Performance Comparison: M3 Max MacBook Pro vs. M1 Max MacBook Pro

[Warped9]

M1 is only 2-3 years old. Not many people will have to upgrade from a device only two or three years old, particularly if they have a good device that serves their needs.

People upgrading from something only two or three years old either have money to burn, what they bought previously wasn’t the best option at the time or their device has become irreparable.

Lots of people, guided by wanting to save a dollar, often underestimate their needs and buy something ill-suited for their requirements, resulting in frustration. They then end up spending more because they have to replace the device they chose wrongly before, now having bought two devices over a short period of time. They’re often angry (with themselves) for having wasted money on something that wasn’t worth buying.

Spending a little more in the short term can likely save you money in the long run. If you make a wrong purchase you can end up feeling you threw that money away with nothing to show for it. People rarely feel they wasted their money when they buy something they’re happy with for a long time even if they spend a little more than they had originally expected. I see a lot of this from people who buy Chromebooks and cheap Windows S machines.

The only other reason you replace a device only two or three years old is because it craps out on you in some way and can’t be, or isn’t worth, getting fixed.

 

[Pasha13]

I tested the base 512gb M3 Pro, and yes the internal SSD speeds were somewhat slower, around 4,000mb/sec. But that was still an improvement over the 512gb M2 Pro, which measured around 2,800mb/sec. On my M3 Max (base config of the high end CPU/GPU), I’m seeing about 6,400mb/sec write, 5,100mb/sec read.

Im getting 6500/5300 write/read for 2TB M2 Max.

 

[mdhaus72]

Who? Anyone? Bueller?

Uh...People on this site who have literally said they are doing it?? Are you suggesting that nobody on the planet with an M1 Max is upgrading to an M3 Max setup?

 

[Pasha13]

Uh...People on this site who have literally said they are doing it?? Are you suggesting that nobody on the planet with an M1 Max is upgrading to an M3 Max setup?

What if I just use mine for coding? Will it code faster?

 

[H_D]

I replace mine to give my beautiful 32GB/2TB Max M1 plus a Studio Display to someone in the team as a more hybrid workplace and replacement for the iMacPro from 2019, getting myself a modest upgrade to 48/4TB (enough space for all workfiles in the dropbox) at the same time. In the end this will cost as much as Studio Max plus Display but gives us a bit more flexibility. Now if only the §$%&/() laptops had a 10G Ethernet included in their brick (like the iMac), that would fantastic instead of adapters and hubs and so on. . . The point is: Sometimes you upgrade because the «old» device can be used while you upgrade your everyday tech a bit.

 

[Born Again]

Uh...People on this site who have literally said they are doing it?? Are you suggesting that nobody on the planet with an M1 Max is upgrading to an M3 Max setup?

Name them.

 

[ksj1]

Name them.

Haven't quite made up my mind yet. 75% of my day is unit tests and compiling code, so a potential 25-30% gain over my M1Max, and going to 128GB, is looking pretty tasty. In a month or so the numbers on getting one and leaving my M1Max as a backup should line up. I'll decide then.

By numbers I mean the remaining depreciation on my M1Max versus the time savings the M3Max provides. It can be a substantial amount of time if you're also reviewing other people's code and running the project unit tests again and again all day for different branches.

 

[Frozoken]

While the M3 Pro's performance was disappointing overall compared to the M2 Pro and even the M1 Pro, the same can't be said of the M3 Max. Using Geekbench, the M3 Max is about as fast as the M2 Ultra, earning a single-core score of 3217 and a multi-core score of 21597.

All that just to lose to my $300, 1-year-old i5 in single core lmao

 

[ksj1]

All that just to lose to my $300, 1-year-old i5 in single core lmao

Lets see your score while unplugged. I'm guessing its zero since you are comparing a desktop to a laptop...

 

[krakenrelease]

What if I just use mine for coding? Will it code faster?

It should compile faster

 

[tsmith857]

nope. but usually they compare with it with previous model at the same time as early models.

Who cares? This marketing isn't aimed at MBP/MBA M2 owners.

Their market is those looking to upgrade are either on M1 or lower end M2 quite similar to higher end M1 or intel. they're trying to lure people to the M3 family rather than them buying discounted or second hand M2/M1 products because their high-end intel or low-end M1/M2 cant drive the macOS and heavy duty apps they use all the time anymore. And PC users?

Good point, thanks!

This really helped show me how targeted marketing works. I appreciate your comment!

 

[Frozoken]

Lets see your score while unplugged. I'm guessing its zero since you are comparing a desktop to a laptop...

Ur point would be valid if the desktop Apple chips performed any differently to their mobile counterparts in single core. I'm also comparing a $300 part to a $2000+ one not to mention that, as I said, single core performance is very negligibly power limited if at all. Multicore sure but I didn't compare that did I? You can make me eat my words when the m3 ultra comes out and totally doesn't have literally the exact same single core frequency just like the m2 ultra and m1 ultra did compared to the mobile chips tho lmao. If by some chance it does up single core frequency I will gladly admit I'm wrong.

 

[PassiveSmoking]

What version of Blender are you using for the tests?

