16" M1 Pro vs 13" M2

[phoenix-mac-user]

I was looking to upgrade my 2020 M1 Macbook Air to one of the new M2 Macbooks with more memory because it was constantly going to swap. I am not a "heavy" user, I to a little video editing, etc, but I use a VDI for my work and leave a lot of browser windows open and I have noticed it being laggy.

Long story short, I went to Best Buy yesterday and they had an Open Box M1 Pro 16" for 1200 and I grabbed it as fast as I could.

Because I am a TotalTech member I am not worried about Open Box because I get AppleCare for 2 years on it. I probably would have bought the M2 Open Box as well if they had one.

I think I clearly made the right choice, Geekbench has it running faster than the M2, but is there any reason you would go with the M2 over the M1 Pro that I am not aware of? It is 2 years older, but it seems like it is much faster and better than the M2 (I don't have money to get the M2 Pro).

I still have time to return and get the M2. it was sort of a quick impulse purchase and overall I think I got a steal and am happy but I just want to make sure there is nothing I am missing while I am within the return window.

Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Delarock]

You compare 2 different machines, in term of performance i dont think you will feel any difference. And you will have much bigger and better display. If weight and size is not problem you should stay with M1 16.

 

[dizmonk]

To the OP I'm assuming you're not worried about the weight and size? I will very briefly consider the 16 since I think I need hands-on experience to determine if it is too heavy. I'm the most likely to stick with the 15 m2 MBA but I'll be curious how we both find the 16 M1. Keep us updated.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

To the OP I'm assuming you're not worried about the weight and size? I will very briefly consider the 16 since I think I need hands-on experience to determine if it is too heavy. I'm the most likely to stick with the 15 m2 MBA but I'll be curious how we both find the 16 M1. Keep us updated.

It is big but I don't mind the size.

I mostly keep it docked with a separate keyboard and mouse though and I will say it is much better as a 2nd monitor than my old 13", which was basically unusable as a 2nd monitor at a slight distance.

I think I have sort of answered the question I initially asked though. I didn't have this even on my radar because it was out of my price range and grabbed it, and then was concerned that there might be something that makes the M2 better than an M1 Pro. But that doesn't appear to be the case based on anything I have found. The M1 Pro is better and has higher benchmarks than the M2 (Non-Pro). I tried to search for comparisons before making this thread but most compare the M1 Pro and M2 Pro but not the M1 Pro to the M2 (non-Pro).

If anyone who sees this feels there is something with the Macbook Pro (or Air) M2 as far as performance or functionality, please let me know.

 

[Yebubbleman]

The M1 Pro and M1 Max having two fewer efficiency cores than the M1, M1 Ultra, and entire M2 family never really sat well with me. Plus the battery life gains on M2 Pro and M2 Max directly stem from those having four efficiency cores. Past that, if I was torn between an M1 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro and an M2 MacBook Air, I'd go with the former. Why? The M1 Pro has a better battery life and cooling system than the M2 MacBook Air. The M2 runs hotter than the M1 in general, and the redesigned enclosure provides less cooling than the M1 Air did. For lighter users, this won't be a problem. But it won't be great for anyone either doing more than the basics or unsure if they ever will.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

The M1 Pro and M1 Max having two fewer efficiency cores than the M1, M1 Ultra, and entire M2 family never really sat well with me. Plus the battery life gains on M2 Pro and M2 Max directly stem from those having four efficiency cores. Past that, if I was torn between an M1 Pro 16-inch MacBook Pro and an M2 MacBook Air, I'd go with the former. Why? The M1 Pro has a better battery life and cooling system than the M2 MacBook Air. The M2 runs hotter than the M1 in general, and the redesigned enclosure provides less cooling than the M1 Air did. For lighter users, this won't be a problem. But it won't be great for anyone either doing more than the basics or unsure if they ever will.

Thank you so much, this was the type of information I was looking for! Very happy with my M1 Pro so far and it is light years faster than my M1 w/8GB, which itself was very fast (except when it was slow).

 

[Yebubbleman]

Thank you so much, this was the type of information I was looking for! Very happy with my M1 Pro so far and it is light years faster than my M1 w/8GB, which itself was very fast (except when it was slow).

I'm guessing the 8GB of RAM was the limiting factor there. The CPU on the base M1 is plenty fast for the vast majority of users. The GPU, at least by Mac mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and DEFINITELY MacBook Air standards, is great, but only humbly decent in relation to what's otherwise out there. RAM is the big limiting factor; but 16GB will be fine pretty much while the M1 Macs are still supported. It's just not meant for the things you naturally need 32GB or more for.

 

[dmccloud]

I'm guessing the 8GB of RAM was the limiting factor there. The CPU on the base M1 is plenty fast for the vast majority of users. The GPU, at least by Mac mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and DEFINITELY MacBook Air standards, is great, but only humbly decent in relation to what's otherwise out there. RAM is the big limiting factor; but 16GB will be fine pretty much while the M1 Macs are still supported. It's just not meant for the things you naturally need 32GB or more for.

