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

[cocoua]

main problem with M1 Pro is the "only" 2 external screens, I have 3 screens connected to my rMBP 2012, 1 Cintiq 22, and 2 Samsung 27" 2.5K (MBP screen is half way closed with the magnet trick to keep it "cooler" as closed is about 5-10ºC higher)

you need the M1 Max to do this (not a problem at all but is a thing!)

 

[jmgregory1]

Yea I am with you there, these new machines really are that great, but for my needs - a dual boot option on an M2 iPad Pro would be all I need. I like to pay around with both.

I’d be happy if Apple and 3rd party app developers would get going on M1 iPad Pro apps that can actually use the added power of the M1 chip. I love my iPad Pro (M1 and my former 2018 12.9”), but I know there is more it could do if iPadOS, and apps designed for M1, would allow.

 

[DNichter]

I’d be happy if Apple and 3rd party app developers would get going on M1 iPad Pro apps that can actually use the added power of the M1 chip. I love my iPad Pro (M1 and my former 2018 12.9”), but I know there is more it could do if iPadOS, and apps designed for M1, would allow.

Yea that aspect has been super quiet as well - I was kinda floored when they announced M1 in an iPad Pro and was convinced iPadOS was going to be this huge update, but it ended up very underwhelming.

 

[bgage725]

It would be nice to see 14" M1 Pro vs 14" M1 Max comparisons. While the M1 Pro/Max specs are the same across sizes (whether it be 14" or 16"), the thermals and cooling performance aren't, which makes comparisons like this one less than perfect.

I'm running a test right now between the two. Specs: 14 inch M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 512 SSD, 24 Core GPU
14 inch M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 16 Core GPU. Obviously the RAM is going to make a difference in power consumption but I want to make sure I end up with the right balance between power and portability. Running a test with both set to half brightness, watching the same documentary on YouTube in safari. No other apps running in the background. Will let you know what I find.

 

[theotherphil]

Well... the 14" AppleSilicon gets 105°C in CB R23 in this video....

1) Don’t forget it’s an entire SOC, not just a CPU like on Intel machines. So CPU/ GPU/ RAM/ i/o controllers etc, etc. All of those together put out similar wattage to Intel’s CPU alone. I never expected for a second that the entire package would run significantly cooler under full load than Intel’s CPU….because physics.
2) Apple have likely designed for these temps, hence why the 14” doesn’t throttle….it just runs the fans faster due to the smaller heat pipe/ fans.

 

[theotherphil]

Almost every YouTube channel compares M1 Pro in 14" and M1 Max in 16 inch. I would really like to see more comparisons for the M1Pro and M1 Max in the same chassis to see actual performance differences but more importantly battery life differences between the two M1 variants.

MaxTech have ordered every single configuration but they are just waiting for them to arrive. Their testing is usually more thorough than others so don’t worry, you’ll get the test you want.

I ordered the 14” M1 Max in 10c CPU, 32c GPU and 32Gb within the first few minutes and my expected delivery date is 17th Nov. Any of the custom configs are shipping later still.

Although I have no hard data yet, I suspect the 14” M1 Max with 24c GPU may be the sweet spot in performance/ heat production in that form factor.

 

[ikramerica]

Really tells me unless you are in like the 1% of Mac users and even then a professional that NEEDS to save minutes on export/rendering time (because time is money), then the vast, vast majority of people will never really see any noticeable difference between the base 14" and any other model above that.

Not true. The noticeable difference is heat and fan noise and subsequent battery drain due to that, and the best bang for buck seems to be the 16” base, not the 14” base.

 

[toke lahti]

I just wish somebody would run these tests with double external 5k monitors attached. Can there be any difference?

 

[agent mac]

I thought that the CPUs were pretty much identical between them... and assumed the single and multicore scores to be about the same.

The only major difference I can think about is the memory channel of M1 Pro: 200 vs M1 Max: 400.

Or is this one of those cases where the high performance mode comes into play?

The base model 14 inch has 8CPU cores compared to 10 on the higher end Pro and the Max chips. That’ll be the difference.