Max Tech did their testing with a beta version of Blender 4.0, which includes support for the hardware raytracing on the M3. They found that the pro and the max were both about twice as fast as their predecessors when rendering a scene.

The previous Blender release didn't support hardware rendering (obviously as it wasn't released yet), so that would have shown smaller gains between M2 and M3.

Since then Blender 4.0 final has been released so it's now production ready.

If you do ray tracing and use software that will support M3's hardware raytracing, then the gains between M2 and M3 are a hell of a lot bigger than the general purpose benchmarking will show.

(M3 Max with maxed out GPU on backorder, BTW)

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

Small gains… Apple just did such a great job with the m1max you don’t need to upgrade.

Even MKBHD cancelled his m3max macbook order. To me that speaks volumes.

But i have a question, MKBHD cancelled his order because it works just fine for his mobile tasks, like editing phone video, but he does all the heavy stuff on his desktop Mac in the studio, so does that mean that the M1 max is not good enough for 8k and very heavy stuff so he has to do it on the desktop? So M3 max might be worth getting for me to edit photos/videos and all usual stuff like browsing, and some blender? or is M1 Max enough? M2 Max i am not considering btw, not good value. I really like the M1 deals now. I also do occasional hobby blender work, where i've seen that M3 Max has had a huge uptick in performance over M1, but i am wondering, for occasional blender work, and modeling airplanes for example, would M1 max be enough? I can wait for it to render, that is not a problem.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Born Again]

But i have a question, MKBHD cancelled his order because it works just fine for his mobile tasks, like editing phone video, but he does all the heavy stuff on his desktop Mac in the studio, so does that mean that the M1 max is not good enough for 8k and very heavy stuff so he has to do it on the desktop? So M3 max might be worth getting for me to edit photos/videos and all usual stuff like browsing, and some blender? or is M1 Max enough? M2 Max i am not considering btw, not good value. I really like the M1 deals now. I also do occasional hobby blender work, where i've seen that M3 Max has had a huge uptick in performance over M1, but i am wondering, for occasional blender work, and modeling airplanes for example, would M1 max be enough? I can wait for it to render, that is not a problem.


Thanks in advance.

If you don’t own an m1max notebook I would absolutely go for the newest spec’d MacBook Pro. I don’t know if there is much savings in looking at what Apple is offering over in their refurbished marketplace for m1s but I’d go for thr rule of thumb of get what you can most afford based on your usage.

The point I was making for many of us including Marcus who own the first gen M1 chips they’re more than good enough to not upgrade. I’ve never had a moment where I’m wishing I had more power. But that’s my experience.

Hope that helps!

 

[Jack Neill]

My M1 Airs have served me well and I am interested in a AS upgrade, initially I was interested in the base 14" M3 but the price seems high for 8GB of Ram. I still have a stable of Intel Macs that I use such as a 2017 15" that I would love to upgrade and I was looking at a M2/16/1TB at Worst Buy for 1699 that seems like a much better deal to me than the M3 base. I don't care about the HDMI and while the 14" display is nice the 15" Air would also be ok too, now that the M3 family is out there will start to be good deals on the M1 family and maybe a M1 Pro/Max with more ram and storage would suit my needs better. And by needs I mean wants because every Mac I have still works just fine and I don't really need anything newer.

 

[foliovision]

Asking a question should never generate a “dislike” on a forum!

You didn't read the original poster post and did not do any research. There's a huge thread on this issue. People have lost most of a week's work hours striving to get their Apple bricked M1 MacBook Pros working again. Lazy people get downvotes.

 

[foliovision]

Lots of people, guided by wanting to save a dollar, often underestimate their needs and buy something ill-suited for their requirements, resulting in frustration. They then end up spending more because they have to replace the device they chose wrongly before, now having bought two devices over a short period of time. They’re often angry (with themselves) for having wasted money on something that wasn’t worth buying.

Spending a little more in the short term can likely save you money in the long run. If you make a wrong purchase you can end up feeling you threw that money away with nothing to show for it.

Let's start with M1 Macs were very new. It was hard to tell what one might need. There were many dolts on YouTube shouting to the heavens that all one needs for M1 heaven was an 8GB M1 MacBook Air or iMac.

Untrue of course – for a 4K pro video workflow, 24 GB, not 16 GB, is the minimum. To work with large photos (panoramas, stitched), same deal. 64GB would be better. This is not speculation. I've worked on every M1 size (8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB) for at least a few weeks. 32GB is adequate when careful, 64GB is better for multi-tasking.

At full retail, upgrades were very unattractive at the time. Moreover, if someone underbought at the time (within reason), s/he is probably further ahead now as selling a lower spec machine offers much smaller depreciation than selling off a high end machine. Now s/he can have a more powerful and better configured newer M3 machine or make a massive upgrade in specs (64GB/4TB) by buying a new M1 MacBook Pro at B&H on sale, while getting a new machine with fresh guarantee or fresh Apple Care.

 

[Warped9]

This all comes down to understanding your needs and what you can realistically expect from a device and given specs.

