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

[Melbourne Park]

Maybe... Not that my current MacBook Pro 16" 2021 M1 Max (64GB, 1TB) feels slow or inadequate, but the uplift in performance on M4 Max looks very impressive and 1TB is a bit on the tight side for me.

Part of the reason that I'm considering this is to try and hit the sweet spot where I can still get a decent amount of cash for the current MacBook Pro while also upgrading to something worthwhile. I need to see the reviews first. 📈

Some information here.

Said the M4 Pro beat the M3 Max in multi-core too ... but other tests (Geekbench) it does not. But the M4 is 28-30% faster than M3, and the Pro is a bigger step again over the M3 Pro. The M4 Max is 28% faster than the previous fastest CPUs, Intel Core Ultra 9 285K Processor, which alone costs US$650 plus tax, and doesn't include a required performance GPU, and or its needed water cooling radiators with banks of fans and but you do have the fun of being able to can pick your preferred color of the water for showing how your water pipes cool the PC's CPU.

Apple Silicon/M series

It is a high-performance lineup of Apple Silicon used for iPad

en.namu.wiki

 

[Extoll]

I wasn't. I am happy with my M1 pro 16g/512. Put a order in yesterday for M4 Pro 16/20, 24g,1tb. Family member about to go to college and she needs/wants a mac for it. So i gave her good deal on my M1pro. Wanna keep this one for 3 to 4 years. Don't really see a need in more power as M1pro does what i need.

 

[Mr Koot]

In 2021, I bought a 14" M1 Max (10Cpu/24Gpu/16 Neural Engine cores) with 64gb. Went with the top one I could buy at the time, and it just killed every performance spec of my previous top-end Intel MacBook Pro. Plus, they brought back MagSafe, HDMI, gave it a lovely form with smoothed corners you don't cut yourself on. I thought: this is one of those special apple-did-it-right products. Thank you for giving the customer the best of things.

The only thing I do that might tax it is Pro Tools music sessions. The rest is pretty basic including lots of Adobe Creative Suite stuff. It easily drives all the monitors I use. I honestly haven't looked at the possibility of a new computer for 30 seconds during the past three years, including now. I would only upgrade to reset warranty and for hardware reliability considerations, not because of performance. So I'm going to hang on to it for the foreseeable. It hasn't hiccuped in three years.

 

[robfoll]

Anyone have experience of carrying and using a 16 vs a 14? weight, clumsiness etc.

 

[srikat]

Anyone have experience of carrying and using a 16 vs a 14? weight, clumsiness etc.

Yes. I have a 16" M1 Max MBP and 14" M2 MBP.

I prefer the less bulky 14".

 

[DeanCorp]

Yes. I have a 16" M1 Max MBP and 14" M2 MBP.

I prefer the less bulky 14".

Yes, if you go back a few pages you will see I have a 16” M1 Max and I’ve bought a 14” M4 Max as the 16” is extremely bulky, heavy and uncomfortable to use on your lap as a laptop.

 

[robfoll]

Yes, if you go back a few pages you will see I have a 16” M1 Max and I’ve bought a 14” M4 Max as the 16” is extremely bulky, heavy and uncomfortable to use on your lap as a laptop.

Thanks, much appreciated. Thought that might be the case. 14 incoming soon - Cheers Robert

 

[robfoll]

Yes. I have a 16" M1 Max MBP and 14" M2 MBP.

I prefer the less bulky 14".

THANKS! Now decided on 14 after comments for you and DeanCorp. Just need to sort spec next

 

[smithdr]

I have a M1Max 16MBP 64 GB/4TB and have an M4Max 16MBP 64 GB/4TB on order. Did I need this upgrade. No. But my stepson is working on my 2013 15MBP (that I gave him) that is on its last legs. So he gets my M1Max 16MBP and I get an upgrade that I would have preferred to have waited on.

 

[Melbourne Park]

With the purported 4.7x increase in the speed of the neural engine from my M1Pro, if this translates into real world speed increases like that on Topaz 3(the only application that I use that taxes my mac), then I will upgrade to the M4pro, 10/4, 48 gb, 1TB.

I have viewed comparisons with 3080 GPUs and the Mac did better, although I have seen a report from an M3 Max user saying Topaz AI video wasn't working well.