 

[agent mac]

I'm running a test right now between the two. Specs: 14 inch M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 512 SSD, 24 Core GPU
14 inch M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 16 Core GPU. Obviously the RAM is going to make a difference in power consumption but I want to make sure I end up with the right balance between power and portability. Running a test with both set to half brightness, watching the same documentary on YouTube in safari. No other apps running in the background. Will let you know what I find

You've bought two almost identical state of the art laptops to test how long you can watch YouTube? And how are you testing the balance between power and portability when both your machines are 14”? All you are testing is whether the Max chip uses a fraction more power to do something in its sleep!
I‘d imagine that for something so mundane there will be no discernible difference, and any difference there is will be immaterial to real world usage.

 

[Fabercon]

The base model 14 inch has 8CPU cores compared to 10 on the higher end Pro and the Max chips. That’ll be the difference.

Yeah, I completely glossed over that fact as soon as I saw it and forgot about it. I would never buy the bottom of the line 14" with gimped CPU and GPU when it is only $200 more to get a significantly better chip. Also I only am interested in the 16" which doesn't even offer the low end chip as an option.

 

[Tagbert]

Here is a very detailed look at M1 Pro performance with a focus on how tasks are distributed across the Performance and Efficiency cores

M1 Pro First Impressions: 2 Core management and CPU performance

The P cores in the M1 Pro/Max CPU are managed in two groups of four, sparing load on the second group, and distributing it unevenly within each group. Its two E cores outperform the four in the M1 …

eclecticlight.co

I found this interesting

”The end result is that the two E cores in the M1 Pro/Max are significantly faster (in some respects, at least) than the four E cores in the M1, although the E (but not the P) cores are slowed when running on battery alone.”​

 

[Fomalhaut]

I'm running a test right now between the two. Specs: 14 inch M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 512 SSD, 24 Core GPU
14 inch M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 16 Core GPU. Obviously the RAM is going to make a difference in power consumption but I want to make sure I end up with the right balance between power and portability. Running a test with both set to half brightness, watching the same documentary on YouTube in safari. No other apps running in the background. Will let you know what I find.

Please let us know your results with various workloads and usage patterns!

 

[MacBH928]

Yeah, my new M1 Mac mini is all I could ever need for my SWE work.

i am guessing that software engineer. I am assuming you compile source code apps, m1 max helps with that right?

 

[Appletoni]

Nothing can run Crysis. It's probably hard coded to have crappy frame rate with any GPU.

The AMD Threadripper CPU can run Crysis.

 

[Appletoni]

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

Right.

 

[orthorim]

But how does it perform watching cat vids on YouTube?

Funny but the real problem Apple has with the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max is a bit similar to their problem with the A15... most things people do just don't need even nearly as much CPU as that.

I use a M1 Air for development, even stuck on 8GB RAM since 16GB cost an extra 700 USD here in Indonesia... so I said, well, OK, let's try to use 8GB.

I had some apps run out of memory but they were all app issues as I can tell, meaning the app would keep allocating endless memory.

The rest of the time, I have a machine that feels way faster (WAY faster) than my 16" i9 cooker / room heater with 16GB.

So I would recommend 16GB but I don't think a normal user who doesn't constantly edit videos will notice the difference between M1 Pro and Max. Even the videos in this test, the M1 Pro did really well, even though you can't even get the 8/14 on the 16" - on the 16" the lowest configuration is 10 CPU cores and 16 GPU M1 Pro.

I would wager that for 99.5% of all Mac users the lowest configuration is plenty fast for everything they do.

I do software development, and the only thing that's slow is XCode. But XCode is slow on all machines across all the universes, there is no magic or technology that can possibly make XCode faster. So that's the anomaly. XCode is slow on a 32 core Xeon chip, and it's slow on an M1 Max. Nothing can speed this software up.

Everything else - is blazing fast on the M1 (not even Pro) and will be even faster on the pro albeit also only marginally - 8 core CPU vs 10 isn't a huge difference. The RAM will make the biggest difference, going from 8 to 16. 8 being a bit of a joke in 2021, but surprisingly usable.

 

[orthorim]

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.

