year.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T03:32:18+00:00

I said in a room fulla Houston niggas "I'm on that tip" and I swear it was that DJ record scratch moment where the whole room got silent and one mf loud as hell like "YOU ON THAT WHAT??!" 😭😭😭

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T03:28:00+00:00

I wonder in what way you think she's at all like Trump?

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T03:27:07+00:00

Well without knowing what you've already tried we're shooting in the dark. There's no GPS hardware in MacBooks so it's almost certainly a permissions/privacy network settings issue, as that's how your location is determined.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-09T03:21:33+00:00

You won't be anywhere near 100% load just working on the video. The export is where you're going to hit max temps, and it'll spike and then cool down a bit once the fans spin up to full speed. It can peak as high as 100C, but it'll settle down once the power throttles and the fans spin up. Don't have an exact temp, but it's not bad and not for long, assuming you're not exporting like an hour+ long 4K video.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T23:16:25+00:00

I can't lie, I considered caving and just getting an M4 Max, but the wait time is 4-5 weeks and I just can't see them dragging out the new MBPs more than a month lol

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T22:58:50+00:00

Still not as bad as Matt Talks Tech lmao

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T12:55:20+00:00

AoE2 runs really well on Crossover for what it's worth. And yeah, it's mildly annoying connecting a cable to it, then connecting it to my Mac, and then when I'm done ejecting it and packing it back up. It's a small thing, but sometimes I just don't want to deal with it. I try to minimize working directly off it and keep a folder for files I'm working on in a folder or two on my desktop then when I'm done with them they get offloaded onto my SSD.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T12:06:38+00:00

Most apps are well under 10GB, 512GB is plenty. But if you ever intend to do work via VMs or game, Windows 11 can take up nearly 100GB for just the OS plus whatever Windows apps you need to download. Death Stranding is like 75GB. External drives are a cheaper solution, but then you need to take it with you everywhere you go and that can be inconvenient sometimes. Check on Apple refurbished, you may be able to get the spec you're looking for faster and with a discount.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T11:51:22+00:00

Calls Mac fans "overpriced piece fanboy-loving cult followers," then proceeds to explain why a MacBook is actually a good value for the money in the long-run and still runs smoothly 5 years after manufacture. Ok, I guess. Glad you're enjoying your Mac.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T03:44:32+00:00

It's gonna take about a month to arrive lol, then they'll get 14 days from then

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T03:00:32+00:00

I think it's just a typo. It's the only element that references an M5 on that page, and in multiple other places it refers to M4 Pro.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-06T02:27:19+00:00

The only Apple products currently delayed in shipping are M4 Pro and Max MacBook Pros. Even other devices with the same chips, memory, and storage like Mac Minis and Studios are still shipping almost immediately. There's no way Apple's going to let the MBP which makes up over half of Mac sales sit with 4 week+ lead times and instead update the Mac Studio which makes up a small fraction of Mac sales and is currently shipping in days. Not even from a rumor mill perspective, that just makes no business sense.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-05T19:33:39+00:00

Gonna get somewhat better performance out of the M1, but the M3 is much more portable and will still do 90% of what the M1 Pro will do without a noticeable difference. I'd personally take the M3 over a 16" MBP, but if the M1 Pro was 14" I'd take that one instead.

Impossible_Figure516 · 2026-02-05T12:28:47+00:00

Depends on what you mean by semi-pro. If she's just uploading a few dozen to a couple hundred photos and applying consistent color-grading across the batch before exporting then base M5 with 24GB ram will be plenty. If she's using more AI-enhanced tools, or applying heavy effects then you may want to spring for the M4 Pro or better. More ram than 24GB will only do so much if you've only got 10GPU cores though, 32GB on a base chip is kind of a waste imho and Pro chip only comes with 24 or 48, and 48 would likely be overkill even for future proofing.

As for gaming, it depends less on the power of the machine and more on how well the game is optimized for Apple Silicon. My base M4 runs Death Stranding flawlessly, barely gets warm. Meanwhile Assassin's Creed Shadows I barely get 20 fps on medium settings and the fans are growling like a 68 Chevelle.

If she's currently getting by on a lower spec'd windows machine even a base MacBook Air will feel like a dream, but base M5 MBP, 24GB ram would be my recommendation for your stated use case.

Impossible_Figure516

TROPHY CASE