Here is a comparison of speeds on different M macs for a 4.5 minute video upscaled from mini DV 480 P resolution to 4K, and de-interlaced, a typical minimum task.

artslRight says the most logical way is to buy a cheap mac and just use it for such processing ie a Mac Mini. If its dedicated then the time it takes is not a big issue. One can see that this software does not take advantage of the M processors much at all, hence the different processors do not provide much benefit.

Right now I am not sure what to buy ... but I have to upgrade because my software support is too old ...

 

[DeanCorp]

THANKS! Now decided on 14 after comments for you and DeanCorp. Just need to sort spec next

From someone who used to work for Apple and have been buying new models of all things Apple. My best advice is to try and stick with a preconfigured spec as they generally work best for trade in. For example I got A$1,820 for my M1 16” M1 Max MBP and I paid $4,400 in 2021. Battery health is 86% (just above the 85% trade in requirement).

Future proofing is a dumb term and waste of money. Better off saving that extra money to put it towards the next model which will be better than any upgrade you can do to this current lineup. Hope this helps.

 

[throAU]

Yes, if you go back a few pages you will see I have a 16” M1 Max and I’ve bought a 14” M4 Max as the 16” is extremely bulky, heavy and uncomfortable to use on your lap as a laptop.

Yeah I think the 16" is primarily for people who don't walk around much with it in a backpack. If you use it more as a portable desktop from desk to desk - ideal.

if you use it on trips, in transit, walk around on holiday with it, etc. - the 14", or even, if you can manage it, an air will be more convenient.


That's my assessment from the past 20 years of running various laptops (not just MacBooks) and iPads between 10" and 15" (equivalent of 16" today) in size.

13-14" is the regular travel + do everything sweet spot. Any bigger is a compromise for travel, but if you're just lugging from desk to desk occasionally and not hand-carrying much you definitely get better cooling, larger screen, etc. Any smaller and it's more travel biased/compromised, which might be ok if you're primarily using it attached to a screen when you get to your destination or have another device for when you aren't traveling.

 

[cubbie5150]

My 16-inch M1 Pro 32GB 1TB that I ordered in November 2021, is still rolling along.

In fact, my computing needs are very light these days (mine is now only for consumer use). I really don't need the horsepower that I have, so I figure I'll be riding this til it either dies or Apple quits providing security updates, whichever comes first.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I am still thinking about what to buy ... having a fair bit of video upscaling to do. After looking at solutions, it seems nothing is quick, and the speed differences between many macs - from Ultra M2s to M1 Pros to M3 Maxes - there is not much difference in the speed of upscaling, due to software not being written to take advantage of multiple cores. To give an idea, a very basic upscale of 4.5 minutes of video takes around 17 minutes across many different M Processor computers.

I cancelled my order for an M4 16" Pro (not Max) with 2 TB & Nano & 48 GB, and for 10% less money I placed a refurb order for a 16" Mac M3 Pro Max with 1 TB and 64 GB RAM. But I will miss the Nano, have to fiddle to get it brighter, and it doesn't have Thunderbolt 5 either. But a M4 equivalent would cost more than 33% more.

I suspect I might be better off buying a 15" Air and a Mac Mini, and do the upscaling on the Mac Mini and keep it just for that work. But I would rather get a 15" Air that had Thunderbolt 4, so I guess I should wait. My issue is I need something pretty soon as my 5,1 is not fully functional and my MacBook Pro 15.4" Intel now needs OpenCore to support software.

 

[DeanCorp]

I am still thinking about what to buy ... having a fair bit of video upscaling to do. After looking at solutions, it seems nothing is quick, and the speed differences between many macs - from Ultra M2s to M1 Pros to M3 Maxes - there is not much difference in the speed of upscaling, due to software not being written to take advantage of multiple cores. To give an idea, a very basic upscale of 4.5 minutes of video takes around 17 minutes across many different M Processor computers.

I cancelled my order for an M4 16" Pro (not Max) with 2 TB & Nano & 48 GB, and for 10% less money I placed a refurb order for a 16" Mac M3 Pro Max with 1 TB and 64 GB RAM. But I will miss the Nano, have to fiddle to get it brighter, and it doesn't have Thunderbolt 5 either. But a M4 equivalent would cost more than 33% more.

