I think a lot of people are having a hard time deciding if it's worth upgrading to the M1 Max vs the Pro, especially for non-gaming and non-ProRes uses. (For those 2 it's obvious the max versions will be much better).
I'm more curious about improved general usage given the higher memory bandwidth and SLC cache.
I'm going to update this thread as I find benchmarks to understand how much of a lift the Max offers in various scenarios.
All will be based on the 10-core cpu variants, not the 8 core.
At least from these benchmarks it looks like the Pro is operating at basically same performance as the Max, so if you don't need the graphics it may not be worth it. Or, maybe longer running benchmarks with heavier MT workloads would matter more.
If you game though I think the 24 core gpu upgrade is probably worth it. In most benchmarks I've seen a lot of games on the 16-core gpu on the pro can run in the 40-50fps range and the 32-core in the 70-80 range, the the 24 core gpu might be in the sweet spot to hit ~ 60fps on most newer games.
I'm more curious about improved general usage given the higher memory bandwidth and SLC cache.
I'm going to update this thread as I find benchmarks to understand how much of a lift the Max offers in various scenarios.
All will be based on the 10-core cpu variants, not the 8 core.
| Benchmark | M1 Pro (10 core cpu, 16 core gpu) | M1 Max (10 core cpu, 24 or 32 core gpu) |
| Geekbench (ST) | 16"/16core: ~1,700? (source) - hard to tell from graph measured with screenshot. Looking for a better one. Another 16"/16 core: 1,754 (source) | 16"/32core: 1,783 (source) (+1.6%) |
| Geekbench (MT) | 16"/16core: 12,502 (source) 16"/16 core: 12,438 (source) | 16"/32core: 12,629 (source) (+1%) |
| Cinebench (ST) | 16"/16core: 1,533 (source) | 16"/32core: 1,529 (source) (same) |
| Cinebench (MT) | 16"/16core: 12,315 (source) | 16"/32core: 12,336 (source) (same) |
| Javascript/web browsing Looking for the best ones for this to cover general usage, let me know which you think is best | ||
| Office benchmarks (let me know which you think is best) |
At least from these benchmarks it looks like the Pro is operating at basically same performance as the Max, so if you don't need the graphics it may not be worth it. Or, maybe longer running benchmarks with heavier MT workloads would matter more.
If you game though I think the 24 core gpu upgrade is probably worth it. In most benchmarks I've seen a lot of games on the 16-core gpu on the pro can run in the 40-50fps range and the 32-core in the 70-80 range, the the 24 core gpu might be in the sweet spot to hit ~ 60fps on most newer games.
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