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Review: M1 Max MacBook Pro After Three Months
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MacOS/Apple bashers, Microsoft advocates, please do not reply...I am not interested in why the M1 Max is a piece of crap relative to a Windows machine, or why Apple's software sucks, please, just respond to some other posting. I am only looking for a response from someone who has worked with Macs over the years, and has done so by choice.
Does anyone have an experience comparing the model in the video, or even the model that has 64 Gig, to a 2019, 16-inch screen, 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 64-Gig 2667 MHz DDR4 machine?
Basically I had to update my 2014 MBP (16 Gig), and at the time the M1 Max was not available, and I believe the M1 only supported 16G at that time. I was hesitant buying an M1 with the same amount of RAM, given that I was at the load limit of my machine (yes, it was also 6 years older). I was also a little worried that I was buying an Intel-Chip based Mac, given that Apple was rapidly ditching Intel as an option.
To be clear, I have absolutely no issues with my 2019, most of the time I forget that the laptop has a fan. I do not do video or audio editing, but use this as a software development/test environment machine, running several docker instances, code compilation, etc...
Does anyone have an experience comparing the model in the video, or even the model that has 64 Gig, to a 2019, 16-inch screen, 2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 64-Gig 2667 MHz DDR4 machine?
Basically I had to update my 2014 MBP (16 Gig), and at the time the M1 Max was not available, and I believe the M1 only supported 16G at that time. I was hesitant buying an M1 with the same amount of RAM, given that I was at the load limit of my machine (yes, it was also 6 years older). I was also a little worried that I was buying an Intel-Chip based Mac, given that Apple was rapidly ditching Intel as an option.
To be clear, I have absolutely no issues with my 2019, most of the time I forget that the laptop has a fan. I do not do video or audio editing, but use this as a software development/test environment machine, running several docker instances, code compilation, etc...
Any time someone describes something in extreme terms like "completely toasted" or "unfixable abomination" I don't put much stock in that opinion because it betrays an emotional evaluation rather than an objective one.
I, too, love my new 16" Macbook Pro M1X. (I have a custom configuration with the 2TB SSD and 64GB of RAM.)
I've definitely encountered some random instability issues that tell me OS X needs more work for these new CPUs, but nothing terrible. For example, I left mine running for several days in a row and when I sat back down at my desk to use it the next time? I found that it stopped allowing me to click on any top menu bars! I had to use the keyboard shortcut to quit the apps that were open, and still, I had no way to click on the Finder toolbar. Everything else seemed to be working normally, but I had to reboot it to correct the problem. (Even tried a force restart of Finder but that didn't work.)
I tend to use mine in clamshell mode at my desk the majority of the time, and yes - I've come back to OS X crashes/reboots occasionally. I've also randomly seen the issue where it wakes my external monitor for a few seconds, and then lets it go back to sleep, and then wakes it again, in a constant cycle after you first let the system go to sleep.
I've definitely encountered some random instability issues that tell me OS X needs more work for these new CPUs, but nothing terrible. For example, I left mine running for several days in a row and when I sat back down at my desk to use it the next time? I found that it stopped allowing me to click on any top menu bars! I had to use the keyboard shortcut to quit the apps that were open, and still, I had no way to click on the Finder toolbar. Everything else seemed to be working normally, but I had to reboot it to correct the problem. (Even tried a force restart of Finder but that didn't work.)
I tend to use mine in clamshell mode at my desk the majority of the time, and yes - I've come back to OS X crashes/reboots occasionally. I've also randomly seen the issue where it wakes my external monitor for a few seconds, and then lets it go back to sleep, and then wakes it again, in a constant cycle after you first let the system go to sleep.
I upgraded from a 2013 15" MBP to a 16" M1Pro 10/16/16 and happy with my purchase so far. If I decided to do anything different I might have opted for a 14" 32GB model as Lightroom and Photoshop seem to need a lot of Ram.
I don't notice any difference in usability vs. the older 15". A little bigger, but not significant enough to change how I use it. The 15" Titanium Powerbook set the standard for me as far as laptop portability, and this model is still much thinner. I probably prefer my 2013 slightly in terms of aesthetics, but there's some nice things about the new model, too. Honestly, I mostly just miss the backlit Apple logo which I always thought was a nice touch. The keyboard is a little bit of a downgrade to type on.
Monterey seems a bit buggier than previous releases; that might be my biggest gripe.
I don't notice any difference in usability vs. the older 15". A little bigger, but not significant enough to change how I use it. The 15" Titanium Powerbook set the standard for me as far as laptop portability, and this model is still much thinner. I probably prefer my 2013 slightly in terms of aesthetics, but there's some nice things about the new model, too. Honestly, I mostly just miss the backlit Apple logo which I always thought was a nice touch. The keyboard is a little bit of a downgrade to type on.
