Hello everyone
I’d appreciate hearing some experiences of how Apple Silicon MacBook Pros behave when the GPU is heavily loaded, potentially for tens of minutes at a time.
Background:
I have a 2019 16” Intel MacBook Pro which I use for Lightroom (with quite large HDR files) and GPU development (currently OpenCL-based, intending to experiment with Metal soon). I also have a 2013 Mac Pro D700 on which used to do the GPU development (and still use if I want to drive the GPU hard). The main thing I don’t like about this Intel MacBook Pro is that it can very quickly get surprisingly hot, with the fan running quite hard (this is true with both Lightroom and my GPU code). I’d like to retire the Mac Pro soon, certainly no later than when Monterey security updates cease, probably within the next year.
My plan had been to buy an M3 Mac Studio, most likely the higher-tier Ultra, when available. But I now have reservations about that, for two reasons. The additional cost of the higher-tier Ultra (assuming that the M3 will not be significantly cheaper ….) would push the price over UKP 5,000 (possibly even 6,000, with more memory). Secondly, I use Lightroom quite frequently when away from home, so would also like to have an 16” Apple Silicon laptop (I’m assuming that Lightroom will be *much* faster and that the machine will run cooler).
So the thought just occurred to me: given my unhappiness about the price of the higher-tier Ultra (okay, that’s just stinginess on my part), a better option is perhaps an M3 Max 16” MacBook Pro. That would allow me to do everything on one machine (much more convenient), accepting 40 rather than 80 (most likely) GPU cores but saving at least £1,500 (after trading in my 2019 laptop) vs. an M3 Ultra Studio — plus the cost of a lower spec M3 laptop. The GPU performance would still be *way* better than both of my current machines.
Hence wanting to hear about experiences of heavily loading the GPU on an M1 or M2 MacBook Pro. My impression is that the power efficiency of Apple Silicon is such that I shouldn’t be too concerned — but I’d hate to spend this much on an M3 MacBook Pro only to find that it still gets stressed if I push the GPU too hard. That said, so long as it’s materially better in this regard than the 2019 laptop (which is, I appreciate, a rather subjective statement), I think I’ll be happy.
Any thoughts you can offer would be much appreciated.
Thanks …. Andrew
I’d appreciate hearing some experiences of how Apple Silicon MacBook Pros behave when the GPU is heavily loaded, potentially for tens of minutes at a time.
Background:
I have a 2019 16” Intel MacBook Pro which I use for Lightroom (with quite large HDR files) and GPU development (currently OpenCL-based, intending to experiment with Metal soon). I also have a 2013 Mac Pro D700 on which used to do the GPU development (and still use if I want to drive the GPU hard). The main thing I don’t like about this Intel MacBook Pro is that it can very quickly get surprisingly hot, with the fan running quite hard (this is true with both Lightroom and my GPU code). I’d like to retire the Mac Pro soon, certainly no later than when Monterey security updates cease, probably within the next year.
My plan had been to buy an M3 Mac Studio, most likely the higher-tier Ultra, when available. But I now have reservations about that, for two reasons. The additional cost of the higher-tier Ultra (assuming that the M3 will not be significantly cheaper ….) would push the price over UKP 5,000 (possibly even 6,000, with more memory). Secondly, I use Lightroom quite frequently when away from home, so would also like to have an 16” Apple Silicon laptop (I’m assuming that Lightroom will be *much* faster and that the machine will run cooler).
So the thought just occurred to me: given my unhappiness about the price of the higher-tier Ultra (okay, that’s just stinginess on my part), a better option is perhaps an M3 Max 16” MacBook Pro. That would allow me to do everything on one machine (much more convenient), accepting 40 rather than 80 (most likely) GPU cores but saving at least £1,500 (after trading in my 2019 laptop) vs. an M3 Ultra Studio — plus the cost of a lower spec M3 laptop. The GPU performance would still be *way* better than both of my current machines.
Hence wanting to hear about experiences of heavily loading the GPU on an M1 or M2 MacBook Pro. My impression is that the power efficiency of Apple Silicon is such that I shouldn’t be too concerned — but I’d hate to spend this much on an M3 MacBook Pro only to find that it still gets stressed if I push the GPU too hard. That said, so long as it’s materially better in this regard than the 2019 laptop (which is, I appreciate, a rather subjective statement), I think I’ll be happy.
Any thoughts you can offer would be much appreciated.
Thanks …. Andrew