Wait for M2 Pro/Max or Buy M1 Pro/Max

[albozr]

Title says most the story.
I’m looking for an all around computer for Software development and Video Editing and was wondering wether to buy the current Pro/Max chips in the macbook pro or rather wait for the M2 line to come out.

I’m assuming these new chips will be announced at either October 2022 or March 2023.

Which would you reccomend?

 

[tRYSIS3]

Pro chips are likely to be 1 year away at least, and the performance will be marginal compared to the jump from intel. I'd say get it now

 

[jz0309]

Without describing what you have today and how it suits your needs - I’d say buy now and upgrade again next year, and the year after…

 

[LinkRS]

This is the age-old-question. Buy now, or wait? Fact is, you can always expect that if you wait, you can get more performance. However, there is always something coming out soon, so this could put you into a viscous cycle, where you just never buy anything, and are always waiting. Rule of thumb is, buy what you need WHEN you need it. It also wouldn't hurt to heed the advice of the MacRumors buyer's guide.

 

[darngooddesign]

Do you want to enjoy a computer now, or wait until next summer/fall?

 

[Captain_Mac]

If you need it now buy now. There's always something better around the corner.
If you can wait until March/April 2023, just wait. I'm on this train. You'll get a better machine for your money. According to Mark Gurman the updated machines should arrive by then.

 

[jav6454]

Title says most the story.
I’m looking for an all around computer for Software development and Video Editing and was wondering wether to buy the current Pro/Max chips in the macbook pro or rather wait for the M2 line to come out.

I’m assuming these new chips will be announced at either October 2022 or March 2023.

Which would you reccomend?

Can you wait until March the latest? If so, you have your answer.

 

[terminator-jq]

You’re pretty safe either way, just depends if you want to wait. I don’t think anyone will be complaining about the speed of the M1 Pro or M1 Max anytime soon. That being said, the M1 Max will probably give you some extra “future proofing” compared to the M1 Pro. Just depends on your workload.

In my case, since the M1 Max, I have designed houses, edited 4K video with tons of layers, created apps and finished several 3D animation projects without my computer breaking a sweat. In fact the fans on my 16” are barely audible even with those types of workloads. Will the M2 Max be faster? Of course. However, in real world usage (benchmarks looks nice but don’t tell the full story) the M2 Max will probably only finish rendering 30-60 seconds faster. So not anything that’s going to change my life in any major way.

Now if you’re really waiting for the “next big thing” that’s probably the M3 generation. We will be moving to 3nm and there’s rumors floating around of hardware ray racing abilities. Count me in for that!

 

[jerryk]

I just upgraded from the base M1 Mini to the base M1 Studio Pro. Huge difference. Having 8 GB was very constraining with multiple containers.

I figured since the Ultra Studio is just now starting to show up in users hands it would be next summer at the earliest for the Studio level version of the M2 shows.

I can always upgrade to M2 Pro/Studio if it is worth it. But having the Pro now give me the option of waiting until the price drops (perhaps for Xmas 2023). In the meantime, I get the benefits of the much faster system with 4 times the amount of memory for my containers to run in with no more beachballs.

 

[Basic75]

That's such a weird question. Do you need a computer now? Buy it now. Do you not need a computer now? Then wait.

A computer is a tool that needs to satisfy the requirements of the tasks you are going to give it. The M1 Pro or Max will be great for software development and video editing for many years to come. I recommend getting a lot of RAM for longevity.

If on the other hand you are just obsessed with the bragging rights of having the latest and greatest for as long as possible then there is no objective reasoning we can help you with.

 

[Elviss116]

M2 Pro / Máx / Ultra -> 2023
M3 -> 2024
M3 Pro / Máx / Ultra -> 2025
M4 -> 2026

 

[UBS28]

Get the current M1 family machines. You could be greeted with a big price increase with the introduction of the M2 family.

And also you are most likely going to be waiting a super long time when you actually get a M2 based machine in your hands due to production issues that Apple has.

 

[Cristim74]

M1 Pro/Max are excelent machines and I see no reason to wait 6-9 months for just an incremental upgrade.
Buy one now and enjoy it, especially if you need one.

 

[albozr]

Very late update, but I eventually bit the bullet for a M1 Max 10/32 64gb 2tb 16 inch, shipping in 2 weeks(silver). Hopefully this will last me 5-7 years

 

[Alex W.]

m1 vs m2 pro/max will be a minor upgrade.
Go m1 pro, upgrade in a few generations when its worth it.

 

[xraydoc]

The M1 Pro has enough power to last several years. The M1 Max has crazy GPU performance for those who need it.
Any theoretical M2 Pro would only be up to 20% faster (similar to the M1 to M2). If you need a computer now, waiting 6+ months for up to 20% faster doesn't seem like a worthwhile proposition.

 

[Homy]

I could wait but today there is a $244 Black Friday discount on Mac Studio 24-core GPU here in Sweden. I was waiting for a Mac Mini M2 Pro in November to compare with but with the discount and no new Mac Minis I think I'll buy the Mac Studio. According to Macworld Apple will probably increase the Mac prices next year with M2 like iPad. It wouldn't be surprising with the inflation, the weaker European currencies and their agreement with TSMC about higher chip prices.

I'm not sure either if a M2 Pro with 16-20 GPU cores and 200GB/s memory bandwidth would outperform a Mac Studio M1 Max with 24 cores and 400GB/s. Mac Studio has also more connections and SD card reader. What do you think?

 

[PauloSera]

There is no reason whatsoever not to buy M1 Pro. It is everything most Pros could ever want from a chip. And you may even find some discounts.

 

[GumaRodak]

i bought recently m1 max with 400E discount...hope it will last some years...without failure