My desktop rig went from a recent overclocked i5 32gb ram hackintosh to an 8gb ram m1 mini when they first came out, and the performance was mind blowing. I also grabbed an m1 mbp at the same time, which demolished my previous intel mbp but the hackintosh comparison is the one that sealed the debate for me. I had a massive cooler installed and yet the m1 mini was easily twice as fast.
I couldn't get my hands on the 16gb versions at launch, and for the first year they were still so much faster even when swapping 6-10gb but I am feeling the ram crunch a bit these days. I recently upgraded the rest of my team to the new 14 inch pros with 32gb ram and I'll be grabbing one for myself when I have the time next year to do a time machine transfer.
I couldn't get my hands on the 16gb versions at launch, and for the first year they were still so much faster even when swapping 6-10gb but I am feeling the ram crunch a bit these days. I recently upgraded the rest of my team to the new 14 inch pros with 32gb ram and I'll be grabbing one for myself when I have the time next year to do a time machine transfer.