M1 Pro/Max owners: Are you upgrading to M3 or staying put?

[3Rock]

I configured my M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 32/1 properly and am quite happy with it. It has more CPU than I need and the RAM is adequate. The SSD is larger than I technically need but it gives me more freedom to not carry around external storage. I almost think, right now, that they will need to add something besides CPU/GPU to get me to upgrade. Some ideas:

- Get rid of the notch
- Face ID
- USB-A port
- 17.3 inch 4k display
- Return of the glowy

I clicked on the high-end 14 inch max, and after seeing a few more reviews, and after being somewhat disappointed that Face ID was not on here, including having the notch still, I went back online and click cancel. Maybe next year, but I’m not holding my breath.😩

 

[Beau10]

Even MKBHD canceled his preorder and kept his MBP 16 with M1 MAX.

Saw that when posted... main takeaways are the black is not quite black and the M1 Max is so performant that it's hard to realize the difference with day to day usage.

Still, the unbinned Max has the same Geekbench as the M2 ULTRA. Yeah, it's not the same as the initial jump to Apple silicon but it's still wildly impressive. At least the Max chips.

10 years ago folks were getting like 7-10% annual gains w/ Intel's tick/tock and would upgrade every 3rd gen, so maybe 30-50% at best after 3-4 years. We're seeing what typically would have taken 5-6 years of improvement in just 2 years.

 

[siurpeeman]

i sold my base 14 m1 mbp and “upgraded“ to a refurbished m1 16 pro for a net 100 dollars. i wasn’t really happy with the 14’s battery life, and the speakers i felt were a little quiet. the 16 solved both those issues, and i got a bigger screen. the computing power is more than i need and probably will be for quite some time. i won’t be upgrading until the bigger model comes down in weight a bit. or, until the 15 air gets some upgrades like improved speakers or pro motion.

 

[6916494]

What's the price if you don't mind me asking? Curious of the going rate

8.529,00 Euro (includes 19% German VAT). The person buying my maxed out MBP M1 Max will pay me 4.500 Euro.

 

[Backtothemac]

Sold my 16" M1 Pro for $1900. Just ordered the M1 Max 64GB 4TB 32-Core 16" from B&H. Got it for $2999. That is a lot of computer, a lot of storage and a lot of ram that should last me years to come. Not impressed with the 14" Pro M3 11 core. So it is going back to Best Buy.

 

[StrollerEd]

Sold my 16" M1 Pro for $1900. Just ordered the M1 Max 64GB 4TB 32-Core 16" from B&H. Got it for $2999. That is a lot of computer, a lot of storage and a lot of ram that should last me years to come. Not impressed with the 14" Pro M3 11 core. So it is going back to Best Buy.

That's one great upgrade for $1k!!

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

 

[jido]

Conclusion: nice improvements in battery life, and across quite a few other tasks.
The new GPU core is doing magic.

Do not buy if you need really a lot of tracks in Logic Pro or if you want to run the Geekbench 6 graphics benchmark all day.

 

[Nathan King]

I have no plans to upgrade from my 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro purchased at release. All of my development pipelines reside in AWS, so I have little use for additional power. My next planned upgrade will be when the panel sees significant improvement (2025?).

 

[Backtothemac]

That's one great upgrade for $1k!!

Right! I couldn't believe I pulled that off. Well worth 1K. Going from Pro to Max. Then Max with 32Core. 16 to 64GB. 512 to 4TB. Crazy. Just crazy upgrade.

 

[StrollerEd]

Right! I couldn't believe I pulled that off. Well worth 1K. Going from Pro to Max. Then Max with 32Core. 16 to 64GB. 512 to 4TB. Crazy. Just crazy upgrade.

Now do your Zen; banish thoughts of shining things and become content with what you have, for a very long time

Go further and devote your life to peace and providing love and well-being to those less fortunate ...

 

[Lucas Curious]

Sold my 16" M1 Pro for $1900. Just ordered the M1 Max 64GB 4TB 32-Core 16" from B&H. Got it for $2999. That is a lot of computer, a lot of storage and a lot of ram that should last me years to come. Not impressed with the 14" Pro M3 11 core. So it is going back to Best Buy.

how did you sell it for 1900 when you can get it at store for under 1500? I ordered the M3 Max 14" for around $3,000 so it's kinda hard to spend that same cash on a Mac that has like half the power. I also have the 16" M1 but too big.

 

[GoodGuy313]

I think this guy has said it best.

At this point, for most people, it won’t matter if the newer chips are even a 100% or a 1000% faster when the previous gen already does have solid performance.

After M2 Pro/Max released, I realized that these performance bumps will steadily be catered to a smaller group of professionals that might benefit from it.

 

[Vudols1]

For those who did decide to upgrade the M1 Pro to the M3 Pro, are you noticing any real world differences other than display brightness? Do you feel the upgrade was worthwhile? Did the trade in value influence your decision? Thanks!

 

[tekksan]

For those who did decide to upgrade the M1 Pro to the M3 Pro, are you noticing any real world differences other than display brightness? Do you feel the upgrade was worthwhile? Did the trade in value influence your decision? Thanks!

I upgraded from an M1 Pro 14” to the M3 Pro 14”.

