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M1 vs. M2 vs. M3 vs. M4 MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared

Akrapovic said:
Why aren't they adding the feature that not many peopled liked, that is going away?

The only reason the base MBP exists with a Touch Bar is to use up produced parts from the Intel generation and get a tiny bit more money out of the manufacturing processes used for these. In a year or two those will be gone as well.
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I bought a M2 MacBook (Pro) for the TouchbBar. I use it all the time. It’s a wonder how people can’t figure that out… 💻
 
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In the UK:

Base M1 MBP 14 - £1725 (Amazon - they did dip to £1624 yesterday but have gone back up presumably as people decided to take the savings over M2).

Base M2 MBP 14 - £2149

Is it worth the £424 premium for general use and light video editing?

Desperately want to update my 2015 iMac 27" but adding in £1500 for the studio display (or similar decent monitor to suit the MBP) is putting me off...
 
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Akrapovic said:
Just for those who don't understand productivity - as a developer, writing code doesn't go faster because my CPU goes faster. My build times are faster (let's say 40%), but I'm not building constantly. I only build a few times an hour, or even day. So I'm only getting the 40% boost during builds.

A faster CPU doesn't make a human type or think 40% faster.
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Man, you remember when we had to use punched cards, using those clunky old keypunch machines. Then getting your deck verified, and realizing you forgot to stripe it, hoping and praying your deck doesn’t get dropped.
Man those were the days…
 
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PowerButton said:
Man, you remember when we had to use punched cards, using those clunky old keypunch machines. Then getting your deck verified, and realizing you forgot to stripe it, hoping and praying your deck doesn’t get dropped.
Man those were the days…
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Before my time, but not much more. I'm off the generation that thought floppy discs were viable backups and lost a _lot_ of work.
 
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jtm666 said:
Base M2 MBP 14 - £2149
Is it worth the £424 premium for general use and light video editing?

Desperately want to update my 2015 iMac 27" but adding in £1500 for the studio display (or similar decent monitor to suit the MBP) is putting me off...
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It depends not on what you do so much as what you intend to do in the future and how long you may intend to keep the new box. Light video editing 2023 and forever you could go with cheaper M1. If OTOH your demands on the box are likely to grow (8K video in the future, etc.) then you could either A) plan a potentially shortened life cycle for the new M1 MBP or B) buy the stronger M2 MBP now.

Personally I may do the shortened life cycle thing and buy a 32 GB RAM M2 Mini knowing that I am likely to quickly outgrow 32 GB, but planning on upgrading to an M2 Studio when that happens. I would buy an M2 Studio now, but they are not out yet and the 16 GB 2016 MBP constantly paging to SSD is getting old

Whatever you do, do not also cheap out on the build of an M1 box (RAM, GPU) just to save money. That is a recipe for future discontent.

Back in 2017 I had a similar choice and chose a much better spec'd 2016 MBP for similar money to what a lesser spec 2017 MBP cost; functionally a savings of well in excess of $1k. But that was a rare opportunity.
 
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imageWIS said:
It seems that there is an inverse relationship, that as computers get faster, people's mental ability slows down.
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Interesting that you would claim that, because my experience in design (graphics/images) is totally opposite. I have always (decades) found that computer lags to render, apply a change, etc. interrupt the human part of the creative process. Stronger computer hardware allows one to just create, without losing focus waiting for some operation to finish.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
Interesting that you would claim that, because my experience in design (graphics/images) is totally opposite. I have always (decades) found that computer lags to render, apply a change, etc. interrupt the human part of the creative process. Stronger computer hardware allows one to just create, without losing focus waiting for some operation to finish.
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Yea you mostly just wait less. I remember my one job we entered 50 doc#s to search per batch. In the beginning, you would be lucky if ten were loaded once you entered the 50th, but once they upgraded the computers, you might have had ten or less left to load at the end. What bit is we did more but didn't get any raises.
 
dumastudetto said:
Yes Apple showed peak performance can exceed 40% gains over previous generation. With the right attitude and radically improved human approach, you could cut your work day easily if you properly immerse yourself in the technologies you use to get important work done. Apple can only provide you with the tools. You need to use them correctly.
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Can't tell if sarcasm or serious. Epic either way.
 
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Jacoblee23 said:
Not sure why anyone such as myself who has a 2021 would upgrade to this. I can't find a single reason to do so. My 2021 is already insanely fast.
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The Space Black has me hooked to go from the M1 Max to an M3 Pro (which is even more insanely stupid) because I'm a basic you-know-what.
 
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Correction: highest-frequency M3 Max chips have 400GB/s memory bandwidth but basic basic ones have 300 in this generation.
 
