Which to choose -- Binned M2 Pro 14" 512 vs. unbinned M3 Pro 14" 1tb for $400 more

[3SQ Machine]

Hesitate to ask because it is ultimately a personal decision, but curious to hear other's thoughts...and I'm just so tired of talking to myself and going in circles. I'm not exploring any other options at this point because if I have to purchase another macbook then I'm going to get flagged by the retailers or otherwise be involuntarily committed (I've already been down the road of M1 Pro, M3, M2 Air, etc.)--so these are the two final contenders for the "portable" just within my budget. It's time to choose (unless an M3 Max somehow falls into my lap).

The first is the binned 14" M2 Pro 16gb/512 and the second is the unbinned 14" M3 Pro 18/1 tb. Only $400 separates them, but both were stellar holiday deals at 25% off. The use case is solely music production on-the-go along with general computing tasks. Both computers are equally fine at doing this work with the M3 having an edge in performance, battery life, and of course the extra storage. But I am not taxing out even the M2 Pro and it will do just fine.

I prefer the space gray on the M2 Pro to the space black on the 14" (the 16" is another story). So I don't "love" the SB enough on the 14" to justify the premium. I do, however, love the storage and Apple makes it really, really, expensive to get to the 1tb spec, which makes me hesitate to give it up. But $400? yowzers

So I am torn between a really good savings & value in the base M2 Pro vs. the extra pluses of the M3 Pro. By the way, checking the trade-in values if I change my mind in a few months shows about equal depreciation at this point.

SO, just pocket the $400 and pickup a cheap external SSD? Or go to the max or slightly above budget for the "best" fit even if it's a bit more than needed? What would you do?

Also open to any issues people know about the M2 Pro line with the 14".

And thanks for helping me work this out, by the way.

 

[Kotsos81]

M3 Pro 12 cores for me. The difference in performance is really big between those two and, along with the extra 512GB of storage, the cost is justified IMHO. Plus you get better GPU, a brighter screen, and a better machine overall.

Another good option would be the binned version of M3 Pro (11 cores). Still significantly faster in both multi-core and, of course, single-core than the binned version of M2 Pro (10 cores), which, in comparison, is only marginally faster than base M3 in multi-core (something like 3%-5%), yet cheaper than the full M3 Pro variant.

 

[kschendel]

$400 buys a lot of external storage. I think maybe the important question is, are you likely to need more than 512GB actively and frequently? in other words can you keep the external storage in a drawer (or on a desk) most of the time and avoid using it when you're not at the desk? or will you need the 1TB on and off, frequently and/or unpredictably? If the latter, having half your storage in an external box might be enough of a PITA to justify the $400.

 

[3SQ Machine]

M3 Pro 12 cores for me. The difference in performance is really big between those two and, along with the extra 512GB of storage, the cost is justified IMHO. Plus you get better GPU, a brighter screen, and a better machine overall.

Another good option would be the binned version of M3 Pro (11 cores). Still significantly faster in both multi-core and, of course, single-core than the binned version of M2 Pro (10 cores), which, in comparison, is only marginally faster than base M3 in multi-core (something like 3%-5%), yet cheaper than the full M3 Pro variant.

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I had the binned version for half a minute during the holiday period but then saw the insane flash deal on the 1tb unbinned. I returned it and picked that up instead (unbinned was the same price as the sale price on the binned 512 M3 Pro). The binned M3 Pro is not bad, although a wash/slightly worse than the binned M2 pro for audio due to one less performance core. The unbinned M3 Pro is definitely a step up for audio.

Same thing with the M2 Pro. My local costco had it on clearance after M3 Pro release for $600 off (local inventory closeout) and I don't think you can even get it now.

I've tried basically every M1 Pro/M2/M2 Pro/M3 Pro variant absent the Max chips since BF. Basically these two were the sickest holiday deals and if I bought something now I'd not get the same deal anymore--I'd actually get less for the same $$$. That's why these are the final two contenders from the holiday sales and the return period is up. So one is going back.

