YES WAY! It is sitting right next to me and is absolutely silent doing nothing (and when I am doing basic things with it). Apparently you're not as familiar with it as you think you are.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Anyone starting to think that the MBP 14" with M1 Max might be a bad idea?
- Thread starter Fomalhaut
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I am not even attempting to question the low power draw, temperatures, or noise level for the performance AS provides. I fully agree with it, AS is great technology and I love it (hint: check out the first two characters of my nick). I am considering buying one of these new MBPs. The only reason I haven't is I would rather have a desktop system with one of these newer processors.
That said I get tired of reading misinformation from Apple advocates about anything that is not Apple. The statement I disagreed with is that an Intel based mobile workstation generates a lot of heat / noise when doing absolutely nothing. I have one of those systems sitting right next to me. I use it every work day (it is a work issued laptop). It neither generates a lot of heat nor a lot of noise when idle or when I do my day to day work tasks.
The Intel people on a Mac forum constantly arguing that there Scalder Lake and other can destroy Macs. I love how they talk like people who use Mac's only use Mac's?
Face it, Intel sucks right now. There is hope for them but the truth is that the M1 Max and Pro destroy all of Intel's current powerful gaming mobile cpu's and only desktop Alder Lake with over 200watts and liquid cooling even comes close to what the M1 Max or Pro without even breaking a sweat.
What do you guys not understand? Intel with 10nm super fin called process 7 runs super hot, Ice Lake ran super hot and Comet Lake was like the SUN!! So while Intel has good single core scores they still don't yet beat the M1-not even pro in their current line up of mobile processors. Multi core is way worse.
And that is a short burst test. Run a long stress test and all of Intel's chips will throttle unless some really good cooling and even then what is possible in a laptop is constrained even on gaming rigs. That means that all of these results are only good in the best of scenarios for Intel. Unplug it and run these tests over and over and the throttling will be really bad. M1 Pro and Max will perform the same on battery as plugged in, will not thermally throttle, and will last hours on battery under heavy load. No Intel Machine can come close to this period.
So just stop it. People who know understand that your arguments show how little you understand.
Face it, Intel sucks right now. There is hope for them but the truth is that the M1 Max and Pro destroy all of Intel's current powerful gaming mobile cpu's and only desktop Alder Lake with over 200watts and liquid cooling even comes close to what the M1 Max or Pro without even breaking a sweat.
What do you guys not understand? Intel with 10nm super fin called process 7 runs super hot, Ice Lake ran super hot and Comet Lake was like the SUN!! So while Intel has good single core scores they still don't yet beat the M1-not even pro in their current line up of mobile processors. Multi core is way worse.
And that is a short burst test. Run a long stress test and all of Intel's chips will throttle unless some really good cooling and even then what is possible in a laptop is constrained even on gaming rigs. That means that all of these results are only good in the best of scenarios for Intel. Unplug it and run these tests over and over and the throttling will be really bad. M1 Pro and Max will perform the same on battery as plugged in, will not thermally throttle, and will last hours on battery under heavy load. No Intel Machine can come close to this period.
So just stop it. People who know understand that your arguments show how little you understand.
Ah, I see. You meant just the 5800H by itself without a dedicated GPU.
That's... honestly not that impressive. M1 Max and M1 Pro get the same 580-600 seconds result:
Blender - Open Data
Blender Open Data is a platform to collect, display and query the results of hardware and software performance tests - provided by the public.
Because Blender itself pretty much just runs on the CPU here.
So M1 with its CPU alone is of course going to be slower than CPU + GPU on any other platform. Until Blender supports Metal, the situation doesn't really change.
Now switch Blender to just the CPU and see how AMD or Intel will do.
P.S.: also relevant:
OpenCL on Apple M1
“The way forward will be a Metal backed on macOS.” I love you man.
M1 chips not running at their best is a deliberate move from the Blender team because they disabled OpenCL by default and they're still not done transitioning Blender over to Metal yet. Yes, I know you mentioned "until software is updated to support M1 Max" but the problem here is not that the software itself didn't work. It did. Blender team just decided to make it worse while they prepare for the next big leap.
Last edited:
Circumstantial then. Let's say your experience is not the universal truth. Sure, I agree it is a stretch to state that all Intel and AMD laptops will run into heat and fan noise issue while doing absolutely nothing, but... I don't think you can say that there aren't Intel and AMD laptops that don't heat up or have the fans whirring while doing absolutely nothing.
