Hi all,
Ive been racking my brains recently deciding whether to get the M1 Max or M2 Max 16" MBP for my 1080p/4K/occasional 8K video editing in FCP/Davinci Resolve and 20-60MP RAW photo editing/panorama stitching in Lightroom/Photoshop/Affinity/GIMP/Pixelmator. I have watched all of the Youtube vids, including Max Tech's comparison video, and considering that Marques Brownlee is not upgrading to M2 Max and he edits 8K RED RAW footage with the M1 Max, and that apparently the difference in performance overall is not big, and the M2 Max runs quite a bit hotter (which i hate, i want the coolest possible), and that the price differrence where i live is large, I am pretty set on the M1 Max and that it will be enough. And yes, i need the Max over the Pro because of the extra dedicated video encoders/accellerators.
However, i would love if anybody could help me on the decision and if the difference in speed/snappiness between the M1 and M2 Max is noticeable and worth the big price difference. I understsnd you get more softwsre support with the M2 Max, but the M1 Max has enough software support i think, and i am completely fine with used stuff.
I can currently get the M1 Max 16" MBP almost maxed out with 64GB of RAM and 32c gpu and 1TB SSD (i refuse to pay a lot for/dont want/need more than 1TB internal, and i plan on using an external SSD anyway mostly) for 2899 on the US Apple Refurbished website with warranty and in excellent condition, and i think that is an AMAZING deal and very tempting, and want/need that 64GB of RAM for panorama stitching with hi res photos, etc., and i will not find a M2 Max MBP with more than 32GB of RAM for under 3k, which is my budget. From what i have seen, i will get a bigger difference in performance having double the RAM than having that small CPU/GPU bump.
I guess i solved my problem myself....i need a lot of RAM and performance under 3K (my budget), and the M1 Max is the only one that checks those boxes! However, as i said, help is very appreciated.
Speakers are better apparently too on the M1 Max, albeit the difference is not that big.
The only reason to get the M2 Max now is for the Wi-Fi 6E, and HDMI 2.1, which is very nice actually, but i need to think whether or not i actually will take advantage of that and if the price difference and losing half the RAM compared to the M1 Max is worth it to get the faster HDMI (the HDMI is more important to me than the Wi-Fi upgrade honestly, i am just fine waiting a bit longer for websites to load or stuff to finish downloading).
Thanks in advance for any help, which is much appreciated.
PS: i also dont think the M2 Max is worth it at all with its small bump if an M3 chip is around the corner.