The M3 lineup is so weird

[MF878]

Most of the options were pretty logically laid out with the M1 and M2 MBP’s, so the M3 lineup is quirky as hell in comparison:

• If you upgrade the base 14” M3 to 16GB RAM, you’re only $200 away from the much superior M3 Pro with 18GB RAM (+1 performance core, +2 efficiency cores, +4 GPU cores, +2GB RAM, +1 Thunderbolt port, dual display support, space black option).
• Once you upgrade to 36GB RAM, the step up to M3 Max (binned) is almost an entirely different class of machine for $400 more (+4 performance cores, +12 GPU cores).
• The flipside of the above is if you want 48GB or 64GB of memory, you are forced to spend much more. The binned M3 Max only comes with 36GB or 96GB, the full M3 Max offers 48GB, 64GB or 128GB.

I think it was pretty hard to choose a “bad” config with the M1/M2, but the M3 has some annoying oddities. You could say the first two are Apple’s classic pricing ladder in action, but the RAM one is particularly strange.

 

[chabig]

I don't think of the increments as steps up. I think of them as steps down for the people for whom another $200 is a stretch. The lower priced options are for them.

 

[macduke]

My problem is the RAM issue. If you take any single one of my apps that I use daily, the M3 Pro would be sufficient. However, I tend to have a ton of apps open at any given time, because I'm more of a generalist, so I'll have a few Adobe CS apps open, an IDE with a lot of tabs and terminal windows open like Nova, Slack, Mail, Excel, Messages, 1Password, Apple Music, Weather, and multiple browsers for testing websites such as Safari, Edge, and Chrome with dozens of tabs each. Occasionally I'll also have Blender and my 3D printer slicer software open as well when working on a model to print and I'll have a feed of my print on one of my three displays.

I'm coming from an Intel iMac and Intel MacBook Pro. The iMac has 64GB RAM and is my primary work machine. The MBP I'm wanting to trade in and it has 32GB RAM. I plan to replace both with this device, and move the iMac upstairs as a family computer for my kids to use to wing them off of iPad only computing as they are getting older. Then I will just have one powerful device and won't have to switch back and forth.

 

[h.gilbert]

So many options... There will be countless threads on here asking which on to get

 

[CrysisDeu]

Yeah it always has been pretty weird.
What's also weird is they didn't have M3 ready on their airs, or minis, or even stranger yet, why even keep an M3 macbook pro when they offer the air?
Why doesn't the iMac get a M3 pro like the mac mini?

 

[tutubibi]

14" MBP with M3 is made for corporate bulk purchases. Overpriced but cool machine for staff and managers who need it for email and office work.

 

[CrysisDeu]

14" MBP with M3 is made for corporate bulk purchases. Overpriced but cool machine for staff and managers who need it for email and office work.

but why not air? I don't think corporate work needs mini-led and a light laptop always is better (and even more so with 15 inch)

 

[XboxEvolved]

Apple does Apple things I guess. 🤷
With that said, the way their ram is positioned tells me that it has something to do with how the chip itself eats up ram maybe, or how it divides it amongst all the various cores?

 

[boss.king]

It's a slow walk to get you to spend a lot more. If it's only a small jump to the next step, and then a small jump to the one after that, and then a small jump up again after that, pretty soon you're buying a machine way beyond what you started out shopping for because "it's only a little bit more".

 

[tutubibi]

but why not air? I don't think corporate work needs mini-led and a light laptop always is better (and even more so with 15 inch)

MacBook Air has that consumer feel and it is generelly less durable given daily abuse of work laptops. I think new M3 MBP with HDMI (no dongles!) will be the new standard issue laptop for many businesses (that buy Apple gear).

 

[JPack]

14" MBP with M3 is made for corporate bulk purchases. Overpriced but cool machine for staff and managers who need it for email and office work.

Nobody in corporate can justify a $1,599 notebook with single external monitor support and 8GB RAM. Even $200 Celeron Chromebooks support two external.

