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mdhaus72

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 29, 2018
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Hello!

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my M1 Max Pro (32 GB of memory with 1 TB hard drive) to an M3 Max. The offered trade-in amount for my unit is pretty high and I'm wondering how much that value will likely drop in coming months. Any thoughts on how fast trade values typically drop? Right now, I can get about $1350. Thanks!
 
What issue or problem with the M1 Max is making you want to upgrade?
I do a lot of video and design work on the machine and I read that the M3 Max is a huge upgrade, especially with GPU performance.
 
because you are discussing trade in values and whatnot.
if you had a workflow that required more power you would not be hesitating and would know exactly if you need the new device.
I have the M1 Max 64GB RAM but the M3 still does not tempt me because I know my current device is still overkill. I plan to keep it until it no longer gets new software updates.

if you desire a new machine then that's fine but think about whether it's a need or a want
 
For people who need the multicore performance, the M3 Max really seems pretty compelling based on the benchmarks. Basically a 2x speedup in multicore results, which is just insane for essentially a 2 year timeframe.
 
because you are discussing trade in values and whatnot.
if you had a workflow that required more power you would not be hesitating and would know exactly if you need the new device.
I have the M1 Max 64GB RAM but the M3 still does not tempt me because I know my current device is still overkill. I plan to keep it until it no longer gets new software updates.

if you desire a new machine then that's fine but think about whether it's a need or a want
"I wouldn't be hesitating"...regardless of the price it would cost me?? LOL. That doesn't make sense.

Trade-in values are absolutely relevant for someone who is wondering if it's a good move to take advantage of what's there in front of them. My wonder is if trade-in values for the M1 Max will tank in future weeks.
 
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Hello!

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my M1 Max Pro (32 GB of memory with 1 TB hard drive) to an M3 Max. The offered trade-in amount for my unit is pretty high and I'm wondering how much that value will likely drop in coming months. Any thoughts on how fast trade values typically drop? Right now, I can get about $1350. Thanks!
if you are satisfied with the trade in value, then do it. Your new hardware will be great for the next 3 years. I upgraded my M1 MBA to M2 last year, so I am kinda stocked but will be ready for m4 lol
 
"I wouldn't be hesitating"...regardless of the price it would cost me?? LOL. That doesn't make sense.

Trade-in values are absolutely relevant for someone who is wondering if it's a good move to take advantage of what's there in front of them. My wonder is if trade-in values for the M1 Max will tank in future weeks.
"wondering if it's a good move" is a form of hesitation. if you were sure and certain of your decision, your order would have been placed already. trade in values are always worse than private sale.

a 2 year old $3K+ device with a trade in value of $1.3K is a poor offer. if you do that every 2 years you are losing about $1K a year on trade ins. after 4 years you have lost $4K.

if you had kept the initial $3K device for 4 years, you would still be able to get your work done efficiently and save money.
 
Hello!

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my M1 Max Pro (32 GB of memory with 1 TB hard drive) to an M3 Max. The offered trade-in amount for my unit is pretty high and I'm wondering how much that value will likely drop in coming months. Any thoughts on how fast trade values typically drop? Right now, I can get about $1350. Thanks!
The M3 benchmark scores are higher but real-world, perceived increase will not be as much as the benchmarks indicate. Look at Apple's "Activity Meter" and keep an eye on CPU utilization. If it is on average is at 50% then the real-world speedup for you will be the benchmark speed boost times 50%.

Next, our perception is not linear, to really notice a difference you need to DOUBLE the speed. You would only notice a (say) 24% increase if you used a stopwatch. To "feel" faster it has to double.

It seems that by trading up to the M3 Max you might see a slight perceived speedup at a cost of a couple thousand dollars. Maybe better to wait for an M3 Mac Studio with an M3 Ultra.

To figure this out, look at "activity meter" for a good long time while you are doing what you normally do, not just when you render the final video. Try to find a long-term average CPU utilization. If you are running at 5%, then you only get 5% of the benchmark difference. But if you are closer to 100% the upgrade might be worth it.

If this is for a business then you might also think about taxes and depreciation schedules.
 
For people who need the multicore performance, the M3 Max really seems pretty compelling based on the benchmarks. Basically a 2x speedup in multicore results, which is just insane for essentially a 2 year timeframe.
But a 2X benchmark speedup only applies to the real world in a pathological case where all day long you Mac is showing a spinning "wait" pinwheel. Hardly anyone is in this case. The other patological case is where the Mac is sitting idel doing exactly "nothing" in this case even a 1000X faster CPU will have no effect at all.

Likey you are in the midel, between a continous pinwheel and do nothing and the effect of that 2X faster multicore benchmark will depend on where on that continum you are.