I will get the base 16 as soon as it is available in this country - I figured the M1 Pro would likely have better battery than the Max.... anyone know the TDP of the M1 vs M1 Pro? My Macbook Air M1 has amazing battery life....

 

[Appletoni]

Funny but the real problem Apple has with the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max is a bit similar to their problem with the A15... most things people do just don't need even nearly as much CPU as that.

I use a M1 Air for development, even stuck on 8GB RAM since 16GB cost an extra 700 USD here in Indonesia... so I said, well, OK, let's try to use 8GB.

I had some apps run out of memory but they were all app issues as I can tell, meaning the app would keep allocating endless memory.

The rest of the time, I have a machine that feels way faster (WAY faster) than my 16" i9 cooker / room heater with 16GB.

So I would recommend 16GB but I don't think a normal user who doesn't constantly edit videos will notice the difference between M1 Pro and Max. Even the videos in this test, the M1 Pro did really well, even though you can't even get the 8/14 on the 16" - on the 16" the lowest configuration is 10 CPU cores and 16 GPU M1 Pro.

I would wager that for 99.5% of all Mac users the lowest configuration is plenty fast for everything they do.

I do software development, and the only thing that's slow is XCode. But XCode is slow on all machines across all the universes, there is no magic or technology that can possibly make XCode faster. So that's the anomaly. XCode is slow on a 32 core Xeon chip, and it's slow on an M1 Max. Nothing can speed this software up.

Everything else - is blazing fast on the M1 (not even Pro) and will be even faster on the pro albeit also only marginally - 8 core CPU vs 10 isn't a huge difference. The RAM will make the biggest difference, going from 8 to 16. 8 being a bit of a joke in 2021, but surprisingly usable.

It’s only fast when doing photo, video and music stuff. = 3
When you need to do other work = 97, or for example something that needs integer math or other stuff, then it’s very slow.

I saw 100 photo stuff, 300 video stuff and 200 music stuff benchmarks/videos on youtube how great the M1 Max is.
That‘s all.
Maybe because 99,99% of people on the planet must have one of these 3 jobs.
Result: If the M1 Max would be truly great, we will see a lot of other benchmarks/videos like LC0 benchmark, integer benchmark, Stockfish benchmark…, …, …,

I don’t need 600 videos about 3 different benchmarks/jobs!!!

But I understand that the youtuber / influencer need more positive likes about their new devices and won‘t show us bad results.

 

[fa8362]

Now that the new MacBook Pro models have been available for a week, we've been able to do more in-depth testing. In our latest YouTube video, we pit the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip against the high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip to see just what you're getting with the upgrade to the M1 Max.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

Priced at $1,999, the base 14-inch MacBook Pro features an M1 Pro chip with an 8-core CPU, a 14-core GPU, 16GB unified memory, and a 512GB SSD. The $3,499 high-end 16-inch MacBook Pro we compared it to in this video has an M1 Max chip with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 32GB unified memory, and 1TB SSD. The two machines represent the most affordable and the most expensive stock MacBook Pro models that don't take into account upgrade options.

In our testing, the M1 Max unsurprisingly outperformed the lower-end M1 Pro chip, but what was a bit of a surprise was how well even the base M1 Pro chip did in our tests.

In Final Cut Pro, a video export test saw the M1 Max machine export a 6-minute 4K video in one minute and 49 seconds, a task that took the M1 Pro 2 minute and 55 seconds. When it comes to 8K RAW footage, both machines were able to handle the load. The M1 Max MacBook Pro performed close to flawlessly, while the M1 Pro had a few issues with dropped frames and stuttering, but was ultimately able to keep up.

For comparison's sake, the 2017 Mac Pro that we have is not able to handle 8K footage as well as the base model 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip. The M1 Max ultimately did better with our Final Cut Pro testing because of the 32 GPU cores, but the M1 Pro machine offered impressive performance.

In a Blender test, a complicated image of a classroom was rendered in just 8 minutes and 23 seconds on the M1 Max MacBook Pro, a process that took the M1 Pro MacBook Pro 10 minutes and 58 seconds.

