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My M2 pro MBP just arrived, should I send back for M3 Pro?

N

natale

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 14, 2023
4
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I ordered a Macbook Pro m2 Pro, 10/16, 32gb Ram, 1tb memory, a day before Apple announced they were having an event 🙃 its just arrived to the store for pick up, wondering if I should pick it up or send it back and upgrade to the M3 Pro 11/14 base model + 36gb RAM as it works out almost the same price, about £50 difference.
It took me months of saving to get to buy the one I wanted, was trying to future proof with the upgrades. Currently using a mid 2012 macbook air so either will be a massive step up, want to make sure i'm getting the best one I can though.
Im a CS student, but thinking of changing course to machine learning/AI, and not sure if the gpu in the m3 pro base model is as good as the m2 pro? is the Geekbench Metal benchmark a god indicator, as the M3 seems to score lower in that in the reviews i've seen.
Thanks
 
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The chip basically won't be an upgrade (thanks to the lower memory bandwidth, less performance cores, and less total cores). It will be almost identical. Just think of it like that. However, you are getting at least a few months extra of supported updates from it, and the space black color, slightly more memory, better battery, and a brighter screen. So I would switch.
 
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OrenLindsey said:
The chip basically won't be an upgrade (thanks to the lower memory bandwidth, less performance cores, and less total cores). It will be almost identical. Just think of it like that. However, you are getting at least a few months extra of supported updates from it, and the space black color, slightly more memory, better battery, and a brighter screen. So I would switch.
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Thanks, yes it does seem to be a step sideways rather than an upgrade which is why I'm having trouble with it, I was more worried that il be downgrading after seeing the geekbench gpu metal benchmarks coming out.
I'd be getting the silver, so the black colour wasn't swaying it for me, more about which one would give me best all round performance and longevity.
 
OrenLindsey said:
The chip basically won't be an upgrade (thanks to the lower memory bandwidth, less performance cores, and less total cores). It will be almost identical. Just think of it like that. However, you are getting at least a few months extra of supported updates from it, and the space black color, slightly more memory, better battery, and a brighter screen. So I would switch.
Click to expand...
No just don’t think of it like that because that’s ridiculous. They already have shown the m3 pro is faster except for so called metal compute. I don’t know why even after we now have proof this is still being touted as true.
 
From what I've seen in benchmarks the single core performance will be a big step up, multi-core performance is about the same and raw GPU compute is about 6% lower (for the M3). There are new GPU features in the M3 but I'm not sure how relevant they are to AI workloads. I think the higher efficiency of the M3 might slightly increase its sustained performance relative to the M2 in a laptop form factor, but that's just a guess.
 
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SolarBear28 said:
From what I've seen in benchmarks the single core performance will be a big step up, multi-core performance is about the same and raw GPU compute is about 6% lower (for the M3). There are new GPU features in the M3 but I'm not sure how relevant they are to AI workloads. I think the higher efficiency of the M3 might slightly increase its sustained performance relative to the M2 in a laptop form factor, but that's just a guess.
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If OP checks the hands-on reviews on YouTube he will see that:
- Performance is as good or better in many areas (mostly better)
- Battery life is better
- Screen is brighter
- SSDs are faster
- As another poster pointed out, at least one year more of free OS upgrades

Even at $100/200 more, I would opt for the new model. At the same money, no questions at all.

I'm upgrading from an M1 Pro, but that is another story. I bought the base model 2 years ago on purpose to allow me to upgrade to faster / more memory / more storage down the road. I will hand my current MBP to my niece that just graduated as a civil engineer. Win-win for both of us (she is coming of a M1 MBAir).
 
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I don't think the single-digit percent of performance difference (whether it be higher or lower) actually matters. Otherwise, M3 Pro is definitely an upgrade. I would go for M3 Pro
 
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I would return it. Performance, other than single-core seems to be mostly a sidestep, but you probably will get an extra year of software support, plus you get the extra hardware/gpu features.

The only advantage I can think of for the M2 is the M3 Pro seems to run a little hotter in the 14” MBP. That of course can be adjusted with manual fan control though.
 
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Why is this still being spouted. Binned model vs binned model multi core performance is more than 10% better. The benchmarks are out there. Now unbinned vs binned yea but then you’re paying 2499 not 1999. Anyways since we can just make up whatever. May as well get the M3 pro because the m4 pro is gonna be worse.
 
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JohnnyGo said:
If OP checks the hands-on reviews on YouTube he will see that:
- Performance is as good or better in many areas (mostly better)
- Battery life is better
- Screen is brighter
- SSDs are faster
- As another poster pointed out, at least one year more of free OS upgrades

Even at $100/200 more, I would opt for the new model. At the same money, no questions at all.

I'm upgrading from an M1 Pro, but that is another story. I bought the base model 2 years ago on purpose to allow me to upgrade to faster / more memory / more storage down the road. I will hand my current MBP to my niece that just graduated as a civil engineer. Win-win for both of us (she is coming of a M1 MBAir).
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Thank you. So often here we see someone reads one click bait message of one benchmark that might hint at something negative, and then they run with it.

Mind boggling that anyone could think the M3 is not better than the M2. We can debate on how much better according to the task, but not if its better overall or not.

So thanks for the breath of fresh air.
 
natale said:
Thanks, yes it does seem to be a step sideways rather than an upgrade which is why I'm having trouble with it, I was more worried that il be downgrading after seeing the geekbench gpu metal benchmarks coming out.
I'd be getting the silver, so the black colour wasn't swaying it for me, more about which one would give me best all round performance and longevity.
Click to expand...

No way is it a down grade, nor would I call it a step sideways. Do people with it were more? of course, they always wish for more. But in terms of overall performance the trend is always in the right direction. Upgrade to the M3.
 
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SpotOnT said:
The only advantage I can think of for the M2 is the M3 Pro seems to run a little hotter in the 14” MBP. That of course can be adjusted with manual fan control though.
Click to expand...
Thanks, interested to know is this from personal experience of comparing the two?
 
G5isAlive said:
Thank you. So often here we see someone reads one click bait message of one benchmark that might hint at something negative, and then they run with it.

Mind boggling that anyone could think the M3 is not better than the M2. We can debate on how much better according to the task, but not if its better overall or not.
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Yea so I have taken a look at all the youtube reviews I can find and the benchmarks. But for me I will be using it as my main and only machine whilst studying and hopefully beyond, with machine learning/AI in mind which is why I was initially taken back by the less gpu cores and lower benchmark metal score on it.
Also the bandwidth going from 200gb/s to 150gb/s, I didn't know if it would make a real world difference.
 
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I have seen Max Tech and others testing with Blender and GPU render of Cinebench. On both the M3 pro is around twice as fast as the M2 pro. These both take advantage of the new GPU architecture. Perhaps Geekbench does not? To put this in context the sores are just slightly less than the M1 ultra. I believe that the Neural Engine is the same in both. Just as a note I'm not sure if the ones tested were the binned versions.
 
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Yeah, no brainer, get another year of macOS updates, or more money if you upgrade every couple years. Either way is better, even if the machine is only marginally faster.
 
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