 

[Kotsos81]

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I had the binned version for half a minute during the holiday period but then saw the insane flash deal on the 1tb unbinned. I returned it and picked that up instead (unbinned was the same price as the sale price on the binned 512 M3 Pro). The binned M3 Pro is not bad, although a wash/slightly worse than the binned M2 pro for audio due to one less performance core. The unbinned M3 Pro is definitely a step up for audio.

Same thing with the M2 Pro. My local costco had it on clearance after M3 Pro release for $600 off (local inventory closeout) and I don't think you can even get it now.

I've tried basically every M1 Pro/M2/M2 Pro/M3 Pro variant absent the Max chips since BF. Basically these two were the sickest holiday deals and if I bought something now I'd not get the same deal anymore--I'd actually get less for the same $$$. That's why these are the final two contenders from the holiday sales and the return period is up. So one is going back.

Well, binned M2 Pro having a slight advance over the binned M3 Pro in this specific application (audio) is an interesting finding. Because, in principle, the situation should have been very different.

The fact that the binned M3 Pro has one less performance core than the binned M2 Pro (5P+6E vs. 6P+4E, respectively) should not have resulted in worse performance, since they are not the same type of core (the former has M3 cores/3nm, the latter has M2 cores/5nm). According to Geekbench 6, M3 Pro 11 Cores in MBP 14" has a multi-core score of 13,993, whereas M2 Pro 10 Cores in MBP 14" has a respective score of 12,133 (which is about 1% less than the result of M1 Pro 10 Cores) , i.e., M3 Pro binned outperforms M2 Pro binned by 15.33%. Likewise, in single-core performance, M3 cores outperform M2 cores by about 15% (and M1 cores by about 30%).

One could assume that this is due to the smaller memory bandwidth of M3 Pro compared to M2 Pro (200 GB/s for M2 Pro vs. 150 GB/s for M3 Pro). If this was video processing, the smaller memory bandwidth might not have been an issue, due to the use of dynamic caching from M3 series GPUs which maximizes the efficiency of memory usage by the GPU and hardware-accelerated ray tracing (for applications that need it and software that has been optimized to make use of it). In fact, there was a recent video demonstrating that the actual memory bandwidth of M3 SoCs is much closer to the nominal value than that of M2 SoCs due to the aforementioned reasons. But in your case, memory bandwidth might be the bottleneck, if your working set is large. (I don't know, I am just thinking out loud, trying to find out the reason behind what you experienced in practice.)

Anyways, I am "M3 Pro" team, I recently purchased an M3 Pro 12C 36GB/512GB and I have to say that I find it an amazing machine and one of the best VFM in the lineup (if one could use the term VFM under these memory and storage upgrading prices! )

By the way, these are amazing deals. You don't find this kind of deals in Europe, in general. At least in my experience.

 

[tstafford]

Seems like you're getting a lot for $400. The potential extra year of OS updates/support would matter to me as well. I'm finding that the M-series Macs are so good that I can't envision upgrading any time soon. My M1M Studio is going to be with me for a LONG while. And I'm two generations back on the MBP14 and couldn't care less.

 

[3SQ Machine]

Well, binned M2 Pro having a slight advance over the binned M3 Pro in this specific application (audio) is an interesting finding. Because, in principle, the situation should have been very different.

The fact that the binned M3 Pro has one less performance core than the binned M2 Pro (5P+6E vs. 6P+4E, respectively) should not have resulted in worse performance, since they are not the same type of core (the former has M3 cores/3nm, the latter has M2 cores/5nm). According to Geekbench 6, M3 Pro 11 Cores in MBP 14" has a multi-core score of 13,993, whereas M2 Pro 10 Cores in MBP 14" has a respective score of 12,133 (which is about 1% less than the result of M1 Pro 10 Cores) , i.e., M3 Pro binned outperforms M2 Pro binned by 15.33%. Likewise, in single-core performance, M3 cores outperform M2 cores by about 15% (and M1 cores by about 30%).

