MacBook Pro - M3 Pro or M3 Max?

[ebeasley]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to decide which MacBook Pro to purchase. I currently have a MacBook Pro 13-inch from 2018. It has a 2.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7. The memory is 16 GB. Storage is 1TB.

I'm replacing it because it's really struggling to keep up with my work. It overheats whenever I use it and the fans are very noisy. I have taken it to the Genius Bar multiple times, and the battery was failing, so I've had it replaced, but it hasn't changed anything. The fans are clean.

What do I use my laptop for? I'm a researcher and I often have multiple 20-50 page PDF documents open at one time and need to flip through them. At the same time, I will have a couple of Word documents open, sometimes up to 80k words. I also use multiple statistical programs, and I will list all the apps I use. I usually work with a second screen - I have a Studio Display. I am thinking of using two screens at one time, but I'm not sure about the setup yet.

I'm also a psychologist who sees clients online. I use Zoom for this, and I often have a few documents open at the same time. In regard to personal use, I use email, Fantastical (diary), social media and I download my photos, but I don't edit them. AI seems to be coming along quickly, so I might need to use an app related to that in the future, but I couldn't be certain.

I would like this MacBook Pro to last at least as long as the MacBook Pro I had previously, which I had from 2011 to 2018. I replaced it for similar reasons to my current MacBook.

The apps I use are as follows:

• Adobe Acrobat
• Books
• Dropbox
• EndNote
• FaceTime
• Fantastical
• Firefox
• IBM SPSS Statistics
• Jamovi
• Kindle
• Leximancer
• Microsoft programs
• NVivo
• OneDrive
• Photos
• R
• Safari
• Skype
• Spotify
• Zero
• Zoom
  
  
  These are the models I'm choosing between:
  
  
• M3 Pro chip with 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine; 36GB unified memory; 2TB SSD storage
• M3 Max chip with 14-core CPU, 30-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine; 96GB unified memory; 2TB SSD storage
• M3 Max chip with 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine; 96GB unified memory; 2TB SSD storage
• What are your thoughts? Which model would suit my needs best?
• Thank you!
• P.S Sorry about the formatting issues, couldn't get rid of the bullet points.
  
  
  
  
  

 

[casperes1996]

Honestly I think the first option with the Pro will serve you fine. If you get very intense with R and SPSS you can maybe justify the jump up. But the top tier is gonna be unnecessary overkill. If I were you I’d go for the Pro. And then the money saved on not getting the max would be put away for upgrading in five years instead of 7

 

[pete1]

I would like this MacBook Pro to last at least as long as the MacBook Pro I had previously, which I had from 2011 to 2018. I replaced it for similar reasons to my current MacBook.

This is me! I had a Macbook Pro from 2011 to 2020, which is when I upgraded to a 16" 2019 Macbook Pro. I've just had to replace it with a 2021 16" M1 Pro (a refurb) as its overheating and constant crashing was too problematic. The M1 is everything the 16" 2019 model should have been, I think the best thing for me is just that it barely gets warm even under load.

 

[ebeasley]

Honestly I think the first option with the Pro will serve you fine. If you get very intense with R and SPSS you can maybe justify the jump up. But the top tier is gonna be unnecessary overkill. If I were you I’d go for the Pro. And then the money saved on not getting the max would be put away for upgrading in five years instead of 7

Thank you! I'm leaning towards the Pro. I can afford either, but there's no need to waste money.

 

[ebeasley]

This is me! I had a Macbook Pro from 2011 to 2020, which is when I upgraded to a 16" 2019 Macbook Pro. I've just had to replace it with a 2021 16" M1 Pro (a refurb) as its overheating and constant crashing was too problematic. The M1 is everything the 16" 2019 model should have been, I think the best thing for me is just that it barely gets warm even under load.

That's great to hear! Do you have a similar work load to me?

 

[pete1]

That's great to hear! Do you have a similar work load to me?

I do video and motion graphics, so heavy use of Adobe Creative Suite. TBH I've only been using it for Minecraft since I got it a week ago, but the difference in terms of performance compared to the old machine is night and day.

 

[casperes1996]

Thank you! I'm leaning towards the Pro. I can afford either, but there's no need to waste money.

You'll get more out of 2 Pros 5 years apart than 2 Maxes 7 years apart near the end of the 5/7 years respectively I think.
And the Pro will do you fine.

I personally have an M1 Pro as my work laptop and an M1 Max as my personal. CPU on the M1 Pro/Max was the same, so for workloads similar to yours they'd be the same, but the major killer for my work laptop is RAM.
I am a software engineer, and when having an Android Emulator, iOS Simulator, Xcode and Android Studio running at the same time, RAM is pretty tight with just the 16GB config. It runs very well considering it's always in yellow or red memory pressure, but I see the slowdowns when it goes into red. Aside from that though it's very snappy. Compiling Android app, iOS app and some server side components all at the same time pushing 100% CPU load from a clean build setup taking about 4 minutes will not get the fans above their lowest running speed of 1500RPM (and the majority of the time they aren't on at all.) - Subsequent builds are basically instant and never push on the fans.

