MacBook Pro m3 max or Mac Studio ultra m2

[UnifiedMelody]

hello guys

so im just about to hop over from windows to Mac for productivity reasons [windows just kept lagging and stuttering and driving up the fans like crazy for idle/low use apps]

mostly photo editing with some 4K video editing on davinci resolve and FCP[I use Nikon cameras with N-RAW format and Possibly ProRes RAW/422 HQ].

initially I was saving up and eyeing on the M2 Ultra Mac Studio because it's perfect for my needs
However seeing the M3 Max from some reviewers running similar benchmarks showing the M3 Max is faster and much more snappier now prompted me this debate.

Money wise I am putting a lot into my first Mac as I tend to ride my products to death and aren't ultra insecure in chasing always the next big thing. by to death I mean around at least 5 years [if not more is even better]

have these options
14 inch MBP m3 max 16c 40g 48 or 64gb ram with 1tb ssd
16 inch MBP m3 max 16c 40g 48 or 64gb ram with 1tb ssd
base M2 Ultra Mac Studio 64gb ram, 1tb ssd, 24c 60Gpu

for context I do have monitors [4k 60hz and 1440p 165hz] which can link via HDMI and keyboards/mouse which can bluetooth/pair to both types of Macs.

given the above scenario which would you prefer.

I am aware the 14" is much more portable and easier to lug vs the 16"
and obvs the 14" will throttle/heat up quicker in comparison to the 16" which has more cooling/room to play with at the expense of convenience of portability.

and the Mac Studio is tempting too because it has more ports than I'll ever need and can sit on top of my desk being tiny and light [my PC is a ridiculously oversized noisy fan junkie that still lags against apple silicon. plus with the edge of being ultra cool thanks to a large cooling system with fans never ramping high... is kinda insane given the power inside [idk why windows pcs enjoy driving up the fans too much in idle and basic mode it was pissing me off after many years of tolerating it] not to mention its a tiny box like 10-15x smaller than my current pc whilst holding so much potential in that chip

any input appreciated based on performance for above two main productivity tasks, if I have to spend more so be it. I for once don't think I'll need 96/128GB ram nor 2/4/8TB ssd. I have external USB-C drives that work fine via usb-c to usb-c cable as external storage when at home or on the go [its a 4TB external ssd]

also would I be fine with 48gb or should I just plunge the extra for 64gb lol [to match up against M2 Ultra Mac Studio to even out the comparison... god

buying a Mac is so difficult; when apple is literally surpassing itself over the ultra in a matter of half a year... had the m3 max never been released so quick id settle for a M2 Ultra but now there's so many options avail aahaha

 

[hovscorpion12]

The buying process for a Mac can be very daunting. The main question I ask everyone is, do you plan on being mostly at your desk working or do you plan on taking your work on the Go?

For laptops, I generally recommend to "copy" their existing PC specs so there's no degrading performance. [For example if you have a desktop PC with 64GB of RAM and you buy a Mac with less, you may see some issues].

 

[lclev]

I do a lot of video work using Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I recently started using Davinci Resolve - thinking of switching to it as Adobe has once again raised the price of Creative Suite. Anyway, I have a 14" M3max MBP, 16/40, 64Gb, 1TB. My reason for the 14" was for the portability. I can work from home or at work where I attach it to a hub with 2-27" 4K monitors and external SSD's.

If you have used FCP I assume you have some familiarity with Macs. If so then I will skip how it is a learning curve to switch from Windows to Mac OS. So your decision is do you want a desktop or portability? What ever you choose I recommend buying most you can afford. My M3max with 64GB whips through video blazing fast. As for photos, I have yet to stress it regardless of format, size, number of photos open.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

The buying process for a Mac can be very daunting. The main question I ask everyone is, do you plan on being mostly at your desk working or do you plan on taking your work on the Go?

For laptops, I generally recommend to "copy" their existing PC specs so there's no degrading performance. [For example if you have a desktop PC with 64GB of RAM and you buy a Mac with less, you may see some issues].

Mostly back then I prefer working from home but I don't mind working outside here and there nowadays. Ideally the best product is M3 Max Mac Studio... but that's nowhere close to existing yet. Now normally I don't consider laptops esp on windows side cos frankly they all sucked garbage and were limited by inefficiencies and battery life, which was why I stuck hard with PC desktops's but Mac is really flexing its muscles on having ultra performance both in the desktop and the laptop whilst having amazing battery life. so I am definitely keeping the options open.

