M1 Pro, M1 Max MBP owners are you going to M4?

[marmiteturkey]

I have a 16in M2 Pro and am trading it in now for an M4, even though I don't stress the processor in my machine because:
the 14in is a better size for me, given my working patterns - I'm out and about a lot more than I was two years ago, and I always have an 11in iPad Pro in my bag that will work as a sidecar display
I am regularly pushing at the 16gb of memory in my current machine
the nano texture display is a draw
My little consulting business has had a bumper year but I've had to work hard for it; and I feel like treating myself in a tangible way, beyond extra pension contributions, nest eggs and investing in my own learning
Bonus feature - I really like the space black after years of silver MacBooks

Ordered for delivery on 11th; it'll land at the end of a very demanding four week work period and is feeling like a real treat. My needs have changed - the machine itself still has years of life in it.

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

Nope. My 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro is superb. Maybe when the M10 Pro rolls around, I will upgrade...

It’s not going to be that long. In a couple more generations you will have several reasons to upgrade. In a couple more, you will have many, many reasons to upgrade. OS support will drop. Other new features on new machines combined with the lack of those and the age of what’s in your old machine, plus any potential failure on your current machine (battery, keyboard, screen, speakers, anything) won’t be worth fixing.

Any computer past 5 years is no fun, and each year after that the age starts to feel worse and worse. 7 feels ancient. By the time that M6 and M7 drop, and you see those announcement videos, you will be jonesing to upgrade.

 

[vengapat9]

No I doubt I will upgrade from the M1 Pro unless there's a change in the body. M1 works just fine

 

[Dilema6]

14" M1Pro 10/16 16gb ram 1 tb owner. I've decided to go back to the future with scary fast. On the day of the M4 Macbook Pro announcement, the price on a Apple Refurb'd 14" M3 Max 16/40 64gb 1 tb dropped to 2900$. I need the cpu/gpu cores and ram for my workflow now. The value of the M3 at that price point made it easy. I love my M1Pro, but I need the horsepower for my edge case uses. The refurb'd M3Max is the easy button for upgrading from a low spec M1Pro. If I already had a high ram / high gpu M1 Max....I would wait another year despite some of the new features.

 

[Melbourne Park]

14" M1Pro 10/16 16gb ram 1 tb owner. I've decided to go back to the future with scary fast. On the day of the M4 Macbook Pro announcement, the price on a Apple Refurb'd 14" M3 Max 16/40 64gb 1 tb dropped to 2900$. I need the cpu/gpu cores and ram for my workflow now. The value of the M3 at that price point made it easy. I love my M1Pro, but I need the horsepower for my edge case uses. The refurb'd M3Max is the easy button for upgrading from a low spec M1Pro. If I already had a high ram / high gpu M1 Max....I would wait another year despite some of the new features.

Your lucky. In Australia, the Apple Refurb store is selling 1 TB 16" M3 MacBook Pros in two versions: 1 TB 36 GB RAM reduced GPU Core version and also a 1 TB 48GB 40 GPU core version - for prices higher than if one bought an M4 20 core versions with the same RAM configurations. For most work loads the M4 will be competitive with the M3 Max, while the new versions have thunderbolt 5 which aids off computer work. But no high RAM availabilities in the refurb store. IMO Thunderbolt 5 is a major benefit unless one buys an M3 with a 4 TB drive.

 

[throAU]

having seen the max scores, i’ve revised my upgrade path:
im going m4 max but not the full fat machine. by the time you upgrade the 14” m4 pro to 48gb and 2tb it’s not much of a jump to get the extra 12 gpu cores on the low end (binned) max. i feel that will game well enough given future games are likely targeted to min spec of baseline m4 or maybe pro. its really all i use the gpu for. but i do need a lot of ram and cpu.

and that, i feel will enable me to basically not upgrade my desktop pc. it will game “well enough” for the stuff i play to pull double duty.

ill just say here that the m1 pro i currently have is hands down the best computer i have ever owned (literally my only want being more gpu power and more ram) going back to 1986. but the new m4 machines are such a leap that i really feel this is the first time i can legitimately get rid of my desktop. so i’m going to spend the desktop replacement money on the m4 max.

the m1 pro will go to the GF to replace the 2020 intel air i previously handed down.