If I run a 100%CPU workload indefinitely fans settle at around 1800-2000RPM. It's only by simultaneously running both 100%CPU + 100% GPU that I can get fans up to ~3800-4000RPM (max is 5700-6100RPM) in my climate (21-21°C indoors). If you are interested in trying AI stuff, Jan runs AI LLM models locally very easily and on Apple Silicon uses the GPU up to 100% if enough RAM is available. LM-Studio is more configurable but harder to get started with by a little bit. M3 Pro should run that very well, and with enough RAM you can chat with it, while doing other stuff, and it will eventually kick the fans up if you do a continuous load of both GPU (chatting with AI) and CPU (statistics in R), but if you only push the machine with either at a time (or have short breaks in between pushing and don't constantly ask the AI for new responses) fans are unlikely to go much above 2K RPM.

Max model gets a little toastier than the pro so you will also have quieter operations with the Pro, but the difference in that respect, at least for CPU bound tasks, is not too big.
Most of the time my work laptop is using ~20W of power. If I weren't using it for my work and using it for "regular use", it'd be using ~7W of power. If I push it as hard as it can go, it will just about exceed 100W (including HDR brightness levels on the display accounting for about 20W of that. My M1 Max peaks ~4W more. So it's not a meaningful difference. Difference is slightly bigger between M3 Pro and Max in that respect too though.

 

[ebeasley]

I do video and motion graphics, so heavy use of Adobe Creative Suite. TBH I've only been using it for Minecraft since I got it a week ago, but the difference in terms of performance compared to the old machine is night and day.

Sounds like the Pro will be just fine for me. Enjoy your new MacBook!

 

[ebeasley]

You'll get more out of 2 Pros 5 years apart than 2 Maxes 7 years apart near the end of the 5/7 years respectively I think.
And the Pro will do you fine.

I personally have an M1 Pro as my work laptop and an M1 Max as my personal. CPU on the M1 Pro/Max was the same, so for workloads similar to yours they'd be the same, but the major killer for my work laptop is RAM.
I am a software engineer, and when having an Android Emulator, iOS Simulator, Xcode and Android Studio running at the same time, RAM is pretty tight with just the 16GB config. It runs very well considering it's always in yellow or red memory pressure, but I see the slowdowns when it goes into red. Aside from that though it's very snappy. Compiling Android app, iOS app and some server side components all at the same time pushing 100% CPU load from a clean build setup taking about 4 minutes will not get the fans above their lowest running speed of 1500RPM (and the majority of the time they aren't on at all.) - Subsequent builds are basically instant and never push on the fans.

If I run a 100%CPU workload indefinitely fans settle at around 1800-2000RPM. It's only by simultaneously running both 100%CPU + 100% GPU that I can get fans up to ~3800-4000RPM (max is 5700-6100RPM) in my climate (21-21°C indoors). If you are interested in trying AI stuff, Jan runs AI LLM models locally very easily and on Apple Silicon uses the GPU up to 100% if enough RAM is available. LM-Studio is more configurable but harder to get started with by a little bit. M3 Pro should run that very well, and with enough RAM you can chat with it, while doing other stuff, and it will eventually kick the fans up if you do a continuous load of both GPU (chatting with AI) and CPU (statistics in R), but if you only push the machine with either at a time (or have short breaks in between pushing and don't constantly ask the AI for new responses) fans are unlikely to go much above 2K RPM.

Max model gets a little toastier than the pro so you will also have quieter operations with the Pro, but the difference in that respect, at least for CPU bound tasks, is not too big.
Most of the time my work laptop is using ~20W of power. If I weren't using it for my work and using it for "regular use", it'd be using ~7W of power. If I push it as hard as it can go, it will just about exceed 100W (including HDR brightness levels on the display accounting for about 20W of that. My M1 Max peaks ~4W more. So it's not a meaningful difference. Difference is slightly bigger between M3 Pro and Max in that respect too though.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write these details out. Even if I do begin using AI, it won't be heavy use, so I'm quite confident that the high-end Pro is the right model for me.

 

[darngooddesign]

Sounds like the Pro will be just fine for me. Enjoy your new MacBook!

Even the base 11/14 M3-Pro with 18GB RAM would be fine for you.

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

I have the 12/18 M3-Pro (but with only 18GB of ram) and don't run into any issues doing tasks similar to your intended use case.

Perhaps the Max would be a little overkill.

 

[wonderings]

If you need longer portable power I would suggest going with the Pro chip. I have the M1 Extreme and don't get anywhere near the battery that friends with the Pro chips get.

 

[Samuel MacBird]

Hey there, M3 Pro, 36GB unified memory; 1TB SSD storage user is here!

I've been using this since late December and it's more than sufficient for your workload. Mine is similar, atop I do some development and use containers. Still can't activate the fans so far.

The memory is sufficient as well, even under heavy load device used the swap only once, for a limited time.

So be it without hesitation.

 

[uller6]

I just got an M3 pro 36 GB 2 TB for work. I'm usually plugged into either 5k+5k or 6k+4k external displays and the machine runs both great. I do similar work to you, but also run a few data analysis programs in Crossover and use Windows 11 in VMware fusion. The Pro is awesome, and I haven't once heard the fan since I got it.

 

[iGeek2019]

Enjoy your new MacBook Pro whichever model you end up opting for.

I have the 11/14 M3 Pro 512GB variant myself and it’s been a pleasure to use.