Just to build on this - for workloads which require more than 16GB of RAM, the SoC itself would likely become the limiting factor under load on any MacBook Air. Because heavier loads on the processor and RAM will generate more heat, there is an increased likelihood of the Airs throttling under heavier loads. Even a base M2 Air with the 24GB Max could run into throttling issues before maxing out the RAM because of how much harder the SoC as a whole would be working in situations where all RAM is being used.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

I'm guessing the 8GB of RAM was the limiting factor there. The CPU on the base M1 is plenty fast for the vast majority of users. The GPU, at least by Mac mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and DEFINITELY MacBook Air standards, is great, but only humbly decent in relation to what's otherwise out there. RAM is the big limiting factor; but 16GB will be fine pretty much while the M1 Macs are still supported. It's just not meant for the things you naturally need 32GB or more for.

Yep, the RAM was definitely the limiting factor. It was super-fast 95% of the time, even as I would open Activity Monitor and it would be using swap like crazy, but if you had too many windows or apps open it would slow down and it was really annoying that 5% of the time.

I don't understand why they are still defaulting the RAM to 8GB in 2023 (or even 2020). but whatever, I am very happy with 16GB, and as I revert to my old habits of looking at Activity Monitor multiple times a day, it rarely uses swap.

 

[ilikewhey]

I was looking to upgrade my 2020 M1 Macbook Air to one of the new M2 Macbooks with more memory because it was constantly going to swap. I am not a "heavy" user, I to a little video editing, etc, but I use a VDI for my work and leave a lot of browser windows open and I have noticed it being laggy.

Long story short, I went to Best Buy yesterday and they had an Open Box M1 Pro 16" for 1200 and I grabbed it as fast as I could.

Because I am a TotalTech member I am not worried about Open Box because I get AppleCare for 2 years on it. I probably would have bought the M2 Open Box as well if they had one.

I think I clearly made the right choice, Geekbench has it running faster than the M2, but is there any reason you would go with the M2 over the M1 Pro that I am not aware of? It is 2 years older, but it seems like it is much faster and better than the M2 (I don't have money to get the M2 Pro).

I still have time to return and get the M2. it was sort of a quick impulse purchase and overall I think I got a steal and am happy but I just want to make sure there is nothing I am missing while I am within the return window.

Let me know your thoughts.

you got a m1 pro 16inch for 1200. thats a bargain mate, honestly if you dont need to carry it around much its a much better laptop than a mba in every other respect besides the obvious weight.

 

[ilikewhey]

You compare 2 different machines, in term of performance i dont think you will feel any difference. And you will have much bigger and better display. If weight and size is not problem you should stay with M1 16.

throw some rendering on the mba and watch the thing cook itself 🤣

 

[Delarock]

throw some rendering on the mba and watch the thing cook itself 🤣

You are right but "I am not a "heavy" user, I to a little video editing, etc," so if he buy some CTO with 16 gb ram i dont think he will feel much difference in term of performance. I had 13 pro, 14 pro, 16 max and i didnt feel much difference, but also iam not pro user. just basic tasks.

 

[Yonkec]

Thank you so much, this was the type of information I was looking for! Very happy with my M1 Pro so far and it is light years faster than my M1 w/8GB, which itself was very fast (except when it was slow).

I have these exact two models, and notice absolutely no difference in day to day. The issue is the size, and while I enjoy carrying around the 13" I really am not a fan of the smaller screen. Sounds like you already came to the same conclusion but the screen on the 16" is amazing - the screen on the 13" is significantly less so and poorly suited for a side monitor usage case.

If I had the choice I'd have not taken the 13" MBP M2 and would have gone with another 16" MBP M1 any day of the week.

 

[chongsen]

My only concern about m1 pro is m3 is on the corner. It is quite possible a base version m3 will beat m1 pro in performance and battery life. It is quite awkward to have a behemoth 16 laptop hosting weaker performance and shorter battery life than a super portable device.

 

[xraydoc]

My only concern about m1 pro is m3 is on the corner. It is quite possible a base version m3 will beat m1 pro in performance and battery life. It is quite awkward to have a behemoth 16 laptop hosting weaker performance and shorter battery life than a super portable device.

No one will know until the M3 actually comes out.

 

[phoenix-mac-user]

My only concern about m1 pro is m3 is on the corner. It is quite possible a base version m3 will beat m1 pro in performance and battery life. It is quite awkward to have a behemoth 16 laptop hosting weaker performance and shorter battery life than a super portable device.

That is always a problem though. My Macbook Air M1 lasted me a good solid 3 years but it was about 3 months ago I decided I wanted to upgrade to more memory and I have been watching the deals/new releases, etc.

And while the rumors are the M3 will come out in the fall, who knows if that happens. I wish Macs were more like iPhones in that respect where we could say "the new Macbook Pro will come out the first week of September".

At least they are releasing more regularly. I was a Mac Pro/Mac Mini user for most of the 2010s and it just drove me insane waiting for new versions that were years apart and left you sometimes wondering if they were even continuing the product line.

The nice thing about being a Best Buy Total Tech member is they give you a 90 day return window so if they do release an M3 in September and it looks awesome I can return it and get the new one. But I don't see myself doing that and am overall very happy with my purchase, especially since discovering I can get 4K/120hz on my LG OLED I use for an external monitor.

 

[gpat]

M3 will probably come around April 2024 but I'd still wait for it.
Compared to a vanilla M2, M1 Pro is still the superior machine.