Especially since we both know how much Windows loves to do things in the background (and to be fair, MacOS does this too).
It is also not wrong to say most recent Intel laptops will have their fans blasting to almost deafening levels when they are under load.
The person I responded to did not say all Intel and AMD laptops. They specifically called out mobile workstations. As for the last sentence I wouldn't say there aren't any but I would be willing to say I think such a laptop would not be the majority.
I don't care about under load. Under load was not the criteria the person I responded to used. Their criteria was doing nothing. I have used a number of different laptops from HP to Dell to Toshiba and I can't recall a single one of them generating any notable heat or noise output while doing nothing.
Depends entirely on your use case. If you need to use the thing on an aircraft the 16” is no go unless you always fly business.
I’m not considering the choice between 14” and 16”; only between 14” Pro and Max. I’ve been flip-flopping on this based on various user reports and reviews.
I think the consensus is that the M1 Max uses somewhere between 5%-40% more power than the M1 Pro depending on the task, with heavy GPU tasks at the high end of this range. In exchange it will run some tasks 30-50% faster.
The decision factors for me are:
1) is the overall user experience negatively impacted by increased heat & fan noise?
2) Is the battery life sufficient for those infrequent cases where I need to use it all day without plugging in? My minimum for this is about 7 hours of web/browsing/remote access (RDP, SSH)/document read/write
3) Am I realistically going to benefit frequently from the increased GPU power?
They'll both use similar power when idle or doing light work.
If you're doing heavy GPU work the work will complete faster on the Max. I wouldn't worry too much about the battery difference; if you need the GPU throughput and can afford it, buy the Max. The Pro will last longer on battery doing the work, but it simply won't get as much of it done, so you'll need to wait on it longer (and burn through the same power to do the same work anyway really).
I.e., of course the max will burn through power faster when it is working hard, BUT it will complete the work sooner to compensate.
If you aren't pushing either machine, battery life shouldn't differ too much; the max will just have more of its GPU idle and powered down.
Last edited:
This is certainly what I am hoping, but "opinions vary" as we can see if various threads. "Light usage" is of course highly subjective and dependent on software choices, and the difference could be anywhere from "almost nothing" to about 30% worse. One M1 Max user today said they were only getting 3 hours of battery life....so reports vary wildly.
I'll wait for a few more long-term reviews, but at the end of the day, the only person who can tell me what my experience will be is myself.
hilarious and untrue. I have a 5900hs cpu in my laptop which is slightly more powerful than the 5800h..and the m1 destroys it. the m1 pro really destroys it. not just in benchmarks but every task I can throw at it. blender sucks on that laptop compared to the m1 machines
So an update on my 14" M1 Max / 64 GB. I have found the battery will last well over 14 hours with just general use. I do have low power mode checked which did not create any slowdown of any kind when web cruising, playing videos, listening to music, or running some Office apps. It stays very cool - actually can feel cold on my lap which I could never say about my 2020 i7 / 32GB. It would get uncomfortably hot on my lap to the point I would put a lap desk under it.
I also use it to create videos - and that is where it shines. I use Premiere Pro to create videos then let Media Encoder do the encoding. Both apps will really ramp up all the cores. I have yet to hear fan noise and I can feel it get slightly warm. And this M1 Max is blazing fast! I do have it plugged in when I am working with video as encoding will suck the battery down very fast. So the person who posted and said they were getting 3 hours - that is what I see when I encode an HD or 4K hour long video.
I also use it to create videos - and that is where it shines. I use Premiere Pro to create videos then let Media Encoder do the encoding. Both apps will really ramp up all the cores. I have yet to hear fan noise and I can feel it get slightly warm. And this M1 Max is blazing fast! I do have it plugged in when I am working with video as encoding will suck the battery down very fast. So the person who posted and said they were getting 3 hours - that is what I see when I encode an HD or 4K hour long video.
That's very promising news. So battery life is somewhere between 3 and 14 hours
In any case, my "buy-o-meter" needle has now move back into the M1 Max camp. Although I love the idea of never having to consider battery life on a laptop, in practice it is not going to be a big deal for me because I am rarely away from a power source for the whole day. For those occasions, if I can get 7-8 hours of my normal work usage out of it, I will be happy. I might look at a smaller travel charger or powerbank to avoid "range anxiety" if I expect to be unplugged for an extended time.