$1,500 in the PC world literally buys a ThinkPad workstation with 64GB RAM, OLED, and 1TB. And it weighs less.

 

[Sn0wLe0pard]

If you upgrade the base 14” M3 to 16GB RAM, you’re only $200 away from the much superior M3 Pro with 18GB RAM (+1 performance core, +2 efficiency cores, +4 GPU cores, +2GB RAM, +1 Thunderbolt port, dual display support, space black option).

And AV1. It's so funny that the company got greedy for the basic line. But there will be people for whom this is ok. M2 pro slower ssd? M3 Pro slower memory? What will happen to the M4 Pro? Will it return to M1? It's OK! The most important thing is to tell yourself that “I’m not a fool, this is still a very POWERFUL processor for everything in the world.” In a year we'll pay even more for something that's "still powerful".

 

[Elusi]

Yeah it always has been pretty weird.
What's also weird is they didn't have M3 ready on their airs, or minis, or even stranger yet, why even keep an M3 macbook pro when they offer the air?
Why doesn't the iMac get a M3 pro like the mac mini?

I don't find this that strange, actually. 3nm is in its infancy. Going to a new node no longer means cheaper chips. It means increased production costs, low yields and low volumes. All of that doesn't rhyme with the high-volume relatively cheap and ultra popular Macbook Air which ideally should have a price starting point of about $1000.

Once production costs get handled (and maybe a N3E variant of the M3 gets made), we'll see it in the Air

 

[leman]

My problem is the RAM issue. If you take any single one of my apps that I use daily, the M3 Pro would be sufficient. However, I tend to have a ton of apps open at any given time, because I'm more of a generalist, so I'll have a few Adobe CS apps open, an IDE with a lot of tabs and terminal windows open like Nova, Slack, Mail, Excel, Messages, 1Password, Apple Music, Weather, and multiple browsers for testing websites such as Safari, Edge, and Chrome with dozens of tabs each. Occasionally I'll also have Blender and my 3D printer slicer software open as well when working on a model to print and I'll have a feed of my print on one of my three displays.

Having many apps open is not an issue. Working with multiple apps simultaneously might be. But if you just keep a bunch of apps open, 32GB will work perfectly fine. The window switch animation takes longer than loading the state from the SSD.

 

[leman]

I think it was pretty hard to choose a “bad” config with the M1/M2, but the M3 has some annoying oddities. You could say the first two are Apple’s classic pricing ladder in action, but the RAM one is particularly strange.

Apple Silicon always had RAM restrictions because different chips featured different numbers of memory channels. M1 and M2 had three different memory channel configurations. M3 now has four different memory channel configurations, which makes things considerably more complicated.

 

[Halmahc]

Nobody in corporate can justify a $1,599 notebook with single external monitor support and 8GB RAM. Even $200 Celeron Chromebooks support two external.

$1,500 in the PC world literally buys a ThinkPad workstation with 64GB RAM, OLED, and 1TB. And it weighs less.

View attachment 2304744 I think Apple should've made the 14" MacBook Pro M3 support 2 external displays. But the thing with display support on Macs is that they support higher resolution displays than PC equivalents. Eg. All Macs support up to 6k resolution with Thunderbolt while comparable PCs usually support up to 4k displays(that's over 2.5× more pixels). So technically the Mac is driving more pixels.

 

[profets]

but why not air? I don't think corporate work needs mini-led and a light laptop always is better (and even more so with 15 inch)

I've read and heard this so often from tech pundits - that the lower cost MBP (13", touchbar) hung around at that lower price point to satisfy business purchases - those who wanted the name but didn't need specs of the 14/16 options.

I get it in a way, but I still thought it felt stupid to have an outdated design with updated processors just to keep a certain group happy. MacBook Air would have been sufficient for those users.

Definitely cleaner lineup seeing just 14" and 16" now. Though I still think the MacBook Air could have just been called MacBook this whole time. I know they kind of flip flopped with the Air during the late 2010's and the Air seemed like very popular branding for general consumers / students / etc.

