M3 Pro and M3 Max owners what will it take for you to buy an M4 Pro or M4 Max in 2024 ?

[TheRealAlex]

With 3 generations of M chips we can pretty much speculate as to what’s next. I’m guessing WiFi 7 and Thunderbolt 5 will be major upgrades next year. As well as 2nd Generation Ray Tracing with double the Performance. But is there any scenario besides new OLED displays in. 2025 or 2026 that would make you Upgrade next year ?
I’m thinking my M3 Pro will last til 2026 and OLED displays.

 

[amarcus]

Face ID or a new titanium casing would probably do it for me but haven’t seen anything to suggest either could be on the way.

 

[rishey]

Money

 

[Raebo]

Winning a major lottery and I would still have to really think about it.

 

[maerz001]

Face ID or a new titanium casing would probably do it for me but haven’t seen anything to suggest either could be on the way.

You know that titanium is 65% heavier than aluminum?
Not to mention cost

 

[macduke]

1. Significant GPU speed increase (like a pretty big breakthrough to push it past high end PC GPUs)
2. DLC on the black anodization to prevent scratches
3. FaceID unlock
4. Smaller Dynamic Island instead of the notch
5. OLED or mLED display tech
6. Higher screen resolution, for example, could run at higher resolution/more desktop space/smaller items without sacrificing retina resolution. This is especially important to me for a 14" model.
7. Reduction in upgrade cost for memory and storage, such as higher base starting amounts. For example, should start at 16GB memory, could go up to 192GB memory, make 48GB/64GB available on the M4 Pro, etc, M4 Max should at least start with 48GB, if not 64GB. Could also start storage at 1TB instead of 512GB, go up to 12TB storage for same price as current 8TB, start at 2TB for the higher end configs, etc. Still overpriced but more reasonable for what you get compared to this generation. They've kept the same memory and storage for years.
8. Thunderbolt 5
9. WiFi 7
10. 5G modem built-in

I would need at least about 7/10 of these to consider upgrading next year. And that's not gonna happen. Otherwise I'm content to wait a few years. Only things I see happening next year are the GPU getting to be pretty competitive, FaceID, Thunderbolt 5, WiFi 7. Bumping specs on options is overdue but with inflation they'll probably just raise the prices. They've basically been addressing inflation by not increasing value as components get cheaper. I don't think we'll see OLED yet next year? But if we did see OLED or similar, then I think they could do the cutout for Dynamic Island, and if they upgrade the screen tech, there is a chance they might update the density.

 

[Flowstates]

Borrowing from the above lists:

1. Titanium Chassis

2. Drastic Compute speed increase

3. OLED

4. 5G modem

5. Thinner bezels

6. Notchless design

Any one would peek my interest, three would tip me over.

 

[Miltz]

nothing. I went from a M1 Pro to a M3 Max. It's a 2x-3x speed difference. I will probably keep this until the M5/M6 or until the battery dies.

 

[NeonNights]

I was underwhelmed by my M1 Max because single-core performance wasn't any better than my M1 Air. However, the M3 Max performance exceeds my expectations so I won't need to upgrade again for many generations. I'm holding onto my Space Black 14" M3 Max for the long haul.

 

[DHagan4755]

The next redesign will be in 2025. So we'd have to see what the M4 would bring to stop me from waiting til the redesign at that point.

But by 2025 the MacBook Pro will be getting the M5.

Aside from OLED, we should hopefully be seeing some other exciting changes:

Improvement in battery technology

Heat dissipation

Possibly touch screens (I know this is a divisive topic)

While adding a touch screen is NOT going to singularly tempt me to upgrade a combination of what's been mentioned, along with the improvements to battery tech & heat dissipation would definitely do it.

 

[mdhaus72]

The next redesign will be in 2025. So we'd have to see what the M4 would bring to stop me from waiting til the redesign at that point.

But by 2025 the MacBook Pro will be getting the M5.

Aside from OLED, we should hopefully be seeing some other exciting changes:

Improvement in battery technology

Heat dissipation

Possibly touch screens (I know this is a divisive topic)

While adding a touch screen is NOT going to singularly tempt me to upgrade a combination of what's been mentioned, along with the improvements to battery tech & heat dissipation would definitely do it.

How do we know for sure that the next redesign will be in 2025?

 

[gigapocket1]

Dedicated GPU may honestly be the only way.

 

[DHagan4755]

How do we know for sure that the next redesign will be in 2025?

The usual time frame between redesigns is 4 years. The last was in 2021. It probably should have been in 2020 but the pandemic might have altered that. Previous redesigns were in 2016, 2012, 2008, and 2003.