 

[Melbourne Park]

its really all i use the gpu for. but i do need a lot of ram and cpu.

But the binned version has memory capped at only 36 GB RAM.

I looked at GPU performance and the Max GPU increase looks to be only 12% with the full 16/40 GPU core M4 versus M3 Max 16/40 core.

I haven't added things up but I'd like to ... Without calculating things, M4 Pro seems maybe 33 % slower than binned M4 Max.

I started to add the Geekbench stuff up, but there's lots of fiddling to get the thing into organised numbers. Plus there are four speed tests:
Single Core CPU
Multi Core CPU
Metal GPU
Open CL GPU
Ai

I imagine their tests will be summarised soon. Maybe worth evaluating

 

[throAU]

Actually changed my mind again, cashed in some ether... pulled the trigger. Full spec max die, 64GB

GF is still happy with the 2020 air for the time being (she loves the lightweight form factor and its literally just a browser), so trading my M1 Pro 14".

 

[smirking]

Any computer past 5 years is no fun, and each year after that the age starts to feel worse and worse. 7 feels ancient. By the time that M6 and M7 drop, and you see those announcement videos, you will be jonesing to upgrade.

What you said is true for you and me, but not true for everyone. A lot of people really don't need much more than a Chromebook. If someone says they'll probably be fine until there's an M10, they might be one of those people.

 

[daneoni]

No will stick with my M1 Max until a redesign or OS support stops

 

[throAU]

No will stick with my M1 Max until a redesign or OS support stops

To be honest if I had an M1 Max with 32 GB of RAM or more I would be doing the same. But I'm on an M1 Pro, and the performance has been such that I plan to replace my desktop PC (in addition to my M1 Pro MacBook) with the M4 Max.

Anyone still on intel really, really should be looking to move at this point. even a base m4 is going to slaughter whatever Intel Mac you have unless it's a Mac Pro. And even then, in general single threaded heavy user responsiveness stuff it will kill the Mac Pro. By a lot.

 

[srikat]

it benchmarks at around +100% across the board but the question is will you notice it?

New M4 Mac Mini - Mac mini - Apple - Whirlpool Forums

forums.whirlpool.net.au

New M4 Mac Mini - Mac mini - Apple - Whirlpool Forums

forums.whirlpool.net.au

 

[daneoni]

To be honest if I had an M1 Max with 32 GB of RAM or more I would be doing the same. But I'm on an M1 Pro, and the performance has been such that I plan to replace my desktop PC (in addition to my M1 Pro MacBook) with the M4 Max.

Anyone still on intel really, really should be looking to move at this point. even a base m4 is going to slaughter whatever Intel Mac you have unless it's a Mac Pro. And even then, in general single threaded heavy user responsiveness stuff it will kill the Mac Pro. By a lot.

Yeah, i have the

16" M1 Max/32GB/1Tb/32C.

Plenty for what i do. I have no justifiable reason to upgrade for a while.

 

[DeanCorp]

I’m upgrading from the 16” MacBook Pro M1 Max 1TB 32GB RAM to 14” MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 1TB. Mainly because I’m sick of carrying such a bulky laptop and as a result I barely move it around. I also got an amazing trade in offer on my existing MBP. I really love the new Space Black colour compared to my Space Grey. Speed wise I never had an issue with my current model, simply just the form factor.

 

[Whimsicool]

M1 Max owner. All my programs have been running fine so no need to upgrade. While the idea of owning an M4 Max is very tempting, it's not going to change my laptop experience at all.

 

[TheLastPickBender]

Honestly I still don't know what I'm going to do. M1 MBP owner (16.2'/ 16 GB RAM/1TB) here. I use it mainly for app development, however considering how insane its battery life is (still 98% battery health after 3 years + it lasts 5-6x longer than my high end windows laptop) + the speakers are absolutely amazing, I was thinking upgrading to something which can at least provide 2x performance boost from M1 Pro.

