M4Max vs M5Pro

[ikramerica]

Given the current price increases, I can currently buy either:
16” M4Max 36GB
or
16” M5Pro 48GB
for the same price on sale

From benchmark comparisons, the M5 Pro barely beats the M4Max in processing, but the M4Max blows the M5Pro away in graphics.
The Max has better memory speed and bandwidth, but the Pro would have 33% more memory to work with.

Any advice?
Thanks

 

[Carlson-online]

Long term, the RAM will be more beneficial to you, plus the single core and multi core CPU performance on the M5 is better.
It's just the extra GPU cores really with the M4 MAX, and the M5 ones ahave closed the gap

 

[maflynn]

Any advice?

What is the purpose of the laptop? You didn't say what you need it for
If its for surfing the web, or using office documents, that's one thing, working with LLMs is a completely different type of usage.

If you ask this in the neo forum, they say you don't need that much ram because 8 is enough 😛 I'm kidding, I kid because I love

Anyways, give that both have more the unusal ram configurations, I'd probably go with the one with the most cores, both cpu and gpu since you mentioned how much better the M4 Max is on the gpu side of things. It really does depend on how you plan to use it however.

 

[benholt]

depends entirely on what you're pushing it for. I'm on an M3 Max 16/64GB for motion graphics + After Effects work, and dropping to a Pro chip would have hurt the GPU and memory bandwidth way more than the 12GB RAM gap helps. AE/Resolve timeline scrubbing and Metal-heavy plugins all care about that bandwidth. if your workload is Lightroom + dev + office + light video, M5 Pro 48 is the smarter buy. if you ever touch Blender, Resolve color/effects, or AE with chunky plugins, take the Max.

 

[ikramerica]

What is the purpose of the laptop? You didn't say what you need it for
If its for surfing the web, or using office documents, that's one thing, working with LLMs is a completely different type of usage.

If you ask this in the neo forum, they say you don't need that much ram because 8 is enough 😛 I'm kidding, I kid because I love

Anyways, give that both have more the unusal ram configurations, I'd probably go with the one with the most cores, both cpu and gpu since you mentioned how much better the M4 Max is on the gpu side of things. It really does depend on how you plan to use it however.

I guess it was implied that someone isn’t buying a MAX with 36GB or a Pro with 48GB for light office work.

The heaviest use is ArchiCAD but since most people have no idea about that software, it was more a general question comparing the pros and cons of a previous generation M4MAX vs a current gen M5Pro.

I have been using my M1Pro for years.

One bonus of the M4Max is it comes with 15.1 instead of 26, so other than Apple constantly bugging me to upgrade, I can stay on 15.X

 

[ikramerica]

I found an older Archicad specific comparison of an M2Max Studio vs M4Pro MBP and for Archicadcentric testing, the bandwidth and GPU cores don’t help the M2MAX enough to make it worth it over the M4Pro.

But the M4Max 14/32 is a different beast from the M2, and the M5Pro 18/20 is barely faster on single core CPU benchmarks than the M4, but it’s 25% faster multicore. The Max is 33% faster in GPU tests.

But, the 12GB extra of memory might do more to help with larger files than the memory bandwidth deficit hurts. Thing is, I don’t do large buildings, just houses, so my files only sometimes pressure the 16GB on my M1 when I have more than 1 instance of ArchiCad open with 2 files and too many tabs open in Preview and Safari (which I use concurrently for reference regarding codes, products and materials).

 

[maflynn]

I guess it was implied that someone isn’t buying a MAX with 36GB or a Pro with 48GB for light office work.

I did not want to assume, and your post didn't include usage

 

[ikramerica]

I found an older Archicad specific comparison of an M2Max Studio vs M4Pro MBP and for Archicadcentric testing, the bandwidth and GPU cores don’t help the M2MAX enough to make it worth it over the M4Pro.

But the M4Max is a different beast from the M2, and the M5Pro is barely faster on single core CPU benchmarks than the M4, so I would assume the M4Max with more cores would overall be faster in this case.

But, the 12GB extra of memory might do more to help with larger files than the memory bandwidth deficit hurts. Thing is, I don’t do large buildings, just houses, so my files only sometimes pressure the 16GB on my M1 when I have more than 1 instance of ArchiCad open with 2 files and too many tabs open in Preview and Safari (which I use concurrently for reference regarding codes, products and materials).

But now, I waited too long and the 48GB M5Pro is “price adjusted” to $3500 now.

So it’s a 24GB M5Pro 18/20 for $2500 or an M4Max 36GB 14/32 for $3000.

Those two chips give 10% Single and 25% multi advantage to the M5, and 33% GPU and a memory bandwidth advantage to the M4Max, as well as 50% more memory (which is less important for me the more you move past 24GB). I have done mostly fine with 16GB, only once having the Mac telling me I was out of memory, though that seemed to be another issue because no matter what I closed it still yelled at me about memory and programs froze until I rebooted.

 

[ikramerica]

Bought the M5Pro still at old sale price at Amazon in Black. Silver 24GB and all higher configs were at new pricing.

Ultimately, the M5Pro is faster than the M4Max for my needs and I am fine with 24GB for my work.

At 75% faster than my M1Pro at single core, 2.3x faster multi-core, and 3x faster GPU, with faster memory (and 50% more RAM), faster SSD, faster wifi, and support for more monitors, I think this is going to last me another 5-6 years.