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Help Choosing MBP - M3 Pro or Max?

E

eddyrelik

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 6, 2023
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Hey everyone. Need some help on deciding on an M3 upgrade. Currently have 2017 15" MBP with i7, 16GB RAM and 1TB Drive. I'm sick and tired of the Butterfly keyboard and long render times and low battery life.

I work with Adobe Premiere Pro editing 4K footage. And also Logic Pro for Music Production for my band. Also currently use BOOTCAMP with windows for CAD 3D design software and other windows apps. Seems bootcamp is dead? So I’d have to use Virtual Machine (Parallels) with a new Mac. Also use for business for general browsing, word processor, excel, etc.

Before you say skip or get refurbished M2, I'd like M3 because I can do the 12 months 0% financing which I can't do on refurbished.

I’m between three configs:
1) 16” M3 Pro with 18GB RAM - 2TB
2) 16” M3 Pro with 36GB RAM - 2TB
3) 16” M3 MAX with 36GB RAM - 2TB

Obviously I don’t want to overspend, but I also don’t want to regret later if I have any performance issues. I'm leaning on M3 Pro and send the extra $$$ on 36GB RAM and 2TB Drive.

Thoughts on chip? Is the memory bandwidth lower for M3 Pro a real life issue? Thanks in advance.
 
2 or 3! I’d say for your current needs 2 would be absolutely fine, but if you plan on keeping for 6 years and want room to grow (8K video editing at some point) I’d go M3 Max and know that you can keep the machine for as long as you like.

my M1 Pro 16gb is fine with 4K but when I go to 3 streams of 8K it starts to get pretty choppy (understandably). Still a monster though, I think you’ll be happy with either :)
 
David1986H said:
2 will be a huge upgrade and 36gb ram will future proof it. 18gb will be pushing it if your going to keep it for 6 years like your current one
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Yeah I was leaning #2 with M3 Pro. But having only 6 performance cores (and 6 efficiency cores), plus the lower memory bandwidth. So many talk bad about it not being worth the money 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
eddyrelik said:
Yeah I was leaning #2 with M3 Pro. But having only 6 performance cores (and 6 efficiency cores), plus the lower memory bandwidth. So many talk bad about it not being worth the money 🤷🏻‍♂️
Click to expand...

PC Mag has an M3 Pro review out and say it has the longest battery life they have ever tested. And I just found this, maybe I'm reading it wrong but the M3 Pro is actually looking pretty good:

 
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eddyrelik said:
Hey everyone. Need some help on deciding on an M3 upgrade. Currently have 2017 15" MBP with i7, 16GB RAM and 1TB Drive. I'm sick and tired of the Butterfly keyboard and long render times and low battery life.

I work with Adobe Premiere Pro editing 4K footage. And also Logic Pro for Music Production for my band. Also currently use BOOTCAMP with windows for CAD 3D design software and other windows apps. Seems bootcamp is dead? So I’d have to use Virtual Machine (Parallels) with a new Mac. Also use for business for general browsing, word processor, excel, etc.

Before you say skip or get refurbished M2, I'd like M3 because I can do the 12 months 0% financing which I can't do on refurbished.

I’m between three configs:
1) 16” M3 Pro with 18GB RAM - 2TB
2) 16” M3 Pro with 36GB RAM - 2TB
3) 16” M3 MAX with 36GB RAM - 2TB

Obviously I don’t want to overspend, but I also don’t want to regret later if I have any performance issues. I'm leaning on M3 Pro and send the extra $$$ on 36GB RAM and 2TB Drive.

Thoughts on chip? Is the memory bandwidth lower for M3 Pro a real life issue? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I'd get Max for this to make it future-proof.
 
eddyrelik said:
Also currently use BOOTCAMP with windows for CAD 3D design software and other windows apps. Seems bootcamp is dead? So I’d have to use Virtual Machine (Parallels) with a new Mac.
Click to expand...
While you can run "typical" Windows in a VM on an Apple Silicon, it is the performance that you need to watch out for, especially with that 3D software you want to use, as the VM will have to emulate "x86" architecture. I'd research this first.
 
Looks like the unbinned M3 Pro got 3168/15655.

Per this result, the m2 pro got 2644/14231.

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2023) Benchmarks - Geekbench

browser.geekbench.com

I’m not a guru about this stuff but if I’m looking at that right that’s not earth shattering but not horrible or anything. Around 20% better single core and 10% better multicore.

Honestly, I’m more excited about the battery life improvements with the M3 Pro than an extra 10% performance boost. I think most people in the M3 Pro market would sacrifice 10% performance for what I’m willing to bet the battery life on the M3 Pro is going to have in comparison to the M2 pro. Better performance, better battery life, probably runs cooler, better graphics capabilities with the Dynamic Caching, etc.

I’d gladly take 20% single core / 10% multicore and what may be an additional 2-3 hours of battery life. I'm upgrading from an unbinned M1 Pro so the performance increase with the M3 Pro will be more substantial for me. I always wonder how many people that spend the extra $ on the Max actually use all that extra CPU/GPU power. I'm sure a lot do benefit from it but I'd wager a good amount of people getting those versions don't need that much power.

People in the Max market may rather have the extra performance.

An article on PCMag showed the 14inch m3 pro had the best battery life of any laptop they’ve ever tested.
 
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www.pcmag.com

Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2023, M3 Pro) Review

Apple's 2023 14-inch MacBook Pro strikes a winning balance between premium design and M3 Pro-powered performance, for a compact mobile workstation that trounces similarly priced Windows machines.
www.pcmag.com www.pcmag.com

14" M3 Pro 30:27 on the battery test
16" M3 Max got 27:53.

The 14" M3 Pro got almost 3 hours more than the M3 Max in the 16" form factor which has a bigger battery and better thermals. I would imagine a 14" M3 Max would be even worse than a 16" M3 Max with regard to battery life. It's possible the 14" M3 Pro could have an extra 4-5 hours of battery life over a 14" M3 Max in the same testing scenario in the article. I'm interested to see that testing.

The choice between a M3 Pro and M3 Max would boil down to what matters most to you:
Great performance and stellar battery life - M3 Pro.
Even greater performance and great battery life - M3 Max.

I also think if you are the type of person who needs the horsepower of a Max, you know it. Otherwise I think the M3 or M3 Pro would fine for the majority of people and you can take the $ you save and put it to a future upgrade.
 
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In still torn between the 16” M3 Pro or Binned Max. But will there be really many reviews pending on comparing the performance and the battery life? Or am I just delaying the order/delivery and not enjoying either haha
 
The Max chip has dual video encode/decode engines, whereas the Pro only has one. Depending on how much video you do it might be worth the upgrade.
 
knightsabre7 said:
The Max chip has dual video encode/decode engines, whereas the Pro only has one. Depending on how much video you do it might be worth the upgrade.
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where did you get this info? so the 30 core has 2 decoders but pro has 1 decoder? this would be useful for video timeline
 
Lucas Curious said:
where did you get this info? so the 30 core has 2 decoders but pro has 1 decoder? this would be useful for video timeline
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Its on apples website, pro on left, max on right

Screenshot 2023-11-08 at 02.59.39.png
 
Lucas Curious said:
it only states one decode engine on the max and 2 encode engines. I was hoping the max would have 2 decode engines like the Studio. unless you were referring to Pro Res which many people dont use.
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You're correct; the M3 Max has one decode and two encode. However, the M2 Max version of the Studio also has one decode. It's only the Ultra that has two.
 
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