One could assume that this is due to the smaller memory bandwidth of M3 Pro compared to M2 Pro (200 GB/s for M2 Pro vs. 150 GB/s for M3 Pro). If this was video processing, the smaller memory bandwidth might not have been an issue, due to the use of dynamic caching from M3 series GPUs which maximizes the efficiency of memory usage by the GPU and hardware-accelerated ray tracing (for applications that need it and software that has been optimized to make use of it). In fact, there was a recent video demonstrating that the actual memory bandwidth of M3 SoCs is much closer to the nominal value than that of M2 SoCs due to the aforementioned reasons. But in your case, memory bandwidth might be the bottleneck, if your working set is large. (I don't know, I am just thinking out loud, trying to find out the reason behind what you experienced in practice.)

Anyways, I am "M3 Pro" team, I recently purchased an M3 Pro 12C 36GB/512GB and I have to say that I find it an amazing machine and one of the best VFM in the lineup (if one could use the term VFM under these memory and storage upgrading prices! )

By the way, these are amazing deals. You don't find this kind of deals in Europe, in general. At least in my experience.

Regarding pricing -- yes, why are Macs so expensive in Europe? I noticed that when traveling there in December when I was hunting for a new one. I said, heck maybe there are some good deals here I can snag! Then I saw the prices and said WTF?

Yes, your thought process is spot on and, intuitively, newer machine should = greater performance. In some cases it is with audio (e.g., heavy plugins on a single track that require high single-core performance--for those cases the M3 Pro crushes it). But in other cases that require heavy multi-threaded performance (which is true for larger mixes) it is oddly worse. The benchmarks assume ALL cores are fully utilized, but unfortunately many DAWs do not use the efficiency cores. There are some theories as to why this is -- lower clock speed = higher latency and audio dropouts. Therefore, some DAWs--and unfortunately mine--seem to just ignore them. While you can "force" Logic to possibly use the efficiency cores, this is not recommended for the reasons above. I can't locate the sources now, but the Logic Benchmarks show these results--google "the problem with M3 Pro for music production" and you'll get a slew of results about how M3 Pro can handle less tracks than M2 Pro and M1 Pro (not the M3 Max, though--that's a different league and not in the budget).

Regrettably, the problem has existed since Apple started dropping performance cores and adding efficiency cores in the M2 series. Since Logic has yet to be optimized for efficiency cores (if ever) I can't count on it just yet. In some cases, believe it or not, the M1 Pro is still king for all audio performance.

Anyway, currently the M2 Pro binned is slightly better for multi-threaded audio performances than the M3 Pro binned, just because of the dropping of the 1 P core. Whether this will be the case going forward--I hope not. There was some discussion at a recent developer conference about how some of these DAWs need to get their act together and start utilizing efficiency cores. But whether that is actually practical, I don't know as I'm not a software developer. I do think it is a complex problem since audio requires low latency and intense spikes of CPU power in order to properly represent intended sound. Regrettably, Apple in recent years has focused its attention on improving GPU/battery life at the expense of many of the current DAWs--including its own in-house brand. They are also heavily focused on optimizing Logic for iPad -- which is admittedly paying off since it is a great product. Heck, it might be worth my time to learn that, but then I'm getting sucked in to their subscription model + a new iPad Pro and I already paid for logic a decade ago for macOS so I'm a bit reluctant.

Ok, I've gone on long enough. Yes, amazing deals they are. The more expensive deal on the unbinned M3 Pro with the 6p + 6e + extra storage is obviously the "better" deal on the better machine, but it is still $400. Since I'm torn, part of me leans towards just saving the cash and putting some money towards some studio equipment including an update of my main workstation.

By the way--congrats on that M3 Pro with the 36gb! 16"? That is an AWESOME machine I may use to replace my main workstation at some point (hence my obsession with pinching pennies).

Heck, I may just wake up on day the returns are due and flip a coin. They are both great machines and represent an awesome value either way. First. World. Problems.