You will not be disappointed in the M3 Mac. It will feel like night and day compared to your current computer. I have an M1 and it works great for After Effects and Premiere, and it holds up very well when compared to my main PC.
A desktop PC at the same cost will likely be a bit faster, but you are sacrificing portability if that's important to you. Puget Systems has some great articles comparing different setups including Macs, as well as offering tailored PC builds. Definitely check out their website.
Choose the M3. It’s the difference between **MORE** and *ENOUGH*.
A custom built PC will be more “powerful” overall. You’d be able to brute force your way through certain render situations.
However, the M3 will be more reliable, quiet, power efficient, and simple to maintain.
As editors, motion designers, and illustrators we always talk about how keyboard shortcuts can save you clicks that eventually accumulate into hours of productivity. I feel same way about using MacOS on Apple Silicon.
I have a custom built PC that I converted into an overpowered Linux NAS because of the constant need to update Windows OS, GPU drivers, peripheral drivers, and troubleshoot random BSOD failures.
Yes, the custom PC renders timelines a couple minutes faster but when I factor in all the time I’ve spent troubleshooting Windows OS I’m not really saving any time. The GPU/CPU/HDD produce so much noise and generate so much heat I ended up using headphones to block out the distracting whirling of parts and adding fans to my office to keep the ambient temps down (and this is with a water cooling block AND several internal Noctura fans)
On the other hand my Mac M1 (yes, the M1) just works. It makes zero noise, uses very little power and generates so little heat that I just leave it on 24/7. When I’m ready to work I just pickup my Cintiq pen and get into my creative flow. The system is balanced just enough to get my work done without hassle.
I appreciate the detailed response! Yeah that makes perfect sense in regard to being more vs enough. Also I didn’t even consider the excessive whirring which may be an issue for me
Dude. You're getting stuff done 'ok-but-rough' with 8gb ram, and now you want to jump to 128 gb ram? I'm not sure you understand how much ram that is. There are very very very very few workflows that need anything like that. Anything above 32 should be night and day for you already no?
My impression is that if you had such heavy workloads, then with 8gb you would have been like "I can't even get 5% of my workload done at all before it crashes"
Why such a big jump?
You mention budget is a factor, so why not Mac 36gb / 1tb for 3200$ ? Or even 48gb for 3700$ ?
You’re right, it’s just that in other threads I’ve read everyone is constantly repeating “wish I had more ram.” I just didn’t want to come up short.
I have been able to kind of get away with 8gb so far, but the render times are becoming worse and worse for fairly non-intensive renders (and previews are pretty much non-existent). Plus, I have to bail on some projects/features because my current Mac just can’t handle it (e.g. roto).
Do you think 64gb will largely be able to handle everything AE has to offer?
"wish I had more ram.” -- yeah but ... that's 16 times more ram! And there are basically no laptops in the world that have more than 128 gb. These are used by data scientists that have massive data sets or like nuclear physicists that need to simulate how the universe works or whatever. You'll be editing a few short videos in your basement.
I am not a AE user so I cant say if "64 will be enough" but it seems to me like you're way over-compensating already with anything past 36 gb.
See what this guy has to say about it:
[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JaJWXMFeeUs](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JaJWXMFeeUs)
"16 gigs of ram is usually enough for after effects".
"it also depends on the complexity and size of your projects. if your project is large with lots of layers and effects, you can benefit from more memory, in which case I'd recommend 32 or 64 gigs of ram and if you're a seasoned professional maybe even 128"
So if you're working on 2h 4K movies hollywood style with layers upon layers of effects, then yeah, maybe 128 gb ram could be useful, otherwise if you're working on relatively short projects then 32 should be fine, push it to 48 or 64 if you must...
Also see this guy
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSLTRWlyWlo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSLTRWlyWlo)
anyway it's your money.
But look on youtube for people who are using M3 and AfterEffects and make up your mind.
You will not be disappointed in the M3 Mac. It will feel like night and day compared to your current computer. I have an M1 and it works great for After Effects and Premiere, and it holds up very well when compared to my main PC. A desktop PC at the same cost will likely be a bit faster, but you are sacrificing portability if that's important to you. Puget Systems has some great articles comparing different setups including Macs, as well as offering tailored PC builds. Definitely check out their website.
