Help deciding - 16" M3Pro 36GB vs M4Pro 24GB -- same price (both brand new)

[ashy-motion]

Help deciding - 16" M3Pro 36GB vs M4Pro 24GB -- same price (both brand new)

Seems Apple have tipped their hand that ram matters maybe more than it used to.

Assume 5-year upgrade cycle. In the past, I'd already prioritized ram anyways due to my longish upgrade cycle.
Various use cases. Pro will be fine vs max. Definitely 16".
I feel not quite willing to do a $400 upgrade to get the M4Pro from 24GB to 48GB (~17% more price).

Hard to decide, M4Pro brings so much more to the table this year, compared to last year's cycle.

Interested in your feedback, thanks.

 

[cassmr]

Will depend on your workload. I think m4 24 will in my view for most users provide better longevity than m3 36.

 

[jdsingle]

For most users 24GB is plenty. It’d be more useful if you indicated what your work space requirements are. If you do a lot of browsing vs streaming vs coding vs video editing. Transparently, the fact that you are asking probably means stick with 24GB. Yes, Apple updated the base specs. I’d rather have newer CPU over 12GB of memory on base 24.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

m4 pro no brainer lol. m3 pro was a massive disappointment. plus you also never indicated what you do so we're only suggesting based on the better chip. which is in this instance m4 lineup.

 

[1BadManVan]

As suggested, your use case is what matters. 24gb for majority is more than enough, so the benefits of the m4 is definitely more worthwhile.