I was very tempted by the M1 iMac with 16/512 or 16/1TB, but I was unsure because unlike my current 2011 I wouldn’t be able to user upgrade it down the road. I used the M1 MacBook Air as a baseline for the iMac because it was essentially much the same machine in a different form and the more popular go-to choice for many users.

Now two years later I’m glad I waited. In that time I’ve seen the various performance reviews for M1 and M2 series devices. I now have a better understanding of which chips and devices are best suited for varying needs. During that time I was really tempted by the M2 Mac Studio, but I despaired over the additional cost of display and accesories. I also still prefer the AIO configuration for my purposes.

Now we have M3 and the M3 iMac with 24/512 or 24/1TB is the machine I had hoped the M1 would be for my needs.

My 2011 21.5 is still going strong after 12 years when I would have been happy with 5-6 before considering replacing it. If my next computer does similarly as well I think I’ll have done well with these machines.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

If you don’t own an m1max notebook I would absolutely go for the newest spec’d MacBook Pro. I don’t know if there is much savings in looking at what Apple is offering over in their refurbished marketplace for m1s but I’d go for thr rule of thumb of get what you can most afford based on your usage.

The point I was making for many of us including Marcus who own the first gen M1 chips they’re more than good enough to not upgrade. I’ve never had a moment where I’m wishing I had more power. But that’s my experience.

Hope that helps!

Thank you.
I forgot to add originally that i am coming from 2013/2010 MBPs. So this will be my first apple silicon buy.
I want to know, with the things i do described in my previous post, if M1 Max would be enough? because i can get a fully maxed out 14”/16” MBP M1 Max with 2tb ssd for 2400 brand new. That is much less than a M3 Max would run for me, and i would have money for accessories which is also very important. The problem is that M3s are really expensive, and M1 deals really good now, so i would like to know if it would be enough for me. And yes, i need Max not Pro for future multi monitor setups and the gpu power.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Born Again]

Thank you.
I forgot to add originally that i am coming from 2013/2010 MBPs. So this will be my first apple silicon buy.
I want to know, with the things i do described in my previous post, if M1 Max would be enough? because i can get a fully maxed out 14”/16” MBP M1 Max with 2tb ssd for 2400 brand new. That is much less than a M3 Max would run for me, and i would have money for accessories which is also very important. The problem is that M3s are really expensive, and M1 deals really good now, so i would like to know if it would be enough for me. And yes, i need Max not Pro for future multi monitor setups and the gpu power.

Thanks in advance.

That’s a crazy deal. You won’t see $1000 in value with the m3.

Go for it.

 

[Fomalhaut]

You didn't read the original poster post and did not do any research. There's a huge thread on this issue. People have lost most of a week's work hours striving to get their Apple bricked M1 MacBook Pros working again. Lazy people get downvotes.

I re-read the thread and did see there was a reply between my first reply with the question and my second comment, which I had missed. However, a polite reminder that the question had been answered earlier would be more effective in helping me than simply resorting to insults.

“Manners maketh Man”.

 

[HawkTheHusky1902]

That’s a crazy deal. You won’t see $1000 in value with the m3.

Go for it.

you sure? is M1 even powerful enough?i know its a crazy deal, i would also love that it leaves so much money for accessories...

 

[Pasha13]

nope. but usually they compare with it with previous model at the same time as early models.

Who cares? This marketing isn't aimed at MBP/MBA M2 owners.

Their market is those looking to upgrade are either on M1 or lower end M2 quite similar to higher end M1 or intel. they're trying to lure people to the M3 family rather than them buying discounted or second hand M2/M1 products because their high-end intel or low-end M1/M2 cant drive the macOS and heavy duty apps they use all the time anymore. And PC users?

M2 can't drive MacOS apps anymore?

 

[ric22]

I think Apple hopes a lot of upgraders will be driven to purchase replacement devices because of the incredibly low storage provided. Even my mum filled up 256GB with videos and photos, and it's a nightmare for an elderly person trying to move Photos to an external device- I'd help but we live opposite sides of the world.

I have an M1 Air too, as a personal device, and it is annoying having to shift stuff onto various external devices, and backing up then is annoying because you fill up both ports with cables and cannot charge at the same time without a dongle. The RAM is also an issue, though personally I can mitigate that by doing any activities that require heavy lifting on my work 16" Pro.

I'd like to trade in my Air for a superior device, but the cheapest one from Apple that would be a genuine improvement is £2,300, which is a lot when my 13" Air remains tolerable. Essential upgrades for my next device:

• Reasonable port selection requires 14" MacBook Pro (M3 Pro), starting from £2,100.
• 16GB RAM is enough for my home use
• M3 Pro chip also required to drive my two monitors at once
• 1TB storage requires an offensive £200 upgrade price

Honestly the M1 chip is enough for general computing tasks, and isn't the bottleneck unless I want to perform a task that stresses the GPU cores- the M3 Pro or Max would be miles better then, especially with active cooling. The screen is a bit nicer, but the edge shadow irritates me and I can't unsee it, and I still resent the notch. The 2023 devices all look a lot uglier than the M1 Air too, and the keyboard design on the Pros looks cheaper and nastier with the black edging, rather than the classy one piece aluminium we're all used to.