m3 vs m5 speed/smoothness difference

[willyx]

Hi, I just purchased the m3 Macbook 2016. I mostly do basic tasks (office, mail), Xcode development and some image editing with Pixelmator.

I am on the test period and I am seeing some occasional lags/stutters here and there, especially launching Mission Control, opening and browsing Office documents and basic web browsing.

I fear that the m3 will suffer even more with heavier workloads involving many open documents.

Would the m5 do much difference in overall speed/smoothness of the system vs the m3 for these kind of usage to make the additional $300 worth it?

Any indication will be appreciated Thanks.

 

[viperGTS]

Just a side note (I'm actually looking up m3 vs m5 comparisons myself), if performance is your only concern (and not storage), you may want to consider the m7 upgrade which is $225 with Apple's education discount, $250 without. That'll save you $50 over the m5 upgrade, but of course you won't get the doubled storage.

 

[willyx]

Just a side note (I'm actually looking up m3 vs m5 comparisons myself), if performance is your only concern (and not storage), you may want to consider the m7 upgrade which is $225 with Apple's education discount, $250 without. That'll save you $50 over the m5 upgrade, but of course you won't get the doubled storage.

Great observation. The question would be m3 vs m7 for my case then.

 

[viperGTS]

Great observation. The question would be m3 vs m7 for my case then.

This thread may be of some use to you as well, as it compares the m3/m5/m7 models to recent Pros and Airs.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mpared-to-recent-airs-and-pros-chart.1969613/