I suspect I might be better off buying a 15" Air and a Mac Mini, and do the upscaling on the Mac Mini and keep it just for that work. But I would rather get a 15" Air that had Thunderbolt 4, so I guess I should wait. My issue is I need something pretty soon as my 5,1 is not fully functional and my MacBook Pro 15.4" Intel now needs OpenCore to support software.

I probably would’ve kept your original order. Especially if you wanted a nano display. The money saved in the long run if you don’t intend to upgrade laptops often isn’t worth it. Better off cutting expenses elsewhere to buy the laptop you want. You’re now even thinking about a MacBook Air once you factor that in, you could’ve just bought the model you originally wanted.

 

[throAU]

My 16-inch M1 Pro 32GB 1TB that I ordered in November 2021, is still rolling along.

In fact, my computing needs are very light these days (mine is now only for consumer use). I really don't need the horsepower that I have, so I figure I'll be riding this til it either dies or Apple quits providing security updates, whichever comes first.

Yeah in all honesty I went for m4 max because I was coming from M1 Pro 16 GB and am short on RAM. if I had 32 GB I'd maybe be sitting this one out, but given I was upgrading I wanted 64 GB like the rest of my machines, and that meant going max. And given that, I can rationalise the machine as replacing a desktop due to the increased CPU and GPU power, which meant going bigger on storage.

But yeah for sure, those with M1 Max or ultra, or high end M1 Pro are sitting pretty still unless you need a lot of GPU power.

the CPU and storage in my M1 Pro still smokes, I just need more RAM for VMs, preferably a lot more.


Also how times change. Benchmark comparison vs. the 6 core trash can on my desk:

• my Mac Pro trashcan gets 731 single core, 3596 multi core Geekbench 6. MacBook Pro m4 max is over 4000 single and 26,000 multi - ~6.5x speed up
• GPU? 25,193 x2 in metal vs. 190,329 - 9x speed up for single GPU, the trashcan has 2 but not much makes use of both at same time.

Desktop dual desktop GPU Xeon in the trashcan… and the m4 max slaughters it

I love the look of the trashcan and 64 GB in an affordable machine was nice, but holy smokes the M4 is insane. given its doing this in under 100 watts, not 400 like the trash can.

 

[wilsonjchan]

16" M1 Max owner here and was going to wait for major redesign. Anyone in the US changing their mind due to the tariffs being promised?

 

[hovscorpion12]

Anyone in the US changing their mind due to the tariffs being promised?

Nothing is official. There have been "rumors" of future open discussions of Apple being exempt, however no final decisions have been made.

Either way, it will not have any impact on my buying power going forward.

 

[bradman83]

My M1 Pro still tears through most everything I throw at it. I'm hoping the rumors of Apple releasing a redesign with a slimmer chassis come to fruition with the M5 or M6 generation, at which point I'd pull the trigger.

 

[hovscorpion12]

My M1 Pro still tears through most everything I throw at it. I'm hoping the rumors of Apple releasing a redesign with a slimmer chassis come to fruition with the M5 or M6 generation, at which point I'd pull the trigger.

I just hope the thinner design doesn't have Apple remove I/O ports and go backwards.

ie. Swapping HDMI port for mini-HDMI
back to USB-C only 😭

 

[jmoore5196]

I have a 16" M1 Max with 64GB and 4TB. It's been a real workhorse and I don't know what I'd have done without it over the past several years. I process a good deal of voiceover audio and run other Adobe CC apps, so nothing too strenuous.

I effectively gained an office over the last year, so I'm keeping the 16" MBP and buying a 14" M4 Pro. I'm just tired of shuttling the big MBP from place to place. I've been caught without it a few times, and the productivity impact is severe. I have tried working from my M4 13" iPad Pro and found that prohibitive in a number of ways.

I'm going to spec the M4 down a bit ... the 24GB/1TB model is what I'm after. I'm anxious to see if Space Black is the fingerprint magnet that Midnight is; my 16" is silver, and probably the last machine I'll own in that finish.

 

[Abstraktmind]

Absolutely not.

 

[Matck06]

My M1 Pro still tears through most everything I throw at it. I'm hoping the rumors of Apple releasing a redesign with a slimmer chassis come to fruition with the M5 or M6 generation, at which point I'd pull the trigger.

I'm already super happy with my M3 Max 16/40 48gb for photography, it's already a rocket.