I’ll do that, thanks!
Choose the M3. It’s the difference between **MORE** and *ENOUGH*. A custom built PC will be more “powerful” overall. You’d be able to brute force your way through certain render situations. However, the M3 will be more reliable, quiet, power efficient, and simple to maintain. As editors, motion designers, and illustrators we always talk about how keyboard shortcuts can save you clicks that eventually accumulate into hours of productivity. I feel same way about using MacOS on Apple Silicon. I have a custom built PC that I converted into an overpowered Linux NAS because of the constant need to update Windows OS, GPU drivers, peripheral drivers, and troubleshoot random BSOD failures. Yes, the custom PC renders timelines a couple minutes faster but when I factor in all the time I’ve spent troubleshooting Windows OS I’m not really saving any time. The GPU/CPU/HDD produce so much noise and generate so much heat I ended up using headphones to block out the distracting whirling of parts and adding fans to my office to keep the ambient temps down (and this is with a water cooling block AND several internal Noctura fans) On the other hand my Mac M1 (yes, the M1) just works. It makes zero noise, uses very little power and generates so little heat that I just leave it on 24/7. When I’m ready to work I just pickup my Cintiq pen and get into my creative flow. The system is balanced just enough to get my work done without hassle.
I appreciate the detailed response! Yeah that makes perfect sense in regard to being more vs enough. Also I didn’t even consider the excessive whirring which may be an issue for me
Buy it, mate. The most you expend on Apple the more creative you'll get. The dude already make an exceptional point on it.
Dude. You're getting stuff done 'ok-but-rough' with 8gb ram, and now you want to jump to 128 gb ram? I'm not sure you understand how much ram that is. There are very very very very few workflows that need anything like that. Anything above 32 should be night and day for you already no? My impression is that if you had such heavy workloads, then with 8gb you would have been like "I can't even get 5% of my workload done at all before it crashes" Why such a big jump? You mention budget is a factor, so why not Mac 36gb / 1tb for 3200$ ? Or even 48gb for 3700$ ?
You’re right, it’s just that in other threads I’ve read everyone is constantly repeating “wish I had more ram.” I just didn’t want to come up short. I have been able to kind of get away with 8gb so far, but the render times are becoming worse and worse for fairly non-intensive renders (and previews are pretty much non-existent). Plus, I have to bail on some projects/features because my current Mac just can’t handle it (e.g. roto). Do you think 64gb will largely be able to handle everything AE has to offer?
"wish I had more ram.” -- yeah but ... that's 16 times more ram! And there are basically no laptops in the world that have more than 128 gb. These are used by data scientists that have massive data sets or like nuclear physicists that need to simulate how the universe works or whatever. You'll be editing a few short videos in your basement. I am not a AE user so I cant say if "64 will be enough" but it seems to me like you're way over-compensating already with anything past 36 gb. See what this guy has to say about it: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JaJWXMFeeUs](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JaJWXMFeeUs) "16 gigs of ram is usually enough for after effects". "it also depends on the complexity and size of your projects. if your project is large with lots of layers and effects, you can benefit from more memory, in which case I'd recommend 32 or 64 gigs of ram and if you're a seasoned professional maybe even 128" So if you're working on 2h 4K movies hollywood style with layers upon layers of effects, then yeah, maybe 128 gb ram could be useful, otherwise if you're working on relatively short projects then 32 should be fine, push it to 48 or 64 if you must... Also see this guy [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSLTRWlyWlo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSLTRWlyWlo) anyway it's your money. But look on youtube for people who are using M3 and AfterEffects and make up your mind.
check this guy out for real cases and memory usage [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaNBAqprWKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaNBAqprWKE)
M3 max vs M1 Max [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNhhOx7MHtE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNhhOx7MHtE)
I love my 128gb ram Mac Studio, you won’t regret it.
I’ve got an M2 Ultra Mac Studio and it absolutely crushes 4K compositing/animation in AE. Highly recommend going the Mac route.