We tested the memory in both machines by opening up a series of apps that one might use in a video editing workflow, like Final Cut Pro, Lightroom, Chrome, Safari, Music, and a few others, and there were zero performance hiccups across either MacBook Pro model. Intel machines with 16GB RAM often see issues with this same setup, so again, even the low-end MacBook Pro is doing well here. Both the 512GB SSD in the base model and the 1TB SSD in the 16-inch MacBook Pro performed about the same, with a 128GB file transferring from an external SSD to an internal SSD in 44 and 43 seconds, respectively.

As for straight Geekbench numbers, the MacBook Pro with M1 Max earned a single-core score of 1781 and a multi-core score of 12785, while the MacBook Pro with base M1 Pro chip earned a single-core score of 1666 and a multi-core score of 9924. Metal scores came in at 38138 for the M1 Pro and 64134 for the M1 Max.

You're going to want to watch our full video for the complete performance comparison as we also did some other tests on the two machines. All in all, if you have a workflow where seconds matter, like exporting video or working with large 3D files, you're going to save time with the M1 Max, but the M1 Pro, even the base model, is still a very capable machine.

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

Rubbish Geekbench results. My M1 Pro has roughly same scores as M1 Max - 1768, 12487

 

[bgage725]

You've bought two almost identical state of the art laptops to test how long you can watch YouTube? And how are you testing the balance between power and portability when both your machines are 14”? All you are testing is whether the Max chip uses a fraction more power to do something in its sleep!
I‘d imagine that for something so mundane there will be no discernible difference, and any difference there is will be immaterial to real world usage.

Not what I found. Two hours difference in battery life or 20% more in the 14 inch with the M1 Pro.

 

[bgage725]

Please let us know your results with various workloads and usage patterns!

I found that with video playback, the M1 Pro was consistently giving me an extra 2 hours and consuming less wattage (which would make sense). For mixed usage, I found the difference was closer to 1-1.5 hours more on the M1 Pro so not as big of a difference in that scenario. Made me realize I made the right decision buying the M1 Max 24c originally so I'll be returning the M1 pro.

 

[theotherphil]

It’s only fast when doing photo, video and music stuff. = 3
When you need to do other work = 97, or for example something that needs integer math or other stuff, then it’s very slow.

I saw 100 photo stuff, 300 video stuff and 200 music stuff benchmarks/videos on youtube how great the M1 Max is.
That‘s all.
Maybe because 99,99% of people on the planet must have one of these 3 jobs.
Result: If the M1 Max would be truly great, we will see a lot of other benchmarks/videos like LC0 benchmark, integer benchmark, Stockfish benchmark…, …, …,

I don’t need 600 videos about 3 different benchmarks/jobs!!!

But I understand that the youtuber / influencer need more positive likes about their new devices and won‘t show us bad results.

Have a look at the Anandtech review. SPECfp is a widely used, cross platform benchmark designed to test a number of areas which closely represent real world use.

” In the SPECfp suite, the M1 Max is in its own category of silicon with no comparison in the market. It completely demolishes any laptop contender, showcasing 2.2x performance of the second-best laptop chip. The M1 Max even manages to outperform the 16-core 5950X – a chip whose package power is at 142W, with rest of system even quite above that. It’s an absolutely absurd comparison and a situation we haven’t seen the likes of.”

Apple's M1 Pro, M1 Max SoCs Investigated: New Performance and Efficiency Heights

www.anandtech.com

 

[Fomalhaut]

I found that with video playback, the M1 Pro was consistently giving me an extra 2 hours and consuming less wattage (which would make sense). For mixed usage, I found the difference was closer to 1-1.5 hours more on the M1 Pro so not as big of a difference in that scenario. Made me realize I made the right decision buying the M1 Max 24c originally so I'll be returning the M1 pro.

Interesting- thanks! What was your total battery life for mixed usage on each model?

I’d love to see as many real user results from forum users to compare against the YouTube reviews….

 

[theotherphil]

Rubbish Geekbench results. My M1 Pro has roughly same scores as M1 Max - 1768, 12487

Because it is running the same type and number of cores ?