Monterey seems a bit buggier than previous releases; that might be my biggest gripe.
Yes, I came from one of those 2019 16" Macbook Pros with the i9 Intel CPU, 32GB RAM and the upgraded video option.
I was excited to try the new M1X after all the hype about the far better battery life and performance, etc. etc. So I traded it in for one. I've got to tell you, the Intel based 2019 was still a good machine and I had some last minute regrets about turning it in.... If it's working well for your needs? I'd absolutely say to just keep on using it.
This M1X really does do far better with battery life. That may really be its strongest feature that *anyone* can clearly see and make use of? But I use my machine the majority of the time on a desk, where it's plugged in. So for me, this is something that's "really handy when I need it, but I don't care about it probably 90% of the time".
The improvement in the sound quality with its built-in speakers is also notable. For the first time, I don't really mind not attaching external speakers first when I have mine in clamshell mode and want to listen to music through it.
The faster performance is (so far) kind of a trade-off for a little less stability, since OS X is still pretty new at working with these new M1 series CPUs. Using this M1X reminds me a little of the days of using something like Windows XP, in the sense that you knew you had to reboot it if/when anything started acting strange or when an app you used started throwing errors it shouldn't throw. By and large, it works fine - but it's not the level of stable OS X is on Intel where you can just leave it running and logged in for months on end and have no real problems.
It's a LOT faster doing some tasks, and not really noticeably different doing others. All of that's a mixed bag. And it's clear they're focusing mostly on the video editing or audio editing use-cases for the M1X series right now. So if you don't do either of those? That, too, makes the Intel based Mac sound like a good choice to stick with.
I'm not really a software developer so I can't speak directly to doing a lot of that on either machine? But I'd imagine that again, the M1 series makes the most sense if you want to develop things targeted for that platform. Otherwise, I'm not sure it would give you enough benefit to justify the cost to swap from what you've got now?
My gut feeling about this M1X is that some of its potential isn't quite tapped yet. It'll take Apple and others some time to really figure out how to optimize apps for it, so current owners are in that "early adopter" phase. It's a "must have" if you work with "ProRes" video a whole lot, because that's an area Apple focused on with it. But maybe not so much if you just use a lot of standard Office type apps and cloud-based services?
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For my use case, I’ve got an M1 MBP 13” and I frequently use Windows 11 via Parallels to run an audio app called ACID Pro. In fact, I installed from the 2018 disc with a connected Apple Super drive & an adapter. I know it’s not like gaming or requiring a high frame rate, but I have ZERO audio issues recording and layering up a large number of tracks of samples and stuff. I’ve got another Windows 11 VM in Parallels dedicated just for my job, joining it with my work account. Sometimes I have them both running at the same time ?
I’m also able to run some of my Steam games that aren’t available for macOS. But that’s like Space Quest and Shadowgate ?
Thank you for a clear, sane reply. The periodic reboot and glitchy-because-new-architecture is a good note. I, too, keep my mac plugged into power 99% of the time, and about the only time I need to reboot is after an OS update that requires it. Otherwise, like you do, I keep it running non-stop. Thanks again!
I feel the 14” is the sweet spot. The 16” continues to feel like a mobile desktop imo, which is ok.
Have both between by GF and I. Since launch. Hers always feels massive when I pick it up.
Have both between by GF and I. Since launch. Hers always feels massive when I pick it up.
I replaced an 2017 i7 MBP with an m1 mba and finally a 16" 64gb max. I haven't had any stability issues and develop software all day almost every day.
I don't use Docker very often locally, but when I do ARM images work fine [1]. At this point, I only have a couple of apps that are not native arm.
It's also great to do video meetings and not have my fans spin up anymore.
[1] https://docs.docker.com/desktop/mac/apple-silicon/
Jeez, I don't know about that. My 2015 15" Retina MBP is awesome. And the previous generation Unibody 15" MBP I had before that was also awesome (as was the 17" Unibody MBP that my work gave to me, and introduced me to owning Macs). All with Intels.
It's the 2016-2020 MBP's that were duds. And it wasn't Intel that was the problem, it was Apple's hardware design. Poor heat design (note the improvements in this area in the new 14/16" MBP's, hmmmm); too thin; form over function; butterfly keyboard; removal of ports; removal of MagSafe; DoushBar; too thin connector to the screen; camera stuck in old tech; and so on.