I did have some clients recently started asking me if "I had a laptop to view sooc's (straight out of camera) on the spot" and I had to dismiss that request many times ... hence the extra consideration now to work in location on the fly to save more time .

that said friend is lending me his MacBook Pro 16" with unbin 16/40 and 1tb/48gb ram for a few days to me so I will put that to the test myself with a project or two and see how it fares . hopefully that day or two can help me get a great feel of macOS

the only attractive thing about the studio to me is it will guarantee have near no thermal issues as it's cooler is ultra beefy... and it can actually sit on top of my desk in a corner [my pc is a fan turd and space hog and it weighs so much while doing far far far less than a MacBook Pro/studio in performance.]

 

[UnifiedMelody]

I do a lot of video work using Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I recently started using Davinci Resolve - thinking of switching to it as Adobe has once again raised the price of Creative Suite. Anyway, I have a 14" M3max MBP, 16/40, 64Gb, 1TB. My reason for the 14" was for the portability. I can work from home or at work where I attach it to a hub with 2-27" 4K monitors and external SSD's.

If you have used FCP I assume you have some familiarity with Macs. If so then I will skip how it is a learning curve to switch from Windows to Mac OS. So your decision is do you want a desktop or portability? What ever you choose I recommend buying most you can afford. My M3max with 64GB whips through video blazing fast. As for photos, I have yet to stress it regardless of format, size, number of photos open.

I ditched premiere ages ago was clunky asf , had to pay double for another program and didn't take well advantage of the components hardware wise. Davinci resolve however does take advantage of the hardware more and has a better colour grading system which is why I got into that [not to mention they even give you a free suite which I found works best for me and the studio option is just an option [but not necessary]] for simple video editing and colour grading.

just wondering does your fan ramp up very often esp w/ a powerful beast in the 14" MacBook Pro? I do know that if you run something like rendering and exporting it will ramp up and that's fine as that's intensive process; but timeline scrubbing/editing of photo and video should have almost near no noise as its bits and pieces.

budget isn't an issue if I have to get X amount of ram I will be content with that option. but back to the main question I will do both [working home and outside] now as I am now travelling interstate a bit and will work on location.

back then I used to be able to wait till I get home and then work and most people didn't mind back then, but now I feel todays clients are very fast paced and are willing to pay more just to see it quicker which is why im sort of leaning towards the MBP. and apple have also crafted amazing laptops which I can't see windows ever matching [they just suck plain simple which was why I was bound to desktops back then] but apple has the power of both in a desktop and a laptop which means better options

 

[hovscorpion12]

Mostly back then I prefer working from home but I don't mind working outside here and there nowadays. Ideally the best product is M3 Max Mac Studio... but that's nowhere close to existing yet. Now normally I don't consider laptops esp on windows side cos frankly they all sucked garbage and were limited by inefficiencies and battery life, which was why I stuck hard with PC desktops's but Mac is really flexing its muscles on having ultra performance both in the desktop and the laptop whilst having amazing battery life. so I am definitely keeping the options open.

I did have some clients recently started asking me if "I had a laptop to view sooc's (straight out of camera) on the spot" and I had to dismiss that request many times ... hence the extra consideration now to work in location on the fly to save more time .

that said friend is lending me his MacBook Pro 16" with unbin 16/40 and 1tb/48gb ram for a few days to me so I will put that to the test myself with a project or two and see how it fares . hopefully that day or two can help me get a great feel of macOS

the only attractive thing about the studio to me is it will guarantee have near no thermal issues as it's cooler is ultra beefy... and it can actually sit on top of my desk in a corner [my pc is a fan turd and space hog and it weighs so much while doing far far far less than a MacBook Pro/studio in performance.]

I'm going to say this. That Macbook Pro your friend is lending you, is a beast. You'll not going to want to give it back [LOL] From battery life to performance unplugged. In all seriousness, the M3 Max is definitely in "desktop replacement" category.

I'm going to hold off my full opinion until you've had your full test runs with the Macbook Pro. First thought, I'd say mid-range MacBook Pro 14" for clients on the go. Mac Studio for main workhorse.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

I'm going to say this. That Macbook Pro your friend is lending you, is a beast. You'll not going to want to give it back [LOL] From battery life to performance unplugged. In all seriousness, the M3 Max is definitely in "desktop replacement" category.

