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New MacBook Pro Reviews: Scary Fast, But M3 Pro Chip Has a Catch

MacRumors said:


Last week, Apple updated the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips for faster performance. There is also an entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M3 chip. Other new features include a Space Black finish for M3 Pro and M3 Max configurations, and 20% brighter displays.

m3-mbp-space-black.jpg

The new MacBook Pro models will begin arriving to customers and launch in stores on Tuesday, November 7, although M3 Max configurations do not launch until a few days later. Ahead of time, the first reviews of the laptops have been shared by select media outlets and YouTube channels, and we have rounded up some of them below.

Written Reviews

Geekbench 6 benchmark results for the new MacBook Pro models already leaked last week. The results showed that the M3 chip is up to 20% faster than the M2 chip, the M3 Pro is up to 6% faster than the M2 Pro, and the M3 Max is up to 50% faster than the M2 Max and roughly on par with the M2 Ultra chip.

CNET's Lori Grunin on M3 vs. M3 Max performance:Both the M2 Pro and M3 Pro are equipped with up to a 12-core CPU, but the M3 Pro has two fewer high-performance CPU cores. So while the M3 Pro is manufactured with TSMC's improved 3nm process, compared to 5nm for the M2 Pro, the chip's resulting performance gains are diminished due to this change. Apple says the M3 Pro also has 25% less memory bandwidth and one fewer GPU core compared to the M2 Pro.

M3 series chips offer not only performance and power efficiency improvements over M2 series chips, but they also have an upgraded GPU with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading for improved graphics rendering in games.

Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham on M3 Max graphics performance:Apple says the new Space Black finish features an "anodization seal" to "greatly reduce fingerprints," presumably compared to the MacBook Air's dark Midnight finish. Based on hands-on videos shared following Apple's event, the new anti-fingerprint seal does appear to be an improvement compared to the MacBook Air.

The Independent's David Phelan on the Space Black finish and fingerprints:MobileSyrup's Patrick O'Rourke:Apple's tech specs indicate that all of the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models provide up to 600 nits of peak brightness for standard/SDR content, which is a 20% increase over the 500 nits maximum on the previous models. This means the laptops now have the same peak brightness as Apple's Studio Display.

Tom's Hardware's Brandon Hill on the brighter display:Video Reviews



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Article Link: New MacBook Pro Reviews: Scary Fast, But M3 Pro Chip Has a Catch
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All pretty pathetic & lazy reviews, not really worth the time to watch them 😏
 
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Best, most thorough review is from Andrew and very real. If you have an M1 or M2, you don't need any of these new Macs. If you have the money and you want to treat yourself, thats another story. M7 here I come baby!
 
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VisceralRealist said:
M3 and M3 Max are significant leaps forward.

M3 Pro is a disappointment. The "middle option" doesn't seem as appealing anymore
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That's exactly what Apple wants you to think, so they did a great job here. They want you to jump straight to the more expensive M3 Max because M3 Pro is barely the same as M2 Pro as an overall. Or if M3 is just good enough for you, to pull the trigger now so Apple gets extra margins for some months till much cheaper MBA and Mac Mini with similar specs (same CPU, same RAM, a bit less SSD) are released.
 
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Fuzzball84 said:
I still think a Pro laptop should have upgradable storage and RAM. Apple could have came up with a tiered storage system to allow an expansion of sorts. Something between the SSD and main RAM connected to the CPU. Having something modular like this would really help their top end products that are not suited to an all encapsulated SoC.
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Not sure what "between the SSD and main RAM..." means. Regardless, this ship sailed years ago. Apple believes in the benefits of its SoC architecture with unified memory.
 
Mr. Dee said:
Best, most thorough review is from Andrew and very real. If you have an M1 or M2, you don't need any of these new Macs. If you have the money and you want to treat yourself, thats another story. M7 here I come baby!
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Where can I find this review?
 
tomtad said:
One thing I've curious about is the 'anodisation seal' which prevents fingerprints. It's great to hear it actually works but is this just olephobic coating that we see on phone screens and will rub off over time, or something different that will be lasting.

I guess we'll have to wait to find out but I'm curious about what it actually is.
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It might also depend on the person. The iPad Pro's screen is supposed to be oleophobic fingerprint resistant but it's proven to be no match for my freakishly gelatinous palm sweat composition.
 
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Delivered said:
Ouch. I feel attacked 😂😁🤣 I maybe foolish because I was thinking of selling my m1pro 16gb ram for an m3 max. I really need the ram and maybe some gpu/cpu power. (Needed the laptop and m1max wastoo delayed at the rjme). With the new m3max Compile times have gone down by more than 100% in some cases. (Firefox was 14-20 min down to 5min). I use virtual machines as well and foolishly only got 16gn of ram.

I usually delay myself to make sure it's not an impulse hype buy. I generally also get to keep laptops 5-8 years. First mac I bought is still around nearly 10 years later. My PCs are giving me too much hassle. Eeven with the better gpu and increased compatiblity.
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sounds like it's not much of a maybe
 
But it is a middle of the road option, its multicore scores are bang in the middle of the M3 and M3 max.
VisceralRealist said:
M3 and M3 Max are significant leaps forward.