Sure, the M1 has revolutionised the entire industry, and the new 14"/16" MBP's are absolutely brilliant. But to claim that the Intel Unibody and Retina MBP's are junk is a big stretch of the imagination.
And Yep, I will be updating to a 16" M1 Pro MBP soon enough, and looking forward to it.
I just haven't owned a pre-2016 MBP Retina since..well 2016 so my memory is a bit hazy. I have Macs I loved that were memorable. The core2Duo 17" MacBook Pro was awesome. I think it was like 1.8Ghz? I loved my 12" PowerBook PowerPC. My 500Mhz G3 iBook was awesome but build quality was definitely cheap. I never had issues with the 16. It was a flawless machine..truly but I don't miss the keyboard or Touch Bar but when I had them, they never caused me any grief. I/O, I just like having an SD card slot again.
Modern hardware assisted emulation is truly phenomenal even between architectures. The one hiccup is, of course, graphics. A discrete graphics card is nearly as complicated as the rest of the machine put together so emulating that is hard. And there really just isn’t the market for it.
I have just that - an X570/5900X/6800XT hackintosh with 6TB of PCIe4 SSDs. It’s a great machine but, on all but a handful of GPU tasks, my 16” M1 Pro Max blows it into the weeds: the architecture is so well balanced that real world throughput is astonishing. It really is a joy to use - they just need to fix the compatibility issues with third party Thunderbolt peripherals.
Using the 16” for CAD, machine learning, video & photo editing - not once have I heard the fans come on. We had the power off for two days after Storm Arwen - I started streaming music the first evening, played music & video and worked on CAD much of the next day and, when the power came back on late morning on day 3, the battery was down to around 40%. Never seen anything like it .
Great to read...I can't wait for 12.2. The problem is it's 4 months after launch that we get a stable OS. And it's still missing promised features. (And of course, only 4 months until they announce the next OS. It's so obvious when we think about it this way the problem Apple has.)
Comical self-own. You realize you're making OP's point when you say, "besides the (temporary) trackpad issue"
That's the whole point that evaluating hardware and ignoring a buggy OS is not a meaningful review.
That is a fair point, one I agree with. My point is for those of us who chose Mac ecosystem, we need to hold Apple accountable for OS issues and not blindly praise hardware as a stand alone.
Apple's strategy is integration of hardware and software and reviewers should treat it as such when software is failing short.
That's actually interesting to me, that ACID Pro works that well in Parallels on an M1. I used to use that software quite a bit in Windows, years ago, to make custom music mixes/tracks. I suppose it's an old enough program so it was designed when CPU power and drive speed were far less than any of today's systems - so maybe that's why it can still perform that well?
One thing I remember with ACID Pro, though? It seemed like whenever I tried to get more than a few tracks playing simultaneously, there was some real degradation in the sound quality of the track. I vaguely remember playing with some higher resolution 24-bit loops they sold at a later point in the product's production run where it seemed to be less of an issue than with the 16-bit loop collections I usually worked with. I couldn't say this had anything to do with the computer's CPU power or what-not? It sounded more like artifacts from too many layered digital samples playing on top of each other, like frequencies in one would "step on" the other and it just multiplied as you added more.
Do you find that when making tracks, you have to purposely keep things kind of "sparse" like that, so one loop stops playing before you use another (assuming you've got one constantly going already for a drum track, and maybe one or two others you need for bass or background rhythm)?
I don't have any of those issues at all. I'll have maybe 8-12 separate tracks just for samples, and then record live over that onto 2-6 more tracks using 3 Blue Yeti mics setup as an aggregate device in macOS. There's latency with the live recording, which sucks, but it's to be expected using USB mics. I have also used an older FA-101 via a FireWire to USB-A adapter connected to an Apple USB-A to USB-C adapter, and that's worked well, too! I just don't have any good mics to use with it anymore.
I have the 32GB 16” 2019 as my employer supplied main work machine and the 64GB M1 Max as my personal machine. What I’ve noticed is that the 2021 machine definitely runs way cooler and hence less noisier when compiling or running python code on large datasets. You’ll need native arm binaries and frameworks to extract maximum performance though.
For stuff that isn’t fully native or supported - the x86 machine is obviously the better choice. Over time I expect a lot more support for ARM - eg Azul Java is now fully arm64 but certain Java library implementations lag behind their intel compiled counterparts.
I don’t even try to run containers on either machine- but Docker has been very active in ensuring that the M1 Mac gets the same level of support as the x86 Macs.
Tested sone Flask/Python/JS code that used to make the 2019 MBP spin its fans like crazy and was amazed that the 2021 laptop handled it without getting hot or spinning fans at full throttle. So the newer one is definitely cooler - no doubt about it !