I've been doing some video editing on my 2019 MBP16 recently and getting quite frustrated by the heat, fan noise, and lackluster performance with H.264 4K video, or the hassle of filling up my disks with proxies and optimized media. I think the M1 Max would provide a nice boost for this usage.
That's very promising news. So battery life is somewhere between 3 and 14 hours
In any case, my "buy-o-meter" needle has now move back into the M1 Max camp. Although I love the idea of never having to consider battery life on a laptop, in practice it is not going to be a big deal for me because I am rarely away from a power source for the whole day. For those occasions, if I can get 7-8 hours of my normal work usage out of it, I will be happy. I might look at a smaller travel charger or powerbank to avoid "range anxiety" if I expect to be unplugged for an extended time.
I've been doing some video editing on my 2019 MBP16 recently and getting quite frustrated by the heat, fan noise, and lackluster performance with H.264 4K video, or the hassle of filling up my disks with proxies and optimized media. I think the M1 Max would provide a nice boost for this usage.
Did you get the 14" M1 Max 24 or 32?
What is your experience after some weeks of use?
In particular how intrusive is the fan noise? Does it impact on others in the same/next room, and does it ruin audio recordings? (It does on my my 2015 15" MBP)
I have a 14" M1 32-Core Max and I love it. Don't settle. If you can't afford the Max, just charge it to your credit card and forget about it. It's that fast.
I've just ordered the 14" M1 Max with 24-cores. It's got a 7-week delivery estimate though, so I won't have it until late January. So I'm afraid I can't give you any first-hand reports....
Sorry about the wait. I hope it gets there early!! I think you made the right choice!!
I am sure it will be worth the wait!
Hmmmm...I'm guessing you aren't a financial advisor trying to keep people away from unnecessary debt
The only reason to incur debt is if it actually helps you make more money through increased productivity leading to higher earnings, or better financial returns through leveraging the debt. Otherwise, I would recommend living within your means, and old-school "saving" for things that you want.
But yes, the temptation is strong with these machines - I'll grant you that!
Hmmmm...I'm guessing you aren't a financial advisor trying to keep people away from unnecessary debt
The only reason to incur debt is if it actually helps you make more money through increased productivity leading to higher earnings, or better financial returns through leveraging the debt. Otherwise, I would recommend living within your means, and old-school "saving" for things that you want.
But yes, the temptation is strong with these machines - I'll grant you that!
I sold my stepson's motorcycle he worked all summer for to pay for my MacBook Pro.
My wife immediately left me, took the children, and I'm getting crushed in court. Child support is piling up.
But you know what? I'm happy. How many people can say they have a M1 Max, 32-Core GPU with 64 GBs of RAM MacBook Pro in this extremely small form factor?
Why not just buy Apple stocks, then use the gains to buy your Macbook Pro?
I bought Apple stocks so I can use gains to buy an M1 laptop
I was so impressed with the M1 and so excited for the future of Apple Silicon that I decided to buy up Apple stocks. I'm sure that I will be buying many Apple Silicon Macs over the next 10 years. I will use any gains I get from Apple stocks to buy Macs. At the same time, I feel less guilty...
forums.macrumors.com
just compared the 14in 24 core to the 32 core in a few graphics programs I run and a few gaming benchmarks. The 32 core scores slightly higher on most tests but doesnt seem to use any more battery. I ran exact same tests on both machines, and although the 32 core finished (ver slightly) faster in some tasks..it didnt use any more battery. Both machines were at identical charge levels after running all the tests. The 32 core maybe ran a degree hotter under load but also seemed to use the fans more effectively and cooled the system more aggressively, so the case temps seemed even if not a little warmer on the 24 core. For me, I had already owned the 32 core for a week so i saw no point in changing to the 24 core since I was already pretty used to the machine I had and it was already configured the way I like it. Maybe the 24 core is worth the savings for some people..but I dont think battery life is affected by going with a different gpu count in the m1 max.
I’m very sensitive to fan noise, and have been known to specifically buy models without fans for this reason. I don’t really even notice the fans running on my 14” 32 core Max. Maybe once or twice when doing extremely intense stuff they became audible. There is no comparison to Intel machines (Mac or pc) I have used.
hi @MK500 can you describe what this "intense stuff" is that causes the fans do go on in a 14" M1 Max 32gpu?
Things I do rarely; like running Windows 11 in Parallels and then running Battlefield 4 at full resolution and gaming at 60fps. Then I could hear the fan; although the sound was at a frequency that wasn't too annoying (not too high pitched; more like a whooshing).