 

[MacRazySwe]

I've read and heard this so often from tech pundits - that the lower cost MBP (13", touchbar) hung around at that lower price point to satisfy business purchases - those who wanted the name but didn't need specs of the 14/16 options.

I get it in a way, but I still thought it felt stupid to have an outdated design with updated processors just to keep a certain group happy. MacBook Air would have been sufficient for those users.

Definitely cleaner lineup seeing just 14" and 16" now. Though I still think the MacBook Air could have just been called MacBook this whole time. I know they kind of flip flopped with the Air during the late 2010's and the Air seemed like very popular branding for general consumers / students / etc.

Yes, this is right on the money. Corporations seem to believe you need a Pro in order to do any actual work. That's exactly why the 13" MBP with Touch Bar stuck around.

Apple tried pushing the M1/M2 MacBook Air but it just didn't work out.

Now though, at least organisations get the HDMI port built in so they don't have to purchase dongles anymore. And of course they can upsell to the M3 Pro for those that need multiple monitors...

 

[TracerAnalog]

Nobody in corporate can justify a $1,599 notebook with single external monitor support and 8GB RAM. Even $200 Celeron Chromebooks support two external.

$1,500 in the PC world literally buys a ThinkPad workstation with 64GB RAM, OLED, and 1TB. And it weighs less.

View attachment 2304744

Ha! We have those at work… I’m on my third Thinkpad as the motherboards tend to ‘burn out’ (as per our IT department). I als have a MBP M1Max, and these two laptops are not in the same league.

 

[ColdCase]

Nobody in corporate can justify a $1,599 notebook with single external monitor support and 8GB RAM. Even $200 Celeron Chromebooks support two external.

$1,500 in the PC world literally buys a ThinkPad workstation with 64GB RAM, OLED, and 1TB. And it weighs less.

Those thinkpads are unreliable. Built cheap for the cheap.

 

[Beau10]

Once you upgrade to 36GB RAM, the step up to M3 Max (binned) is almost an entirely different class of machine for $400 more (+4 performance cores, +12 GPU cores).

The Pro vs Max is even weirder though... the Pro swaps 2 performance cores for efficiency cores. So it actually has 6 of those vs. 4 for the Max.

I'm curious to see what the difference is for battery life, it's probably going to widen the gap even more.

 

[anshuvorty]

but why not air? I don't think corporate work needs mini-led and a light laptop always is better (and even more so with 15 inch)

Because which professional wants to carry around a computer that doesn't have the word "pro" in its name? In other words, which professional wants to carry around a laptop that has the word "air" in its name?

 

[clangers23]

I'll go for the full fat base MacBook Pro, 11 core CPU and 18gb is a decent bump for my needs.

 

[nonns]

I'm actually completely confused by the ram limitations on the line up. A macbook pro 14 carries an almost 2 pound weight penalty over the macbook air m2 13 inch. Most of the lower to mid models are now restricted to 24gb ram. So the only real performance gain is the newer chip and a fan I'm not sure these lower to mid end models justifies the extra cost over a 24gb macbook air which also carries a large portability convenience factor. For real power/ram spec hikes you now have to shift to stratospheric pricing from relatively linear pricing increments on pc laptops. It's upselling on steroids. deeply disingenuous and actually rather disgusting. I'm quite dissapointed by the event. It wasn't showing outrageous speed gains and the only scary thing was the bare faced cheek in terms of marketing. I think i'll end up purchasing an m2 air fully loaded and sit on that till there are real improvements. I'm usually a bit of a fan but this was meh ...

 

[CrysisDeu]

Because which professional wants to carry around a computer that doesn't have the word "pro" in its name? In other words, which professional wants to carry around a laptop that has the word "air" in its name?

For pros, companies offer us at least the pro chips, plain m chips are not fast enough.
For just business man needing m chips for emails and such, a lighter laptop is so much better than a “pro” branding no one sees engraved on the bottom.