Should I upgrade from a 14” M1 Pro to 14” M1 Max?

[akhurstf1]

Hey everyone, I currently have a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It has the 16 core GPU and I’ve come across a really good deal from Costco for the 14” M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. As it’s the Max it has a 32 core GPU. It’s on offer for £2000 at the moment As they clear out any old stock.

Is it crazy to think of upgrading as all I am using it for is

1. Hosting and editing a video podcast (apps include Canva, Chrome (Streamyard) and Final Cut Pro to edit.
2. Edit vlogs recorded from my iPhone 15 Pro - have dabbled with recording some of them in ProRes but this is more of a hobby than anything else.

The laptop is usually ally plugged into a Dell monitor around 80% of the time and the laptop never leaves the house.
I can trade my current 14” for around £1100 so would you pay the extra £900 for this higher spec?

 

[Apple_Robert]

You won't see any big improvement in use in my opinion, although the Max would give you more storage.

 

[MapleBeercules]

Does the m1 pro not able to do the tasks you want?
I doubt you would see any serious improvement in either performance or workflow to justify the costs. You would be better off using the M1 until it impacted your workflow, like videos taking 2 to 3 hours to encode preventing you from using the PC for other things, then upgrade at that point. You will get more for your investment.

 

[chrfr]

Hey everyone, I currently have a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It has the 16 core GPU and I’ve come across a really good deal from Costco for the 14” M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. As it’s the Max it has a 32 core GPU. It’s on offer for £2000 at the moment As they clear out any old stock.

Is it crazy to think of upgrading as all I am using it for is

1. Hosting and editing a video podcast (apps include Canva, Chrome (Streamyard) and Final Cut Pro to edit.
2. Edit vlogs recorded from my iPhone 15 Pro - have dabbled with recording some of them in ProRes but this is more of a hobby than anything else.

The laptop is usually ally plugged into a Dell monitor around 80% of the time and the laptop never leaves the house.
I can trade my current 14” for around £1100 so would you pay the extra £900 for this higher spec?

With the huge gains we're seeing in performance with the M3 Max, I would put that money aside and wait to upgrade to a newer computer rather than making the comparatively modest upgrade from M1 Pro to M1 Max.

 

[Lucas Curious]

just for reference my 14" M3 MAX 14/30 has 1.7x CPU and 3.5x GPU more power than my 16" M1 Pro

 

[Miltz]

seems like a giant waste of money even at a discount unless you have a specific ram intense application. You should upgrade to a M3 Max if you really want a massive upgrade. Everything else will likely not be worth it. I just went from a M1 Pro to M3 MAX.

 

[Lucas Curious]

seems like a giant waste of money even at a discount unless you have a specific ram intense application. You should upgrade to a M3 Max if you really want a massive upgrade. Everything else will likely not be worth it. I just went from a M1 Pro to M3 MAX.

same.

 

[Lucas Curious]

Hey everyone, I currently have a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It has the 16 core GPU and I’ve come across a really good deal from Costco for the 14” M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. As it’s the Max it has a 32 core GPU. It’s on offer for £2000 at the moment As they clear out any old stock.

Is it crazy to think of upgrading as all I am using it for is

1. Hosting and editing a video podcast (apps include Canva, Chrome (Streamyard) and Final Cut Pro to edit.
2. Edit vlogs recorded from my iPhone 15 Pro - have dabbled with recording some of them in ProRes but this is more of a hobby than anything else.

The laptop is usually ally plugged into a Dell monitor around 80% of the time and the laptop never leaves the house.
I can trade my current 14” for around £1100 so would you pay the extra £900 for this higher spec?

my test showed me that for your use case you dont need anymore power than the M1 Max. even with the max you can edit quite heavy videos with plugins just set it to best performance instead of best quality for viewing playback. Id say even the M1 Pro is good as long as you have 32 gb ram. But to be honest, save the $2,000 and keep using your M1 Pro. You wont really see any benefit for your use unless you really try to push the video edits. I just spent more than $3k on a 14" M3 Max and question my sanity but I really wanted 36gb ram and 14. The M1 Pro 16gb worked jsut as good but when I plugged it to Studio Display and had both screens open, I noticed little hiccups in performance. Not sure if it was the GPU or lack of ram for GPU to drive the second screen. I could have gone for a deal M1 Max 64gb ram and 2TB for $2300 but I have a deal at Best Buy where I get included AppleCare so it was a a deal of $2550 for M1 Max or $3,000 for M3 Max at the end of the day. The M3 Max is at least twice as much power for that extra $450 and I dont need 64 gb ram. Keep using what you got and in FCPX set the viewer to Best Performance. Your experience will be almost the same. Dont have bunch of tabs open in safari.

If you really want to upgrade, you can get the Base M3 Pro with 36 gb ram. youll have even longer battery life.

 

[Appletoni]

Hey everyone, I currently have a 14” MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. It has the 16 core GPU and I’ve come across a really good deal from Costco for the 14” M1 Max with 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. As it’s the Max it has a 32 core GPU. It’s on offer for £2000 at the moment As they clear out any old stock.

Is it crazy to think of upgrading as all I am using it for is

1. Hosting and editing a video podcast (apps include Canva, Chrome (Streamyard) and Final Cut Pro to edit.
2. Edit vlogs recorded from my iPhone 15 Pro - have dabbled with recording some of them in ProRes but this is more of a hobby than anything else.

The laptop is usually ally plugged into a Dell monitor around 80% of the time and the laptop never leaves the house.
I can trade my current 14” for around £1100 so would you pay the extra £900 for this higher spec?

Yes you should upgrade. I also upgraded from M1 MAX to M3 MAX 16-inch MacBook Pro with 128 GB RAM and it helps a lot when doing work and other stuff. But the deal you have is great too.

 

[3Rock]

Yes you should upgrade. I also upgraded from M1 MAX to M3 MAX 16-inch MacBook Pro with 128 GB RAM and it helps a lot when doing work and other stuff. But the deal you have is great too

I think the OP should wait and save enough for the M3 and not go from M2 Pro to M2 Max. Just my thoughts. M4 is probably coming out in 11 months And OP may want to think about that one as well.

 

[chrfr]

Yes you should upgrade. I also upgraded from M1 MAX to M3 MAX 16-inch MacBook Pro with 128 GB RAM and it helps a lot when doing work and other stuff. But the deal you have is great too.

This poster is asking about upgrading from an M1 Pro to an M1 Max, not an M3 Max. Buying the top of the line M3 Max isn't the right solution for everyone, and the work the OP is doing simply doesn't require 128GB of RAM.

 

[sevoneone]

You have to decide what is right for you more than anyone else. It is a good opportunity to save a ton on upgrades that might be more useful/desirable to you than the latest and greatest chip.

Sometimes it helps to take your current Mac out of the equation completely to think about it in a less complicated way. Forget about what you can recoup from selling it, it's current performance, etc. Before considering any of that, if you didn't have your current Mac, but knew what your needs, requirements and budget were and came across this, would you buy it? Or, would you be looking at a new M3 based model?

That said, if it helps, remember that Apple was selling brand new M1 Max and M1 Ultra based Mac Studios only 5 months ago. So if you're concerned about support drying up any time soon, I wouldn't.