14-inch versus 16-inch MacBook Pros: Throttling?

[Gianni63]

How do the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with the *same* M3 Max 16-core CPU chip (the highest spec-ed M3 Max) and the same amount of memory, say 64GB, compare in terms of performance?

I am afraid of buying the 14-inch model and then discover that, under heavy load, it throttles the CPU because of heat dissipation issues that the 16-inch model may not have...

Can the 16-inch model be faster than the 14-inch because of heat dissipation/throttling issues with the 14-inch model?

If so, which benchmark(s) can show this?

 

[Darajavahus]

Yes

 

[MisterSavage]

Yes

I remember seeing something similar for the M1 Pro also. I've never regretted getting a 14" M1 Pro for my development work.

 

[Robbo1]

This video compares performance of the 14" M3 Max 16/40 and the 16" M3 Max 16/40. Throttling appears minimal.

 

[macduke]

It looks like in the video above, under longer duration sustained loads like rendering out a video the 14” throttles a bit probably because of the smaller enclosure and thermal system. But it’s hard to tell if that’s the total difference since the 16” in the test had twice as much RAM at 128GB. But even so, on that Premiere test the 14” M3 Max still beat out the Mac Stufio M2 Ultra by a little bit, so I wouldn’t worry much!

 

[Gianni63]

Thank you all for these benchmark videos and this useful information! It looks like the 14-inch M2 Max can have some significant throttling when really pushed, while this is less of an issue with the M3 Max (at least in preliminary tests).

Also, the « High Power Mode » is an option on the 14-inch M3 Max, but not on the 14-inch M2 Max: this also suggests that thermal control on the 14-inch M3 Max has improved. As some posters wrote in the « High Power Mode » thread, it will be interesting to see whether this is because the M3 Max chip runs cooler than the M2 Max chip , or because Apple improved the heat-control internals (eg heat sink) of the 14-inch M3 Max: I hope we will see an iFixit year down that will clarify this.

 

[kevindick217]

I just returned my 14" M3 Max 16/40.

It was bordering on unusable. When doing anything beyond just putting around in Finder, the fans ramped up to max and it slowed down to a slideshow.

I checked using asitop, and some temp monitoring tools, and found that the cpu cores were shooting up to 100-108c, and clock frequency throttling down over the course of 20-30 seconds until flatlinning at 1ghz (at which point everything slowed to a crawl).

The computer seriously felt slower than my M1 air (and run baldurs gate at lower fps after 30 seconds and throttling kicked in), while feeling hot to the touch and blasting fans.

Hugely disappointed, I wonder if I had a bad unit since it's hard to believe apple would release a computer like this, feels broken.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I just returned my 14" M3 Max 16/40.

It was bordering on unusable. When doing anything beyond just putting around in Finder, the fans ramped up to max and it slowed down to a slideshow.

I checked using asitop, and some temp monitoring tools, and found that the cpu cores were shooting up to 100-108c, and clock frequency throttling down over the course of 20-30 seconds until flatlinning at 1ghz (at which point everything slowed to a crawl).

The computer seriously felt slower than my M1 air (and run baldurs gate at lower fps after 30 seconds and throttling kicked in), while feeling hot to the touch and blasting fans.

Hugely disappointed, I wonder if I had a bad unit since it's hard to believe apple would release a computer like this, feels broken.

What you described is not normal computer behavior.

 

[ascender]

I am afraid of buying the 14-inch model and then discover that, under heavy load, it throttles the CPU because of heat dissipation issues that the 16-inch model may not have...

What do you mean by "heavy load"? i.e. what are you going to be using the machine for?

The 16" will throttle less, be quieter when you're hammering the CPU (larger fans, better thermals) etc. But depending what you're planning to use the laptop for, you may never notice it. Or if you're working it flat out for short periods of time, it might be a non-issue.

 

[kevindick217]

What you described is not normal computer behavior.

Yeah I was pretty shocked, this was worse than the 15" intel 8 core lap burners we had at work.

