I am still on the fence but leaning towards no. I have less than 100 cycles on my 14” and 16” M1 Pros and they’re already extremely fast for everything that I do.
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M1 Pro/Max owners: Are you upgrading to M3 or staying put?
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
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M1 Pro here: not upgrading. I don't have any use for this extra CPU/GPU power and my current MBP is still in very good shape. I'll upgrade when there will be substantial changes to the display or when they will be equipped with Thunderbolt 5
M1 Pro 14" MBP. Definitely staying put. There is simply no meaningful improvement from the new machines compared to what I have right now.
I'm very happy with the performance of my machine. Very happy with the screen. Happy with the battery life. I also prefer the silver color over darker colors so space black vs space gray makes no difference to me.
The only thing I am slightly less than totally happy with is that my M1Pro doesn't natively support 3 external monitors (as my old intel MBP did). And Apple didn't address that limitation at all. I don't really want to spend $3199 just to get to feature parity (in this one area) with $2000 Intel MBPs. The stingy external display support is easily my least favorite part about the otherwise superb transition to apple silicon.
Zero reason to upgrade. But that's not really a surprise. I expect to get at least 5 years out of this machine.
I'm very happy with the performance of my machine. Very happy with the screen. Happy with the battery life. I also prefer the silver color over darker colors so space black vs space gray makes no difference to me.
The only thing I am slightly less than totally happy with is that my M1Pro doesn't natively support 3 external monitors (as my old intel MBP did). And Apple didn't address that limitation at all. I don't really want to spend $3199 just to get to feature parity (in this one area) with $2000 Intel MBPs. The stingy external display support is easily my least favorite part about the otherwise superb transition to apple silicon.
Zero reason to upgrade. But that's not really a surprise. I expect to get at least 5 years out of this machine.
14" M1 Pro - upgrading
I had ordered the M1 Pro as an upgrade to a 2017 27" iMac that was on its last legs but the delays in getting the model I wanted with more ram led me to jump the gun and get a store version with only 16gb RAM.
That has definitely led to slow downs in Lightroom as the program has added more AI type features such as their noise reduction. I recently shot some high school football and running noise reduction on the 'keepers' took 2-3 hours...
Getting the 14" (love the size) M3 Max so that I can get up to 48gb RAM
I had ordered the M1 Pro as an upgrade to a 2017 27" iMac that was on its last legs but the delays in getting the model I wanted with more ram led me to jump the gun and get a store version with only 16gb RAM.
That has definitely led to slow downs in Lightroom as the program has added more AI type features such as their noise reduction. I recently shot some high school football and running noise reduction on the 'keepers' took 2-3 hours...
Getting the 14" (love the size) M3 Max so that I can get up to 48gb RAM
I have a 14" M1 Pro and I'm upgrading to 16" M3 Pro. I've been wanting to move to the bigger screen size so the timing worked out, but I don't think I could have justified the upgrade without it. M1 Pro still does just about everything I need it to.
I am upgrading from a 14" M1 Max to a 16" M3 Max. I could use the extra screen space for some common activities I perform for work. And the Space Black color is sweet too 😉
Going from an M1 Pro to a fully decked out M3 Max here 
I've loved this machine for the last 2 years but having bought some professional camera gear recently I've been shooting a lot more 8K video and large RAWs. While the GPU is doing a great job of keeping up still, I'm finding the 16GB RAM quite limiting in big FCP projects. I've also been using a lot of external storage to get round the 1TB internal drive limitations but I'd much rather have all my projects/large photo library on the internal in future.
Given I was upgrading and wanted a much bigger SSD and more RAM, I figured I might as well opt for the Max given the M3 Pro doesn't seem to be a huge leap from the M1 Pro, whereas they've really gone big on the Max chips this year.
Expensive but hopefully worth it, my only frustration is the lack of TB5 which would have really future proofed the machine given how long I'm expecting it to last with such a high spec.
I've loved this machine for the last 2 years but having bought some professional camera gear recently I've been shooting a lot more 8K video and large RAWs. While the GPU is doing a great job of keeping up still, I'm finding the 16GB RAM quite limiting in big FCP projects. I've also been using a lot of external storage to get round the 1TB internal drive limitations but I'd much rather have all my projects/large photo library on the internal in future. Given I was upgrading and wanted a much bigger SSD and more RAM, I figured I might as well opt for the Max given the M3 Pro doesn't seem to be a huge leap from the M1 Pro, whereas they've really gone big on the Max chips this year.
Expensive but hopefully worth it, my only frustration is the lack of TB5 which would have really future proofed the machine given how long I'm expecting it to last with such a high spec.
Super happy with my 14" M1 Pro 10/10/32GB/2TB including AppleCare coverage until 2026. Increased single core performance would be a nice to have to reduce software compile/build times, but not something which would make me immediately run to upgrade. The 14" M1 Pro is an awesome machine.
Happy to stay with my 16" M1 Max/32GB/1TB. Maybe M6.
14" M1 Pro here. I love this machine still! It runs so smoothly even after a year of owning it. Not upgrading yet.
M1 Pro (16GB/512GB) and I'm upgrading to the M3 Max but I've selected the cut-down version (36GB/1TB).
Every upgrade seems like 'just another $500 and I can have X' ... I'd like to justify the full M3 Max (48GB, more cores, etc) but I really don't need it.
Any gotchas I should know about with the cut-down max and 36 GB RAM?
Every upgrade seems like 'just another $500 and I can have X' ... I'd like to justify the full M3 Max (48GB, more cores, etc) but I really don't need it.
Any gotchas I should know about with the cut-down max and 36 GB RAM?