M3 Pro is a disappointment. The "middle option" doesn't seem as appealing anymore. If they can get a 20% CPU performance improvement out of M3 and 50% out of the Max, then only 6% for the Pro is inexcusable. The Pro shouldn't be the "ugly stepchild" that makes you go for the Max. Prior to M3, it was a significant improvement over the base chip and was a true "middle of the road" option. It doesn't seem to be anymore.
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Day 1 reviews by the favored "influencers" (the usual suspects) are now a largely content free PR exercise.

Guaranteed clicks and consequent YouTube ad revenue… in exchange for a favorable review and pre-release access to kit…often using Apple selected high-end hardware configurations that most people cannot afford..

I am waiting for real world reviews - including Base Model M3 inc the (embarassing in 2023) 8Gb model...which seem suspiciously absent from the current batch of PR guff...
 
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I notice that 90% of all early reviewers are people with very small views. Hence easy to be poached because Apple is approaching them.
 
Has anyone measured Response Time of the display yet?

The m1 and m2 MBPs have worst-in-class motion clarity of any 120hz screens, and it would be wild for Apple to lean into gaming without fixing this.

The motion smearing on my M1 Max MBP makes playing any fast paced FPS games unplayable.
 
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Mr. Dee said:
Best, most thorough review is from Andrew and very real. If you have an M1 or M2, you don't need any of these new Macs. If you have the money and you want to treat yourself, thats another story. M7 here I come baby!
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ie; he agrees with your point of view the most? 🤣
None of them go into the benefits of Ray tracing, Dynamic Cache, mesh shading or AV1, because they haven't got a clue!
Also for people with MB Airs & 13" MBP, The new M3 is a no brainer!
The M3 Max is simply a beast and beyond the comprehension of most people using the M1 & M2 Pro's
Off course if you're just doing the same editing work flow a 20% or even 35% improvement, may not be worth it? and yet many upgraded to the M2 with far lower increases 🤣).
These machines aren't for those people and yet they're the minority negatively commenting the most 😏
Tastes a bit of sour 🍇 🤣
Anyway I shall be enjoying my new M3 on friday and I paid for the extra RAM, because I wanted it, rather than needing it 😊
 
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Delivered said:
Ouch. I feel attacked 😂😁🤣 I maybe foolish because I was thinking of selling my m1pro 16gb ram for an m3 max. I really need the ram and maybe some gpu/cpu power. (Needed the laptop and m1max wastoo delayed at the rjme). With the new m3max Compile times have gone down by more than 100% in some cases. (Firefox was 14-20 min down to 5min). I use virtual machines as well and foolishly only got 16gn of ram.

I usually delay myself to make sure it's not an impulse hype buy. I generally also get to keep laptops 5-8 years. First mac I bought is still around nearly 10 years later. My PCs are giving me too much hassle. Eeven with the better gpu and increased compatiblity.
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That's a really nice upgrade - a double generation PLUS 150% of the CPU performance cores. That machine (fully enabled (M3 Max) will be at least twice as fast as what you have, which is very noticeable. Then add the benefit you get from the RAM.

The minimal upgrades that don't make sense are one generation without going up a tier at the same time. You are really making four of those upgrades at once there, since the M3 Max is really a tier in between M1 Max and M1 Ultra. You're going up two tiers (Pro to (old) Max to (new 12 p-core) Max), and jumping two generations at the same time.
 
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4odomi said:
ie; he agrees with your point of view the most? 🤣
None of them go into the benefits of Ray tracing, Dynamic Cache, mesh shading or AV1, because they haven't got a clue!
Also for people with MB Airs & 13" MBP, The new M3 is a no brainer!
The M3 Max is simply a beast and beyond the comprehension of most people using the M1 & M2 Pro's
Off course if you're just doing the same editing work flow a 20% or even 35% improvement, may not be worth it? and yet many upgraded to the M2 with far lower increases 🤣).
These machines aren't for those people and yet they're the minority negatively commenting the most 😏
Tastes a bit of sour 🍇 🤣
Anyway I shall be enjoying my new M3 on friday and I paid for the extra RAM, because I wanted it, rather than needing it 😊
Click to expand...
Yeah, this discussion might give an impression Apple lost like 150 MBP customers right here.
In reality no macbook customers were lost.
 
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Giant_enemy_crab said:
Has anyone measured Response Time of the display yet?

The m1 and m2 MBPs have worst-in-class motion clarity of any 120hz screens, and it would be wild for Apple to lean into gaming without fixing this.

The motion smearing on my M1 Max MBP makes playing any fast paced FPS games unplayable.
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I didn't realise this. I'd not tried playing any games on my MBP 16
 
The more I read the more I am considering just getting the base m3 model with 8gb of ram and calling it good. For my usage I haven't ever had an issue with a 8gb machine.
 
eropko said:
16/512*
16 so it doesn't swap and slow down. 512 so if it swaps, it swaps twice as fast at least (if Apple will put one NAND chip into 256 again).
Click to expand...

All I do is productivity apps and safari. I really don't even need the base pro lol.
 
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