So I thought I would post another update to this thread, after using the 14" M1 Pro macBook I've decided to return it to Apple.
It's a fantastic machine, but they are so good they've effectively killed off the re-sale value of the Intel equivalents.
In 2019 I paid £3k for a top of the range 16" MacBook Pro, 8-core i9, 64GB RAM, 8GB GPU and 1TB SSD. It's an amazing machine and I bought it because I worked away 3 days a week in Milton Keynes and my 9 year old MacBook was showing its age, so I bought the new one so I could spend my evenings in the hotel editing images in Lightroom etc.
But not long after I bought it the pandemic started so I didn't really get much use out of it, now I'm a permanent homeworker I was still using my 27" iMac and the 16" was sat in its protective cover.
I decided to get the M1 version and sell the 16, but I'm sure if anyone has looked at the resale market but they're not selling.
So I had to sit down and think to myself "what am I getting from the 14 M1 that I'm not getting from the Intel 16"' and the answer was not a lot. I'm selling my iMac so I'd bought a 32" LG screen so whichever MacBook I keep will be my daily driver that I can just disconnect 1 USBC cable and take with me.
So I decided the common sense approach would be to keep the 16.
For people who are thinking about the M1, it's an amazing machine, I love the new design but I would caution people about RAM.
After watching countless reviews I thought 16GB would be enough for me, and initially it was, however once I started using Lightroom masking tools or sending pictures to Affinity Photo for editing I was starting to see some slowdown. Checking Activity Monitor it was clear why, Lightroom was using 16GB Ram and there was around 8-9GB swapping taking place.
Now don't get me wrong this wasn't a dramatic slowdown but I was getting the spinning wheel, this was the other factor that helped in my decision, swapping back to my 16" with 64GB and doing similar edits, it flies, no slowdown and less than 40GB Ram was in use so no swapping and no slowdown.
So I will be starting a return with Apple this weekend and taking advantage of the extended Christmas return period.
At least I know in a few years when I will be ready to upgrade that I won't be disappointed with Apple silicone.
Sorry for the long post.