Now based on the available benchmarks the M4 series is definitely able to do the "100% upgrade". Especially if I select M4 Max (which I fully intend to!) for proper GPU power too. I play occasionally and those games are available for MacOS too. M1 MBP was struggling on full graphical settings.

The only reason I'm a bit hesitant is what if next year Apple actually puts OLED displays. The screens from M1-M3 are quite identical and to be honest the proper update an OLED display would be.

Anyways, I looking forward to reading reviews soon

 

[smg669]

I currently have an M1 Max 16" 64GB 10core/32core 4TB. It's still running great and I would probably wait at least another generation to upgrade, but I have a Dell U4025QW and it irks me that I can't drive it at 120hz. Add to that Thunderbolt 5 and Nano Texture... and I decided to bite the bullet. Hopefully I can resell my M1 for a decent price. Apple offered me C$1105 trade-in... thanks but no thanks. And I bumped up to 8TB storage because I'm crazy that way.

 

[Rnd-chars]

I’m content with my machine and while a new M4 Max would be faster, the biggest impact would be in multicore performance, which rarely bottlenecks me. I’ll wait for 2026 and enjoy the refresh (new design, new display, 2nm).

 

[throAU]

The only reason I'm a bit hesitant is what if next year Apple actually puts OLED displays. The screens from M1-M3 are quite identical and to be honest the proper update an OLED display would be.

I made the call that i don’t care about OLED - yet.

The current display is great (yes, there’s some very minor blooming but you really need to be picky and look to find it - for general use it is more than great), and doesn’t suffer from burn in. I’d skip v1.0 of the macbook OLED display anyway which would put the upgrade time-frame around 2027 or maybe even later and at that point i wouldn’t get any resale to speak of on the M1 Pro machine i’m upgrading from. That something that may be worth considering: the M1 series Pros are still great machines and you may find that the time you delay will reduce the trade/resale value significantly.

YMMV but that was my rationale. Also that this machine will be capable of replacing both my laptop and my pc desktop, and i’m due to expense a machine for tax purposes.

 

[Acronyc]

New Macs are always nice, but there's nothing in the M4 MBPs that makes me want to get a new MBP to replace my M1 Max 14-inch. It's been perfect for my needs since the day I got it.

What's more tempting for me is the new mini. Since I got a 16GB M1 Air for travel in early 2023, my MBP is tethered to my desk 99% of the time. My plan for my next upgrade was to replace my MBP with a Mac Studio, but looking at the new mini, the M4 Pro chip will meet my needs just fine.

I don't need it now, but it is tempting to make the switch to desktop plus MacBook Air now instead of holding on to two laptops.

 

[srikat]

New Macs are always nice, but there's nothing in the M4 MBPs that makes me want to get a new MBP to replace my M1 Max 14-inch. It's been perfect for my needs since the day I got it.

What's more tempting for me is the new mini. Since I got a 16GB M1 Air for travel in early 2023, my MBP is tethered to my desk 99% of the time. My plan for my next upgrade was to replace my MBP with a Mac Studio, but looking at the new mini, the M4 Pro chip will meet my needs just fine.

I don't need it now, but it is tempting to make the switch to desktop plus MacBook Air now instead of holding on to two laptops.

I posted something similar here: https://www.reddit.com/r/macmini/comments/1gj9w0k/_/lvbmhx6

 

[Andrey84]

M1 Pro and Max owners with 14/16 inch MBP's, with the announcement of the new M4 Pro and M4 Max models do you feel the need to upgrade or are you happy with your M1 based model?

Anyone think its still too early to upgrade or hold out for M5?

Thoughts, comments?

May I ask the reason for this post?

If your current machine is enough - why worry about upgrading?
If your current machine is not enough - just upgrade.

Other people's opinions on whether you "should" be upgrading are irrelevant.

You did certainly create a lot of traffic and discussion. I just don't understand this drive to be constantly upgrading and discussing the upgrades.

 

[throAU]

May I ask the reason for this post?

Curiosity? Its just getting market sentiment.

 

[Andrey84]

Curiosity? Its just getting market sentiment.

To what end?

 

[throAU]

To what end?

To satisfy curiosity. If you're that disinterested in this stuff why did you click this clearly titled thread?