I'm going to hold off my full opinion until you've had your full test runs with the Macbook Pro. First thought, I'd say mid-range MacBook Pro 14" for clients on the go. Mac Studio for main workhorse.

You're not wrong... holy hell... I am using it a bit now and I'm sold lol... and i havent even tested it properly. my experience has been beyond amazing/gobsmack

1)
- My PC running basic chrome tabs ramping up the fan like crazy and is pumping a lot of heat for a basic task. [and that's not even with LR or PS or DVR open]

- M3 Max MBP is virtually silent most of the time, the only time it ramped up was during standard or 1:1 rendering on lightroom, or some bit of exporting but it isn't as loud as most people made it out to be. It's still quieter than my PC fwiw even under load [when the pc is doing nothing]

2) With the PC in LR, have to render images to see detail when zoomed in 1:1, on 1:1 - this puts the heat/fan to all time high. otherwise the pc will hang when zooming in 1:1

MBP M3 Max - don't even neeed to render at all i find it almost unnecessary now its so snappy even on minimal rendering... f me good lol. i can do standard/1:! which is very fast [and smokes pc top to bottom] but i dont see the need now if minimal is just this good. For reference this is on Nikon Z9 RAW's. 45.7mp images.

also exporting is super fast... 500 photos out in 3 mins, plus minus some margin of error... for a windows pc this'd be nearly 12-15 minutes if not even longer!

3) macos overall more over the top snappy, even Ai masking is like a second or less. ie almost instantaneous. With a PC i think I wait 5-7 seconds for it to do so. 5-7x faster.

tldr its snappy as hell... a massive leap over pc for what is what i use to despise a lot: laptops and thermal issues but irl testing this is not the case here. it held up well in temps even when in Perth its 35-40*c. [95-104F]

gonna pick one up and now its either 48g or 64g ram lol leaving storage at 1TB... w/ 16/40 variant.
to upgrade storage 1>2TB is nearly 600aud here... i can pick like Samsung T7 4tb ssd usb-c for 400aud lol or even less and hook it onto the side. not a big deal as it's tiny for what it is.

i can only imagine how much more you'd do w/ this chip in a studio lol... virtually abuse it and it'll never ramp up the fans?! XD

 

[hovscorpion12]

Told you. . Glad your having fun and enjoying the Mac.

I agree with the 1TB. Apple's SSD pricing is absurd. A solid external SSD for cheaper will definitely be great. Can't speak for the 48GB or 64GB. It all depends on how much RAM the Mac you were using was free/used up.

Fan settings can be tweaked with a 3rd party app to make 14" cooler with minimum fan noises.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Told you. . Glad your having fun and enjoying the Mac.

I agree with the 1TB. Apple's SSD pricing is absurd. A solid external SSD for cheaper will definitely be great. Can't speak for the 48GB or 64GB. It all depends on how much RAM the Mac you were using was free/used up.

Fan settings can be tweaked with a 3rd party app to make 14" cooler with minimum fan noises.

When i put 10 tabs of safari, and LR PS and DVR on simultaneously never lagged, i was sitting around 30GB ram with the rest on caching/available on the 48GB... i may just spec up to 64GB and wait a few extra weeks.

 

[ohneagency]

Did OP make a final decision? I'm debating the exact same question... Ideally I wanted a powerhouse of a (silent) desktop station, but due to the higher performance I am currently leaning towards the macbook pro m3 max – also since I'm dreading for the day when clients ask me to see shots straight out of camera, or ask me to do edits on the go for event type jobs (I'm doing photo and video – lightroom and FCP).

I don't like big laptops, but performance due to extra cooling seems to be a lot greater in the 16inch, so I'm thinking
16", M3 max, 64GB ram + 2tb ssd. Don't know if I'll ever regret not getting 128GB ram, but the extra 950€ is a tough sale...

 

[hovscorpion12]

Based on your workflow the MacBook Pro will 100% meet your needs for on the go work. As far as fans, the 14" M3 Max is very solid. [while yes, the 16" chassis does have more room for heat management], you can by with a custom Fan curve [TG Pro]

I can't speak for the RAM I don't know much about your full workflow throughout the day. The M3 Mac can go between 64GB and 96GB if 128GB is a bit much.