Based on your sig, I'm guessing you have not had any such problems with the M3 Pro in the 14"?

Any issues with all core workloads like 7ziping up a large file, or GPU heavy workloads like games or 3D tools?

Im debating getting the M3 Pro, or taking this experience as a sign and sticking with the M1 Air a year or 2 more.

 

[Lucas Curious]

The 14" M3 Max 14/30 will throttle down to 3.4 Ghz on full load in Cinebench. It typically runs at 3.6 Ghz
During regualr use with GPU only heavy work, it stays cool. CPU will run fans under higher CPU load.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Yeah I was pretty shocked, this was worse than the 15" intel 8 core lap burners we had at work.

Based on your sig, I'm guessing you have not had any such problems with the M3 Pro in the 14"?

Any issues with all core workloads like 7ziping up a large file, or GPU heavy workloads like games or 3D tools?

Im debating getting the M3 Pro, or taking this experience as a sign and sticking with the M1 Air a year or 2 more.

If you're workload is fine on an Air, you should have never heard the fan. Sounds like an individual computer issue.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yeah I was pretty shocked, this was worse than the 15" intel 8 core lap burners we had at work.

Based on your sig, I'm guessing you have not had any such problems with the M3 Pro in the 14"?

Any issues with all core workloads like 7ziping up a large file, or GPU heavy workloads like games or 3D tools?

Im debating getting the M3 Pro, or taking this experience as a sign and sticking with the M1 Air a year or 2 more.

I haven't had any problems unzipping very large files. I haven't done any gaming, yet, although I plan on it. I have also done 4K encoding and haven't heard the fans nor has the Mac gotten hot. I haven't done much on this 14" yet because I am waiting on my BTO 14" 36GB / 2TB to arrive (hopefully early next week).

One thing I think people need to remember is the bench tests are very extreme and do not represent real life use. Do not base a purchase on YouTube people like MaxTech and his ilk. Those guys are not honest in what they do, in my opinion.

 

[lclev]

I replaced my M1 Max 10/32/64gb with an M3 Max 16/40/64gb. I use Premiere Pro for video work. I typically will send finished videos to media encoder and stack them to encode when I finish with all the videos I have to create that day - usually about 4 hours worth of HD quality. I will start media encoder then proceed to work in Photoshop. Yes, the M3 fans will ramp up. I monitor the heat and fans using TG Pro. It will get hot but I noticed the fans are not maxing out but I can hear them. They are no louder than the M1 is when doing the same workload. When encoding ends it will cool down fast and the fans stop almost as soon as encoding does. That is the only app that has ramped up the fans. Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator do not even start the fans.

For comparison, I loaded the same Premiere project into the M1 and then the M3 and timed the encoding time. The M3 is faster. A one hour HD video took 7 minutes versus 14 minutes on the M1. That is just a rough comparison but I was curious to see what speed improvements had been made.

 

[Melbourne Park]

The 16" does have some advantages for some. They are IMO:
screen;
charger;
sound;
cooling (=> heavy usage performance);
prestige (the 14" can have MacBook Air performance)
& battery size.

Keyboard - I think they are the same.

Downsides:
price
& bulk/weight.

 

[donnybrook]

prestige (the 14" can have MacBook Air performance)

What does this mean exactly?

 

[kevindick217]

Got the m3 pro and and it is much more stable under load than the max was (and my air was). The air would throttle but at least stay at a reasonable speed, the max crashed straight into a wall.

Wish I could have the speed of the max but happy with the pro in this form factor. At all core loads stays at about 25 watts and have no issues now.

Baldurs gate also runs great, much more stable/smooth than the max was.

 

[kevindick217]

What does this mean exactly?

Not the OP, but I'm guessing they meant that the 14" can be configured with the base M3 chip, which will likely show up in a MacBook Air and iPad at some point. The 16" can only be specced with an M3 pro or max.

That prestige problem can be partially solved by ordering space black though 😅