Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

I think it's time for my 2016 TouchBar MBP to go, but the question is buy an M3 Pro on sale or a base M4... I imagine the M4 will be supported an extra year longer. My Mac hasn't been able to have the latest OS for a few years now. The only thing the M3 Pro has is a lot more GPU cores, but I think the M4 still wins.
 
  • Love
  • Sad
Reactions: minik and Lioness~
wigby said:
That's only the neural cores. Productivity boosts are always great (especially when they don't cost more) but unless you are rendering and outputting video or animation files all day, I really don't think there's much of a noticeable saving of time here. I just bought the 2021 model so maybe I'm bitter, but I do know I saved at least $700 buying a custom build that I can barely justify as it is. I believe I represent a large chunk of MacBook Pro owners out there - 70% of time spent browsing, word processing and emailing and 30% of time spent working in pro apps like FCP, PSD and Indesign.
Click to expand...
Even for those of us who work with video on a daily basis, the M1-3 chips are more than enough. There is no need to upgrade to M4
 
  • Like
Reactions: smoker68x
well looks like another year of pass for me. i was hoping for some signifcant external hardware changes but while all these internal upgrades are nice, for my current workflow of video editing and content creation for social media i see no significant improvemnt over my current m1max macbook pro. i always upgrade an apple product when there are significant hardware changes such as usbc, 120hz, oled, landscape cameras etc reasaon i upgraded my iphone when iphone 15 promax came out last year and ipad m4 came out this year. im waiting for an macbook air 15inch that will have 120hz screen and at least 600nts SD brightness. hopefully next yeat 2025.
 
Decent performance jump

But still happy with my M1 Max MBP, and it still has Applecare till 2026. And thankfully it gets Apple Intelligence. Hence, can't justify upgrading right now

Hopefully by 2026 we'll have gotten a design change with a better notch

Maybe i'll just buy more Apple stock in the interim.
 
antonrg said:
Even for those of us who work with video on a daily basis, the M1-3 chips are more than enough. There is no need to upgrade to M4
Click to expand...
TigerWoodsIV said:
I think it's time for my 2016 TouchBar MBP to go, but the question is buy an M3 Pro on sale or a base M4... I imagine the M4 will be supported an extra year longer. My Mac hasn't been able to have the latest OS for a few years now. The only thing the M3 Pro has is a lot more GPU cores, but I think the M4 still wins.
Click to expand...

I agree that M1-M3 is "enough" but if you're going to upgrade every 8 years or so, the M4 MBP is just such a significant improvement in chip design and efficiency, I would go for the M4 and keep it for another 8+ years.

3nm process and not the low yield super expensive M3 chip design. 24 battery life, and fully baked with Apple Intelligence in mind, it's just a vastly superior chip in almost every way in my opinion.

If price IS the deciding factor, then by all means stick with the M1-M3 for sure, but it sounds like you really take care of your equipment, so I would go M4 personally.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TigerWoodsIV
Trik said:
I agree that M1-M3 is "enough" but if you're going to upgrade every 8 years or so, the M4 MBP is just such a significant improvement in chip design and efficiency, I would go for the M4 and keep it for another 8+ years.

3nm process and not the low yield super expensive M3 chip design. 24 battery life, and fully baked with Apple Intelligence in mind, it's just a vastly superior chip in almost every way in my opinion.

If price IS the deciding factor, then by all means stick with the M1-M3 for sure, but it sounds like you really take care of your equipment, so I would go M4 personally.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yeah that is my thought process. I got a MBP in 2008 for college, upgraded in 2016, and here we are another 8 years later... I could probably keep this one longer, but the butterfly keyboard is trash and only getting worse with duplicating keystrokes and the battery is pretty bad at this point. I doubt I'll need ThunderBolt 5 though, so the regular M4 should do it.
 
Trik said:
I agree that M1-M3 is "enough" but if you're going to upgrade every 8 years or so, the M4 MBP is just such a significant improvement in chip design and efficiency, I would go for the M4 and keep it for another 8+ years.

3nm process and not the low yield super expensive M3 chip design. 24 battery life, and fully baked with Apple Intelligence in mind, it's just a vastly superior chip in almost every way in my opinion.

If price IS the deciding factor, then by all means stick with the M1-M3 for sure, but it sounds like you really take care of your equipment, so I would go M4 personally.
Click to expand...
Im on M2 Pro and I am hoping to keep it for at least 7 years. And about the price, they had increased it for M3 lineup by about 120€ in France, but for M4 it’s back to what it was for M2 lineup. So whoever needs to upgrade this year, I think M4 machines are excellent.
 
Fuzzball84 said:
Someone using a raspberry pi could be doing something far more important than someone using a Mac Pro.

The importance of the work being done does not always correlate with processing or storage requirements.
Click to expand...
I didn’t say it quite clearly. I meant you don’t actually need anything powerful, because the jump from a circa 2017 intel to an M4, you would see a night and day improvement in speed and in what you can actually get done on a daily basis.

If you just do writing and paperwork and bookkeeping, that’s important, but you don’t need a MBP at all. An Air can do it, and for less.
 
