Pro Motion vs 60Hz? Can you tell the difference and which do you use?

[David1986H]

Iv notice the M3 Max runs slightly warmer than my M2 Max for obvious reasons like 4.05 vs 3.5 ghz and more cores in general.

I always have a few things going on my screen including video streams etc when I'm not working. When the temperatures have settled and the MacBook has heat in it the fans kick in and out where as my M2 Max didn't.

So iv decided to switch to 60hz instead of Pro Motion and the GPU usage has literally halved as you'd expect.

Now the temps are around 5-8 degrees less on average making the fans stay off for pretty much all the time.

I can't honestly see a difference between 60 and 120hz even in scrolling up and down web pages, and because video streams are only in 60hz anyway having pro motion turned on is just using more power and making the temps a few degrees warmer.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think you are overthinking the Mac and your use thereof. Unless your Max is having some kind of hardware problem and not performing properly, you should leave it be at the default rates. You start down the road you are on and you will end up constantly obsessing over fans, temps, and whatever else people rant about on here and YT, instead of using and enjoying your new Mac.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Laugh all you want but, turning off ProMotion on a new M3 Max to save a few degrees should be a big red flag that maybe you don't really need the M3 Max, if you are going to obsess and turn off standard functions that really have no need to be turned off.

 

[David1986H]

Laugh all you want but, turning off ProMotion on a new M3 Max to save a few degrees should be a big red flag that maybe you don't really need the M3 Max, if you are going to obsess and turn off standard functions that really have no need to be turned off.

I find it hilarious that your still going on about it 1 hour later, if you don't like what people "rant" on about on here and on YouTube then maybe you should go to a library and read a book and stay off line.

 

[Surfsalot]

Should of got 15” air and saved a bucket load

 

[christlinah]

Getting a Pro and then turning off features and making it objectively worse just to let it run some degrees cooler (and quieter) seems kinda... weird. Why not just get an Air then and call it a day if you don't want to hear the fans and obviously don't care about screen quality anyway?

Also the difference between ProMotion and 60Hz is huge IMO, the latter one just looks bad and ancient.

 

[Abbas]

Also the difference between ProMotion and 60Hz is huge IMO, the latter one just looks bad and ancient.

I'll disagree. While it makes a HUGE difference on the iPhone, I don't see as big of a difference between Macs. I have the 15-inch Air and the 14-inch MBP and there's not a BIG difference. I see much smoother scrolling at 120Hz on a Windows laptop compared to the MBP.

 

[MapleBeercules]

Iv notice the M3 Max runs slightly warmer than my M2 Max for obvious reasons like 4.05 vs 3.5 ghz and more cores in general.

I always have a few things going on my screen including video streams etc when I'm not working. When the temperatures have settled and the MacBook has heat in it the fans kick in and out where as my M2 Max didn't.

So iv decided to switch to 60hz instead of Pro Motion and the GPU usage has literally halved as you'd expect.

Now the temps are around 5-8 degrees less on average making the fans stay off for pretty much all the time.

I can't honestly see a difference between 60 and 120hz even in scrolling up and down web pages, and because video streams are only in 60hz anyway having pro motion turned on is just using more power and making the temps a few degrees warmer.

If you surf alot and these pages contain alot of images, you will notice the difference between 60hz and 120hz. But if you play video at full screen, you wont even notice it..

The only time you really notice a difference is scrolling on webpages and maybe documents.

I would say here the problem is apple not setting fans to be more aggressive, I have the same issue with my m2 macbook pro, the fan doesn't kick in until its at 110c and even at 100% it can barely cool it down to 90c.. Very disappointed in apple for not being more aggressive with the fan curve and not allowing us to have more control over the fans.