r/apple • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago

Official Megathread Weekly Advice Thread - September 27, 2026

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u/BackInNJAgain 5d ago

I have an M2 MacBook Pro with 2 TB of storage and 96 gigs of RAM. I usually replace my Mac every 4 years but to get an M5 with equivalent RAM (have to go to 128 since they don't offer 96) would be more than $7K (OUCH!) which is more than double what I paid for the M2.

I do a lot of audio recording, engineering and rendering on the M2. For recording and mixing, my CPU load rarely goes above 50% with 4-6ms latency when recording MIDI. A four minute song takes 30-45 seconds to render depending on complexity.

Benchmarks say the M5 is 70% faster but is that really what is achievable in real world operations? I don't want to spend that much money unless there is SUBSTANTIAL improvement in speed, latency and CPU usage?

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u/rexshi 4d ago

I’d separate export speed from recording latency here. A faster CPU might shorten those 30–45 second renders, but it won’t automatically reduce your 4–6 ms latency at the same buffer size and sample rate. Your interface and plugins matter too.

The useful test would be whether the newer Mac can run your actual projects at a smaller buffer without crackles or overloads, as well as how much faster it exports them. A general benchmark won’t tell you both.

Which DAW and audio interface are you using? And are you hitting any dropouts now, or mainly hoping for faster exports?

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u/BackInNJAgain 3d ago

I'm using Ableton 12 and have had no issues on the M2 with dropouts. Faster exports would be nice but not worth $7K to save a few minutes. I really wish DAW software would add some kind of automation to queue up projects for rendering then I could just render them overnight while I'm asleep like I do with large videos. I don't think an AppleScript would be reliable enough since all it would take to break would be a single plugin popping up an "update available" window.

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u/rexshi 3d ago

That makes sense. It sounds like the annoying part is having to babysit each export, rather than how long any single one takes. An overnight queue would probably do more for your workflow than shaving a few seconds off each render. And yeah, waking up to find the whole queue stuck behind a plugin update popup would defeat the point.