I’ve noticed the battery life is very noticeably better.

 

[fs454]

I upgraded from M1 Max 14" 32GB/2TB to M3 Max 16" 64GB/2TB. The M1 Max is still blisteringly fast and I wish it the best in its future second home, but I really sorely needed to go back up to 16" and the space black tipped me over the edge. Typing on the new one now and I missed the 16" display so much. Glad I made the move.

I will say, I'm pretty sensitive to subtle performance increases and optimizations, and I move very fast on macOS and you just can't trip this thing up. It does feel like I have more compute headroom just flying around the OS, and Premiere Pro feels a bit more on its feet and less willing to hiccup here and there. Haven't done anything heavier than a 10-min YouTube edit yet but can't wait to dip into AE and heavier footage.

Battery life got a big upgrade too between the better e-cores and the bigger 16" battery.

 

[loby]

I think this guy has said it best.

At this point, for most people, it won’t matter if the newer chips are even a 100% or a 1000% faster when the previous gen already does have solid performance.

After M2 Pro/Max released, I realized that these performance bumps will steadily be catered to a smaller group of professionals that might benefit from it.

Professionals whose job depends on time and finishing desire faster and powerful machines..always.

The rest…M1 gets their needs done.

 

[MacDevil7334]

I’m still on the fence. I downsized from 16” to a 14” in January and am regretting that decision. I want to get a 16” again so I’m trying to decide between one of those sweet M1 Max deals at B&H or getting an M3 instead. My M1 Max meets my needs right now so I’m sure the 16” would be fine. But I’m having trouble convincing myself to spend money to get the same 2 year old processor. But it’s $1700 more to get the config I want in the M3. Apple’s prices to upgrade RAM and storage are simply obscene. So, I’m still deciding what to do.

 

[Sun Baked]

No reason to right now, waiting to see what the Apple Vision and AI projects bring to the table.

Can almost see that Apple is going to add key features that will need RT cores, or a Neural Engine tweaked for their AI.

However, that might be around the time the M5 or M6 is hitting the shelves, so that is the time to replace my equipment, not now.

 

[StrollerEd]

I’m still on the fence. I downsized from 16” to a 14” in January and am regretting that decision. I want to get a 16” again so I’m trying to decide between one of those sweet M1 Max deals at B&H or getting an M3 instead. My M1 Max meets my needs right now so I’m sure the 16” would be fine. But I’m having trouble convincing myself to spend money to get the same 2 year old processor. But it’s $1700 more to get the config I want in the M3. Apple’s prices to upgrade RAM and storage are simply obscene. So, I’m still deciding what to do.

Yes, some good M1 Max 16" deals at B&H.

My recommendation would be to spend on the 64 RAM as that would keep you as happy as you are now for very much longer. [I have 32 RAM, which is v good, but can never have enough RAM ... ]

Extra storage maybe, but unless you really need everything local, iCloud is there for you.

 

[bnumerick]

Bought both the 14" & 16" Max models and returned them both. I partly bought both sizes to see if the high power mode on the 14" fixes the discrepancy between the two sizes in Topaz Video AI (it mostly does) and to see how it compared against my 16" M1 Max/14" M2 Max. In the end I came to the conclusion for my workflows I wasn't seeing enough of an improvement. While there was a significant improvement in Topaz Video AI for the 14" due to high power mode that system is already my 4th in line for upscaling and there's no difference in the encoding work.

 

[mactinkerlover]

I expect M1 chips to receive 9+ years of full macOS releases plus another 2 years of security updates.

I highly doubt that. 7 years of full macos updates at best and then 2 years of security updates. But more realistically probably 5-6 full updates so apple can force people to upgrade and fix the mistake of making the M1s too good!

 

[MapleBeercules]

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.

The second Apple drops m3 pro into a mac mini, ill have on in my cart for purchase...

 

[BeatCrazy]

I highly doubt that. 7 years of full macos updates at best and then 2 years of security updates. But more realistically probably 5-6 full updates so apple can force people to upgrade and fix the mistake of making the M1s too good!

We get 7 years of iOS/iPad OS updates as a general rule. Apple publicly acknowledges that people keep Macs longer than iPhones/iPads, so the implied strategy is they can extend feature-macOS releases beyond 7 years since they transitioned to Apple Silicon.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I highly doubt that. 7 years of full macos updates at best and then 2 years of security updates. But more realistically probably 5-6 full updates so apple can force people to upgrade and fix the mistake of making the M1s too good!

My Early 2015 Broadwell 13 in MacBook Pro originally came with OS X Yosemite (10.10) and last supported release was Monterrey and I expect to get two additional years of support, 2023 being the last year. So, thats 8 releases of macOS which includes the one it came with. That's 9 years of support.

Considering the pace of innovation in desktop operating systems has kinda slowed, Apple could go beyond 10 years supporting Apple Silicon Macs. But we all know they will implement some for of planned obsolescence. I would say to them, its better to have more Macs out there to sell services to, whether thats online or physical repair services. Grow the user base and use it as a way to differentiate from the Windows PC.

But with AI becoming the new 'it' thing, Apple is likely gonna introduce functionality in future macOS releases that are just not possible on Apple silicon Macs built between 2020 and 2025.