When I transitioned from a high sierra mac to the new M1 i was honestly amazed with how many plugins still functioned. This machine is a tank and theres plugs back from 2013 that run just fine. Really the only issue ive had is none of my Acustica plugs work and when emailing their support they told me to get lost.

 

Rosetta 2 makes them work.

I'd like to have the Mac Studio, but 5 k is just too much. I could get an SSL Fusion for that. I have an i9 10859K Hackintosh which is more than sufficient for now.

To Cut to the chase: don't buy an Intel mac. It's a dead platform. Latest CPU in iMacs is 10th Gen Cometlake which is about 2 years old now. Current gen is the 12th which can run in Hackintoshes.

 

The issue is, that the RAM used in the Mac Studio for example is not your usual RAM. you can take it out but it's not like a RAM stick from a PC which contains the RAM chips AND a Controller. Instead it's the pure RAM chip, the controller remains on the board and is not interchangeable, according to Lewis Rossman.

 

I upgraded from a 2011 macbook to the m1... so yeah I actually had to upgrade

 

Rosseta 2 will last.. 2 or 3 years more.. so.. alot of Plugins will vanish if they don't release them into Mac Silicon Chips.. but that's how things are.. we have to adapt in 10 years in 2025 ..

some people said that Rosseta 2 uses More Ram than using Intel Plugins.. too..

but yeah.. I will buy Mac M1 rather than Intel...

 

Last edited: Mar 31, 2022

M1. No contest. This thing is quiet. I hardly hear the fans if ever. Unlike the Intel ones. M1 Pro or Max and as much RAM as you can afford. Remember: know your needs, adjust accordingly, and future proof if you can afford it.

 

That's right. And it happens with all M1 chips. Sucks ballz not to be able to update your RAM but at the same is the most important innovation that makes those chips fly.
Just imagine. A lot (for both CPU and GPU) of regular PCIe lanes on the motherboard versus direct big pipes inside the same main chip.

 

old plugins, programs and drivers are 32bit and are not supported on any newer MacOS than Mojave, you cannot downgrade MacOS on newer Macs, so that would be bigger concern than Intel vs M1,

only major limitation of M1 for my needs is, it can't run virtual x86-based MacOS/Windows machines, neither Bootcamp - but it is possible to run Audio Gridder plugin server for Windows plugins within Crossover on MacOS, even on M1: https://audiosex.pro/threads/crossg...un-windows-vsts-on-macos-and-linux-yes.61968/

I'd say it's nothing really wrong about buying second-hand used older Intel Mac if you just want to mess around, or build a hackintosh if you want squeeze more performance and don't mind messing around,
but in the end it's only the Apple Silicon M1 platform which is meant to remain relevant in future, so my money right now would probably go this way - that said, M1 MacMini with 16GB is powerful enough to serve as "testing" platform for your questionable plugin functionality (M1 Pro/Max/Ultra have more cpu cores, but the speed is basically same, there isn't even any performance improvement buying desktop Mac Studio vs MacBook nowadays)

 

problem with 12th gen Intel cpus is, they have different "performance" and "efficiency" cores, and as far as I know, MacOS kernel power management cannot handle that effectively, so performance of hackintosh on such platform is either compromised by randomly scheduling workloads onto weak cores, or disabling all the weak efficiency cores in BIOS, big waste of money then imo

 

That's all covered by OpenCore by now, I think. But still, macOS was not designed to run on anything Intel past 10th gen, so it's not the smartest idea to invest into Intel Core CPUs. Especially if you are new to this.

I'd would rather invest my money in high core count CPUs like Skylake X/W or Cascade Lake X/W if you want to stay with Intel. But that will be expansive as well and trickier to configure as Hackintoshes. Especially if you want Thunderbolt.

 

Last edited: Apr 1, 2022

I think not, or must be very recent OpenCore update?
https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/qndvj6/will_intel_12th_gen_work_on_hackintosh/

 

Might I ask sir, did you get the Mac Mini M1 and if so, what's the RAM on the machine?