M1 Pro vs. M1 Max: Real-World Performance Test

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Received a 16" m1 max a few days ago, works great but I'm surprised to have seen no mention of the keyboards in any reviews.

Sure, it's better than the butterfly keyboards but it's a long way from feeling "mechanical" or even the retina mbp I'm upgrading from 🙂

Still a totally awesome machine, it would just have been nice to know that the keyboard is still rather "meh".

No one is talking about the keyboards much because they just work. There's no controversy anymore. The new keyboards are great, the full size function keys are great, and the no-DoushBar anymore is great. Problem solved (by not trying to be thinner and lighter anymore, and just going back to what already worked perfectly for years with the pre-2016 models, but improving them with bigger fn keys).

 

[TheOldChevy]

The 14" is in macOS 12.1 while the 16" is in macOS 12.0 during the comparaison according to the Geekbench log. I would be careful comparing some benches as they can be influenced by system optimisation or bugs.

 

[Mr. Bear]

can they run crysis?

My buddy was the director of Crysis and he hates Macs. It would be the crowning achievement of my life if I could get Crysis running on an MBP

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I almost scrolled past after I read "Real world" and only saw images of Geekbench scores. Really neat to see (in the video) far more testing was happening.

Personally I'd change the article picture to that of FCPx or something similar to show off the RW tests! 😉

Yeah, and lol, both SSDs performed the same when copying off an external SSD. Um, yeah sure, I think you'll find the external SSD is the bottleneck here kids.

 

[osx'r]

Really? Which machines slow down just on battery?

The Asus Zephyrus G14 is one I've encountered personally; disables highest performance setting is not available when only running on battery.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Another thing I'd like to see in these tests is whether or not there is any performance difference plugged-in vs on-battery. According to Apple, the performance should remain the same, but experience with other laptops is that the battery can't supply the needed power for full performance and as such, there's a hit when running on battery.

Macs don’t suffer from that issue the way Windows PC’s, especially gaming laptops. This is what happens when common sense goes out the window (pun intended) by putting a 100w TDP GPU into a 7lb 2” thick brick and then trying to convince us that is a normal thing to do with a laptop. It isn’t and never will be. This is where Intel has zero leadership in performance per watt anymore and basically just gave up with Coffee Lake moving forward (Core i9-9850HK).

EDIT:Core i9-8950HK

 

[johncarync]

COMPARISON REQUEST: 2018 and/or 2019 MBP compared to 14" and/or 16" M1 MBP in real world tests.

For those of us with laptops that are a couple of years old, it would be interesting to see how much faster a video would render, Logic Pro would export, and files would copy. If upgrading would save me an hour or two a week, I could make a business case to my boss on how purchasing me a new M1 MBP would actually save the company money.

 

[jimbobb24]

It seems to take 5 minutes to watch a 5-minute video, no matter what I do. Also, I notice that MacRumors forum posts take just as long to read on either machine.

On YouTube you can change the speed of the videos. Almost everything is better at 1.5-2x speed except sports.

 

[Blowback]

My buddy was the director of Crysis and he hates Macs. It would be the crowning achievement of my life if I could get Crysis running on an MBP

See post #46 in this thread.

 

[kpeex]

On YouTube you can change the speed of the videos. Almost everything is better at 1.5-2x speed except sports.

...and (most) music.

 

[mi7chy]

The Asus Zephyrus G14 is one I've encountered personally; disables highest performance setting is not available when only running on battery.

Idea is to preserve battery by lowering the power limit when on battery otherwise what's the point of killing the MBP 16" battery in 1.6 hours playing a game or as short as 23 minutes before crashing and even worse with with smaller 70Wh battery on 14" vs 100Wh on 16"? Someone explain this obsession with quickly killing the battery when wall plug isn't available?

 

[joecomo]

For the first time ever I fear I overconfigured a Laptop.
M1 maxed out 64GB M1 Max seems to be above all tasks I throw at it - no fan, brilliant screen all fine.
Far way from the i9 based heater I had before ...

 

[joecomo]

Great comparison. I originally got the 16” M1 Max and realized it was just wasted money for my use and opted for the 16” M1 Pro instead. It flies for everything I need it for and couldn’t be happier with it. And battery life is freaking incredible.

You probably did right - all of these are beasts

 

[emmab2006]

So, this tells normal users anything about performance.. it’s just VIDEO Editing…

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

The Asus Zephyrus G14 is one I've encountered personally; disables highest performance setting is not available when only running on battery.

Oh, thanks, I thought you meant Apple machines. Relieved, but good to know. All good.

 

[mannyvel]

Funny, I don't care about graphics performance, I just want the 16" screen.

So, this tells normal users anything about performance.. it’s just VIDEO Editing…

Pretty much all the MacBook Pros are fast enough for anything anyone wants to do. They're probably overkill.

 

[xpaulso]

The AnandTech deep dive on both the pro and max were really insightful.

Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max: Specs, Performance, Everything We Know

Apple takes its fight against Intel to a second round.

www.anandtech.com

 

[WiscoNicky]

Why would you suppose the M1 Pro 8 core would have a lower single core Geekbench score than M1? My base model MacBook Air gets a single core score around 1740 or so.

 

[u_int16]

So, this tells normal users anything about performance.. it’s just VIDEO Editing…

That is one of the normal users that this machine is for.

If you are a normal user in the sense that most of what you do is web browse, document edit, and email. Then youre fine with anything from a Chromebook to a datacenter.

What use cases would be useful for your definition of a normal user.

 

[DNichter]

Very happy I went with the base model, it’s way more than I could ever need. The screen is perfect and I’m liking the new design.

 

[project_2501]

Sustained workloads are also important and many test videos only run workloads for a few seconds.

MaxTech runs longer tests and monitors heat, throttling, fans, performance... this one is between similarly configured 14 and 16 MBPros and shows the 16" has far better cooling

 

[CoMoMacUser]

I don't need Max's performance, but I would pay the premium if the extra horsepower means Apple will support that notebook longer (e.g., OS upgrades) than one with a Pro chip of the same vintage. Is that typically the case?

 

[Darth Tulhu]

These machines should definitely last ten years. I can't believe the amount of horsepower on these things.

What do you know? They DO build them like they used to.

Apple is BACK, with a VENGEANCE.

Steve Jobs would be proud as hell.

What a way to start the decade!

 

[exAppEng]

What do you mean you "cranked up the samples to 1024" in the Logic Pro test?

If you mean you set the I/O Buffer Size to 1024, this would actually *decrease* the load on the CPU. A larger buffer size means that the computer has to process fewer buffers in the same time frame, at the cost of higher latency.

Setting the buffer size as small as possible would get the most stress on the system. That decreases the latency in the processing chain, which means the computer deals with more overhead, and has a tighter window to complete the processing of each buffer.

 

[Apples Apples Everywhere]

Dear Apple,

Please send me a Mac mini with an M1 max inside and I'll send you $3000.

Thank you.