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Yes it's the newest version. As of now, I have Intellij(empty project), Chrome with <20 tabs, terminal, obsidian, vscode, Apple Music, Excel. That's it. View attachment 2315082

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mine running 46 days non-stop, green memory pressure, still pages 5GB. And that’s after I restart Safari.
 
The M3 are just far better in my workflow than the M1 families
Just using raytracing is making this thing almost double the speed projects
 
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Nope, I just traded my M1 Pro in for an M3 Pro machine and it's definitely snappier 😄
I noticed that too in-store, the M3 series is noticeably more responsive in everyday-type of use than the M1. That was one thing that bothered me about the M1 Max 16" I had. In everyday use navigating around the desktop, browsing, etc it didn't feel any faster than my M1 Air despite the M1 Max being able to handle heavier workloads. This is sort of expected because the single-core performance is identical between M1 and M1 Max.

With the M3 series I can definitely feel the difference in single-core improvement, even with the base M3 chip in display models against my old M1 Max. Now that I've sold my M1 Max I am undecided between a new 14" base M3 Max or maybe going with a base M2 Max Mac Studio instead since the MBP will mostly be in clamshell mode anyways. I am too impatient to wait to an M3 Max Mac Studio.
 
RAM demands always increase over time.
No it doesn't. If it has, then Apple would be increasing the base memory of the machines over time.


All Macs start with 8GB. This was used as standard on MacBook Air, 2017, released on June, 2017 until now, in November, 2023. It's been this way for consumer Macs for 77 months and counting. For professional Macs, 8GB started being the base in 2012, over a decade (10 years) now.
 
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A screenshot of the breakdown of the RAM usage would be nice.
Please see my attached pics. Exactly 10 chrome tabs, 1x intellij, obsidian, Apple music, mail, and it's lagging when switching chrome tabs.
There's definitely something wrong with the machine and I'm returning it. Sad thing I have already traded in my old machine so I have to spend another $1000 for a 36GB.
 

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Please see my attached pics. Exactly 10 chrome tabs, 1x intellij, obsidian, Apple music, mail, and it's lagging when switching chrome tabs.
There's definitely something wrong with the machine and I'm returning it. Sad thing I have already traded in my old machine so I have to spend another $1000 for a 36GB.
Nothing about switching from the M1 to the M3 should cause you to need more RAM. Before spending another $1K why not try a fresh installation of MacOS?
 
Saying "exactly 10 chrome tabs open" isn't helpful. Some websites are very memory or resource intensive (like Microsoft 365, and other Software as a Service sites), while other websites are more relaxed on memory.

What's going on with the CPU tab? Is there a bunch of tabs that are causing 100% CPU usage? That could cause a lot of slowdowns.
 
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They don’t increase the day you replace a computer.
Sure they do. The OS treats the latest and greatest new box differently on the first day the new box is used; Apple's OS engineers knew for years what hardware capabilities would be becoming available because hard/soft only work in concert. Apps also will often behave differently to take advantage of the latest hardware, but not as far in advance as OS design does.
 
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You'll never notice the difference between an M1 Pro and M3 Pro.
Yup. But the OP would notice huge difference between M1 Pro and M1 Max, especially if enough RAM was present to avoid paging. M2 Max with enough RAM might be the OP's sweet spot (like it is for me).
 
The M3 are just far better in my workflow than the M1 families
Just using raytracing is making this thing almost double the speed projects
Your user name is a dead giveaway. Maya and similar should see big improvements with M3 over M!/M2.
 
Curious question, is any of the content you folks work on these high end spec Macs life changing, is it finding a cure for a disease; or gonna end up in the Library of Congress in the coming decades?
 
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Curious question, is any of the content you folks work on these high end spec Macs life changing, is it finding a cure for a disease; or gonna end up in the Library of Congress in the coming decades?
That is a silly, irrelevant and perhaps insulting question rather than curious. Do you go into your local car repair shop and ask the mechanic if he worked on the car that won the Indy 500? Or do you just want him to use top quality tools to help him do a top quality job and be happy doing it?

The same exact thing applies to personal computer tools.

But to your specific original question the answer is yes.
 
That is a silly, irrelevant and perhaps insulting question rather than curious. Do you go into your local car repair shop and ask the mechanic if he worked on the car that won the Indy 500? Or do you just want him to use top quality tools to help him do a top quality job and be happy doing it?

The same exact thing applies to personal computer tools.

But to your specific original question the answer is yes.
I touched a nerve.
 
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Curious question, is any of the content you folks work on these high end spec Macs life changing, is it finding a cure for a disease; or gonna end up in the Library of Congress in the coming decades?
My pc is "high end spec", the mac discussed here is not. And I am writing a book which will definitely qualify for library of congress.
 
Curious question, is any of the content you folks work on these high end spec Macs […] gonna end up in the Library of Congress in the coming decades?
Most people outside of the USA don’t even know about the Library of Congress, leave alone care if what they are doing on their Apple product may be ending up there.
 
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