I have the 16" M1 Pro and been waiting for the M3 been hearing it will be pushed to 2024 so I was surprised its coming this year so ill be gettign the space black model. they say the biggest upgrade is in the GPU so im excited to see how it performs the M1 pro is already my favorite MacBook ive purchased so im pretty excited to see what this can do and i havnt been excited for a macbook in awhile
 
dumastudetto said:
Yes Apple showed peak performance can exceed 40% gains over previous generation. With the right attitude and radically improved human approach, you could cut your work day easily if you properly immerse yourself in the technologies you use to get important work done. Apple can only provide you with the tools. You need to use them correctly.
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Nice try Tim Cook
 
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bnumerick said:
I ordered a couple of configs of the 14" M2 Max (30 & 38 GPU cores) to possibly replace 14" M1 Pro and maybe my Mac Studio M1 Ultra. Whether I keep them or not will depend how they perform in a very specific workflow. I do a fair amount of video upscaling via AI for work which uses the neural engines and GPU primarily. These videos are 2-8 hours long so even just small improvements can knock a day or two off of a render. Since those are the areas that should see the biggest improvement I'm hoping it'll be faster than my M1 Ultra. I've been pretty disappointed with its performance compared to my 16" M1 Max. In a decent chunk of tasks my 16" is faster and even in the upscaling work there is just the tiniest difference especially when compared to the difference in my M1 Pro vs M1 Max. I dunno if the Ultra just really needs a lot more targeted optimizing or what but its not gotten better over time.
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I use iStat Menu and watch how many cores light up throughout my day (and which ones surprisingly appear to run completely off the efficiency cores)

I cannot really know certain how accurate the iStat app is, but I still find it very useful to determine which software fully utilizes my CPU, GPU, etc. I am often disappointed how few apps appear to be optimized to run all of the CPU cores or GPU cores. Therefore, I don't really see much value yet in upgrading.

Therefore, as always, the choice to upgrade is an individual one. If anyone is on the fence, I recommend using iStat Menu or just keeping the Activity Monitor open. If you aren't pegging what you have, you'll be underwhelmed with any upgrade, unless

1. You have an Intel MBP and would like a quieter computer
2. You like the look, feel, weight, or port configuration of a new computer, in which case, by all means, enjoy some new hardware!
 
Did you notice that going from the M1 MacBook Pro (14" and 16") to the M2 and M3, the memory bandwidth actually drops quite a bit, from 200GB/sec to 150 GB/sec. I wondered if this was a typo?

Anyway, good to see the comparison chart. No reason for me to upgrade my 2021 16" MacBook Pro (or my iPhone 12 for that matter). Next year, will plan to upgrade to the iPhone 16 and the year after that, will likely upgrade to the MacBook Pro 16" with an M5 or M6 Pro.
 
Akrapovic said:
Just for those who don't understand productivity - as a developer, writing code doesn't go faster because my CPU goes faster. My build times are faster (let's say 40%), but I'm not building constantly. I only build a few times an hour, or even day. So I'm only getting the 40% boost during builds.

A faster CPU doesn't make a human type or think 40% faster.
Click to expand...

Yup... I run Android Studio, Xcode, VS Code, several Adobe CC tools and a number of Web tools at the same time (and while I'm building projects will go to another tool and keep working)... with my Max'd MBP I see this utilization on the processor (M1Max) and memory (64GB):

1698843517098.png
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Given this and the fact I never feel slowed down as much as I want the new M3Max I simply wouldn't feel any difference nor would improve my ROI...

Now what I do see and am waiting for is that a M3 MBA with 24/32 GB would likely handle my workflow just as well and would be a far more portable machine for cafe/travels... heck a Max'd M2 MBA is likely fine, but M3 for sure... which is the plan... wait for that refresh
 
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JimmyMac said:
I just wish I had more control over what gets chopped off the menu bar by the notch and what doesn't. I wish I could just let things duck under it and come out the other side rather than totally not showing them at all. I use quite a few of the menu bar items while on an external monitor, but boom, soon as I unplug, that notch jumps in and spoils things.
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You can command-click on the menu bar icons to rearrange them into an order that will still show the most important icons when you disconnect the external display. On my notchless 13" MBP, I use a free app called Hidden Bar to hide a few menu bar items that I can't turn off and don't need to access regularly. It may help reduce clutter and the need for further intervention. There is also a free app that I've never used called iBar that will display menu bar items in a drop-down bar below the menu bar that may be helpful to you.
 
I'm definitely a little worried about the switch for the Pro chip, going from a 8 performance/4 efficiency combo (M2 Pro) to a 6/6 mix (M3 Pro) sounds like a downgrade for the top 12-core SoC.

Really interested in seeing some benchmark numbers for multicore performance comparisons between M2 Pro and M3 Pro.
 
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8gb? wtf. I don't mind it in my air but in a super expensive "pro" laptop? It's $2349 Canadian plus tax to get the base 14" with 16gb ram. Screw that
 
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