Even though the M3 Pro is a bit of an odd character in the lineup, I'm very happy with it. I'll keep my 16" M3 Pro MBP until they change the form factor and introduce an OLED screen.

While it's easy to get fomo from looking at the benchmark graphs, this device does everything I want it to do at the performance level I want, without even being able to hear the fans. There hasn't been a single time where I've wished it performed better, wished it was quieter, or wished for more battery life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jack Burton and Nik73
bradman83 said:
For computers it's almost never worth it to upgrade a single generation unless there's something specific you need like more RAM or storage that your current machine lacks. If you're on an M1 Pro or Max system today you likely won't see a noticeable increase in real-world performance (to justify the price of a new machine) until we hit the M4 or M5 generation.
Click to expand...
So you mean that maxed M1-> maxed M4 is a notable change?
 
Joining the Apple ecosystem again with the new MacBook Pro 16" M4 Pro, after 3 Years off, Can't wait, so excited, and that's 2 years off macrumors, so this is a comeback:D...
 
Maxis said:
So you mean that maxed M1-> maxed M4 is a notable change?
Click to expand...
For context, I wrote that post you're quoting in January 2023 when the M2 Pro and Max were released and people were bemoaning the incremental performance increases as though they were supposed to be upgrading with every M generation cycle. The M3 and M4 were hypotheticals back then. People were expecting the same level of performance increase that the M1 delivered over Intel.

The M4 Max is a very worthy upgrade over the M1 Max if you need the power. If Geekbench entries are to be believed the M4 Max is 60% faster than the M1 Max in single core and almost twice as fast in multicore. Really the whole M4 series is an excellent upgrade over the M1 series.

For plenty of users the M1 Pro and Max still work great for and don't need to upgrade yet and can likely hold off until M5 or M6 (as an M1 Pro owner I'm in that boat). But for those who push their machines, the M4 series is definitely a good upgrade over the M1 series.
 
  • Like
Reactions: carbocation
It will be great when I can actually use and test Image Playground and Genmoji. Been waiting since day 1 that 18.2 DB dropped
 
bradman83 said:
For context, I wrote that post you're quoting in January 2023 when the M2 Pro and Max were released and people were bemoaning the incremental performance increases as though they were supposed to be upgrading with every M generation cycle. The M3 and M4 were hypotheticals back then. People were expecting the same level of performance increase that the M1 delivered over Intel.

The M4 Max is a very worthy upgrade over the M1 Max if you need the power. If Geekbench entries are to be believed the M4 Max is 60% faster than the M1 Max in single core and almost twice as fast in multicore. Really the whole M4 series is an excellent upgrade over the M1 series.

For plenty of users the M1 Pro and Max still work great for and don't need to upgrade yet and can likely hold off until M5 or M6 (as an M1 Pro owner I'm in that boat). But for those who push their machines, the M4 series is definitely a good upgrade over the M1 series.
Click to expand...
Lol. I never noticed the day you were writing it 🙈

Although, the question was still valid 😅.

Thank you for a very good answer! I am thinking the same. If I am hitting the limits with my computer, then its time to move on (even I am just moving the walls to hit again.. 🤭)
 
Hogswarts said:
Otherworldcomputing has 4TB Thunderbolt 5 SSDs available to pre-order for $699, with performance nearly that of an internal SSD. The rapid proliferation of M4 computers with TB5 should spur a lot of competition in TB5 accessories.
Click to expand...
Ooo, good find, thanks! Checking out now
 
MacRumors said:


Apple this week refreshed the MacBook Pro with its latest Apple silicon chips, but what exactly do the latest machines bring to the table and is it worth upgrading from the previous generations?

M4-MacBook-Pros-Thumb.jpg

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M4 chip starts at $1,599, replacing the previous M3 model as the entry-level machine in Apple's pro notebook lineup. Equipped with the higher-end M4 Pro and M4 Max chips, the 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and the 16-inch model starts at $2,499.

Upon the launch of the latest models, previous-generation MacBook Pro models have been discontinued and are no longer available from Apple's main storefront. Units of slightly older machines such as the 2023 models may, however, still be available via Apple's refurbished store and third-party retailers for significantly reduced prices. Buying a second-hand model is also an option.

First-time MacBook Pro‌ customers or those upgrading from a much older device may be wondering whether it is worth buying a 2021 or 2023, so it will be important to weigh up exactly what was added with the latest version. Likewise, existing users of the 2021 or 2023 MacBook Pros may be wondering if it is worth upgrading to the latest model or sticking with their current device.

See the detailed breakdown below for each new feature, change, and improvement that was added with the late 2024's ‌14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models compared to their predecessors:... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: M1 vs. M2 vs. M3 vs. M4 MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide: 30+ Differences Compared
Click to expand...
I currently have a Core i7 MBP maxed out with everything. I think even upgrading to a M3 MacBook Pro will be an insane upgrade.
 
I still don't understand how Apple is shipping Macbooks so-called "PRO" with an internal SSD of 512 in 2024, especially considering how much do they cost??
Can someone let Apple know that we are in 2024?
Minimum should be 1TB.
with the PRO MAX with 2TB.
But knowing Apple they want to squeeze every penny out of you.
Sorry, but it is just lame, especially considering the design is already 3 years old...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back