M1 MBP13 owner here (16GB/2TB). Definitely staying put unless/until they reduce the form factor, or until MBA gets 4TB storage. As a photography and graphics professional who travels, my primary need is local storage. 14 inch is too bulky for travel together with camera gear. Most of my work is done on an external monitor 'back home' so the improved screen is not necessary.
16" M1 Max here; absolutely staying put. I'm still not getting over how ridiculously good this machine performs! (Heavy Photoshop, Logic Pro, Baldur's Gate 3, etc. for me.)
14" M1 Max here. As much as I could sometimes use the additional CPU and GPU power, it's just not in my budget to replace after just two years. It would cost around $4200 to replace this one in kind with the faster processors, and I'm budgeted to replace every five years, not two. Fortunately, the times when I could use the additional power are usually also the ones when I'm not in a rush. When I'm on deadline (say after a night NASCAR race) I don't have the bulk problems that need the power.
Assuming that I'm going another three years before upgrade, it does make me wonder just what a hypothetical M5 Max is going to look like!
Assuming that I'm going another three years before upgrade, it does make me wonder just what a hypothetical M5 Max is going to look like!
My M1Pro is still crushing everything I throw at it, and the 1TB SSD has 300gb free still. I can wait.
The upgrade child within me would do it for the new color, but I scratched that itch with an M2 Air as a secondary laptop.
but, you know…. Shiny new, shiny new 👹
The upgrade child within me would do it for the new color, but I scratched that itch with an M2 Air as a secondary laptop.
but, you know…. Shiny new, shiny new 👹
i think its mostly to lure intel mbp users... honestly even M2 Max and M2 Ultra [MBP/Mac Studios] are ridiculously fast for most productive tasks already...
unless m3 ultra is mindblowing but being realistic; m2 ultra from maxtech is ridiculosuy super fast already you don't even have time to take a break.
Thinking of upgrading from 2021 14" M1 Max Macbook Pro 10 core with 64gb ram and 2tb ssd. My main goal is to be able to edit 8k quickly for 1080p & 4k output. Do you think the M3 will stutter with 8k footage in FCP X without creating massive render files? Is the following configuration excessive for editing 8k h265 video without proxies/render files in Final Cut X.
My M1 is fast with processing 50 megapixel raw images in Capture One but anything that shaves of 2-3 min on deadline can make a big difference in my bottom line on a daily basis.
What do you think?
- Apple M3 Max chip with 16‑core CPU, 40‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
- 128GB unified memory
- 4TB SSD storage
My M1 is fast with processing 50 megapixel raw images in Capture One but anything that shaves of 2-3 min on deadline can make a big difference in my bottom line on a daily basis.
What do you think?
I was hoping for meaningful increases in both performance AND battery life... but the max wireless web ratings are the same as the M2 Pro machines, and those are only a marginal improvement over the M1s.
I had it in my head that I'd get the lower end 14" M3 Max but I surmise the battery life would be worse than my base 14" M1 Pro... when fresh couldn't get a full day of work while out and about, now it's down to 84% I'm lucky to get 5 hours so always bring an external battery which weighs over a pound.
So a bit disappointed. Considering the 3nm process I was hoping the base models would get at least 2-3 hours improvement and the base max would do about the same as base from the previous gen.
I had it in my head that I'd get the lower end 14" M3 Max but I surmise the battery life would be worse than my base 14" M1 Pro... when fresh couldn't get a full day of work while out and about, now it's down to 84% I'm lucky to get 5 hours so always bring an external battery which weighs over a pound.
So a bit disappointed. Considering the 3nm process I was hoping the base models would get at least 2-3 hours improvement and the base max would do about the same as base from the previous gen.
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I'm sitting pretty with my M1 Max 64GB/2TB for one more year. I may possibly upgrade if I can get a similar deal next year when M4 models release (From B&H - $2600 for the originally $4099 config from Apple.)
I considered dropping down to an M3 Pro, but since Apple dropped CPU cores on the Pro I feel I would be missing out on performance that I would actually use (M1 Pro -> Max was only a GPU upgrade.)
The Space Black is tempting though.
I considered dropping down to an M3 Pro, but since Apple dropped CPU cores on the Pro I feel I would be missing out on performance that I would actually use (M1 Pro -> Max was only a GPU upgrade.)
The Space Black is tempting though.
I'd imagine the battery life would probably be better for real world stuff on the M3 Pro. We really just don't know what the benchmarks will suggest yet, but the M2 Pro already improved that somewhat by adding efficiency cores.
(Unfortunately, the M2 Pro also increased maximum power consumption under heavy loads, so it probably worsened battery life under very heavy conditions. It waits to be seen whether the same will be true for the M3 lineup.)
16" M1 Pro with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD. Still feels like new and doing everything I throw at it without breaking a sweat. Keeping it for now. For those considering upgrading, keep in mind that WiFi 7 and TB5 are just around the corner. As I will likely be upgrading my router to 7 when prices fall back to earth, I sure wouldn't want to be stuck with an "old" 6E chip in a $5000 laptop.
Trading in my M1 14Pro for M3 14Pro with my Apple Card 0% monthly installments.
If I went Pro->Pro I'm sure battery life would see a moderate jump both in steady state and probably even better bursty performance... but it still might be something I'd need to manage to make it 8 hours. That said to upgrade I'd like to see at least a 50% improvement in compute which probably means going to the max and that will almost certainly take a sizable hit to battery life given past performance.
On the whole it's a nice performance upgrade, just was hoping it would be significant all around.
I got my M1 14 inch pro at launch and so I've had it a solid 3 years with AppleCare set to expire next week. This computer is still awesome. When I got it I thought the 14 inch would be the best for portability--but the 14 inch screen is limiting with the type of work I do. I have to choose between a computer that's easier to travel with and one more unwieldy but with more usable screen real estate. My vision has declined a bit over the last few years.