Going from 14" 16GB M2Pro to 48GB M3Max be a noticeable difference?

[richard371]

I purchased the 14" M2 pro 16Gb in Jan and regretting not going 32Gb. Im starting to do a lot of editing of 50MP RAWs in Lightroom and Photoshop and noticing my memory pressure is always in the high yellow and occasional sluggishness. Im ordering MBP 14” M3Max 16/40 with 48Gb Ram. Apple is offering me 1440 trade in for my current Mac. So it will be a little over $2000 to do the upgrade. I also use the AI noise filter often in Lightroom which is heavily dependent on CPU speed. Does this sound worth it?

 

[KeepCalmPeople]

It sounds to me like you have a legitimate use case for upgrading. As for the cost, only you can decide if you can afford it. I expect you'll see a significant improvement in performance with the M3 Max.

 

[David1986H]

Im ordering MBP 14” M3Max 16/30 with 48Gb Ram.

You can't get 48gb ram with the 16/30, in fact there isn't even a 16/30 option...

 

[richard371]

You can't get 48gb ram with the 16/30, in fact there isn't even a 16/30 option...

Yes, you have to order at least 48 with the 16/30. I did. Ordered the M3 Max 16/30, 1TB, 48GB.

 

[David1986H]

Yes, you have to order at least 48 with the 16/30. I did. Ordered the M3 Max 16/30, 1TB, 48GB.

48gb ram is only available with the 40 core gpu, and its either 14/30 or 16/40.

 

[richard371]

48gb ram is only available with the 40 core gpu, and its either 14/30 or 16/40.

Sorry meant I got the 16/40

 

[OrenLindsey]

this would be a pretty good upgrade for you. You have to decide if the $2000 is worth it though.

 

[richard371]

this would be a pretty good upgrade for you. You have to decide if the $2000 is worth it though.

Well, I gave up drinking in sept haha. So I can put a little extra money into the Mac.

 

[Beau10]

Sorry meant I got the 16/40

That will be close to $3k including tax, just FYI. You mentioned just over $2k above. But agreed with others you have a use case that will clearly benefit from the upgrade.

 

[richard371]

That will be close to $3k including tax, just FYI. You mentioned just over $2k above. But agreed with others you have a use case that will clearly benefit from the upgrade.

True about 2700. I originally went with the base model m3 max and was thinking that cost but decided to pay 500 more for the 16/40, 48 vs 36gb RAM and the extra 100 mhz bus speed. The idea of having a chip that’s the same but with disabled portions bugs me lol.

 

[AlastorKatriona]

I purchased the 14" M2 pro 16Gb in Jan and regretting not going 32Gb. Im starting to do a lot of editing of 50MP RAWs in Lightroom and Photoshop and noticing my memory pressure is always in the high yellow and occasional sluggishness. Im ordering MBP 14” M3Max 16/40 with 48Gb Ram. Apple is offering me 1440 trade in for my current Mac. So it will be a little over $2000 to do the upgrade. I also use the AI noise filter often in Lightroom which is heavily dependent on CPU speed. Does this sound worth it?

Absolutely sounds worth it.

 

[CalMin]

You will see a difference but I very much doubt it's going to be night and day. When I compared my base spec. M2 Air (8GB / 256GB) with my M1 Pro (16GB / 1TB) they feel mostly identical, but that's because unless I get silly with the number of open apps and tabs (i.e. purposefully bog the machine down) the performance differential just isn't that much for most daily computing tasks.

I'm not saying the M1 Pro isn't more powerful than the M2, it is. It's just there are specific situations where that extra power comes in handy and makes a difference. Day to day they are pretty comparable.

Next, I swear that memory pressure in the 'yellow' is something that Apple's marketing (not their engineering) group put into activity monitor to create anxiety over low RAM. Memory pressure in the 'yellow' or 'red' category along with some swap doesn't automatically mean reduced performance. It's there for diagnostic reasons - i.e. if you're having an issue, check to see what the problem might be. I can easily push the 8GB Air into red on memory pressure and it responds just fine.

I'm not trying to talk you out of the upgrade. It's your money and better spent on MacBooks thank alcohol imo. . Just temper your expectations so that you're not disappointed. It's a better computer without doubt, just don't expect it to feel all that different unless you're really pushing on it.

 

[Chancha]

Yellow is still fine, orange or even red is when there is immediate need to upgrade.

But that said not only will you see a noticable difference, the difference is going to be significant. As far as I know the LR AI denoise heavily depends on GPU cores (not CPU like you said), you are going to see massive time shaving since the M3 GPU cores are meaningfully improved and you now got 40 of them.

I myself am also looking heavily in considering a similar config as yours, but am debating if a better form factor for such guts should be the 16”, or waiting for the Mac Studio later.