Right now my M2-Pro CPU is doing next to nothing. I am typing this and the computer has to wait for me (not the other way around.). But in 10 minutes I'll do a screen recording using Quicktime to record the output of a robotics simulation. But even then, only about 5 cores will be in use so a 30-core "ultra" would not help me.

Years ago, as a software developer, I'd start a compiler then get up and get a cup of coffee and take a walk. Those days are over. Now it is 5 to 30 seconds and done. I can not make an economics-based business case for reducing that occasional 30 second wait to 15 seconds. even if I value my time at $100/Hr.
 
I do a lot of video and design work on the machine and I read that the M3 Max is a huge upgrade, especially with GPU performance.
Are you actually having performance issues that are *really* impacting your productivity is or is this more a case of wanting to have the "latest and greatest" even if you don't actually need it?

Many of us here are guilty of this of course, so it's nothing to be ashamed of :)

Like you, I've been looking at the benchmarks and wide-eyed YouTube reviews and started to look at prices at apple.com, but I do have to take an honest look at my own requirements whenever I do this.

Even if you wish your computer were faster, ask yourself if it actually has a material impact.

In my personal experience, the signs I need an upgrade are:

(1) Software I use is not supported on my hardware - doesn't happen very often, and it can even be a reason *not* to upgrade (if the newer version doesn't support what you use)

(2) Increasing resource requirements of software, web sites, codecs, file sizes etc mean that frequent tasks start to become frustrating. Once I feel the machine is "just too slow" on a daily basis, I start looking at upgrade paths (assuming I've ruled out any software/hardware faults).

Computers are lousy "investments" in themselves because they depreciate so rapidly. The "investment" is what they allow you to do.
 
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The M3 benchmark scores are higher but real-world, perceived increase will not be as much as the benchmarks indicate. Look at Apple's "Activity Meter" and keep an eye on CPU utilization. If it is on average is at 50% then the real-world speedup for you will be the benchmark speed boost times 50%.

Next, our perception is not linear, to really notice a difference you need to DOUBLE the speed. You would only notice a (say) 24% increase if you used a stopwatch. To "feel" faster it has to double.

It seems that by trading up to the M3 Max you might see a slight perceived speedup at a cost of a couple thousand dollars. Maybe better to wait for an M3 Mac Studio with an M3 Ultra.

To figure this out, look at "activity meter" for a good long time while you are doing what you normally do, not just when you render the final video. Try to find a long-term average CPU utilization. If you are running at 5%, then you only get 5% of the benchmark difference. But if you are closer to 100% the upgrade might be worth it.

If this is for a business then you might also think about taxes and depreciation schedules.
^This is very good advice!

The M3 Max benchmarks and reviews we've all seen look very tempting and make me start to look at prices on apple.com, you know..."for research"....but I have to curb my enthusiasm and consider my own reality.

Over the years, I arrived at a subjective metric that any new computer I bought had to be at least 50% "faster" than my current one before I could honestly consider it to be a reasonable upgrade. Your comment about non-linear perception of speed was interesting, and you may well be right that speed has to approximately double (100% increase) before we really notice it. The important question is then "in which tasks" this speed increase is most important or noticeable, and how frequently do you do these tasks?

I might justify an upgrade by looking at at video export speeds being cut in half, but I also have to honestly ask myself how often I do this as a hobbyist. The answer is "not very often". If I were a professional spending 2 hours a days exporting videos, then the idea of cutting this in half, or even saving 15-30 minutes a day would be highly attractive, but there is very little of what I do that is so intensive or time-critical. For me it's a hobby, so if it takes 2 hours, once every couple of weeks instead of 1 hour, that's not a huge deal.

Do I like a "snappy" user interface - absolutely! - but I would only consider an upgrade if the responsiveness of the UI and common tasks (such as opening/saving files, and other normal application usage) became a source of frustration, and of course this is very subjective. I can't tolerate regular multi-second delays in user interaction, but other people might be OK with this.

I will push my MBP14 with M1 Max (24 core GPU) until I feel those twinges of frustration, and then see what is available at that time. I'll still lust after new shiny technology....but will make sure my credit card is a safe distance away when I do....
 
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I currently have an M1max 10cpu/32gpu/64gb/1tb. I have ordered an M3max 16cpu/40gpu/64gb/1tb.

I do a lot of video work using premiere pro and I will stack videos in the media encoder. For me encoding speed is what I am looking for. I do have until Jan. 8th to determine if I keep it so we shall see. I am an independent contractor so I can expense this on my taxes which helps.
 
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But a 2X benchmark speedup only applies to the real world in a pathological case where all day long you Mac is showing a spinning "wait" pinwheel. Hardly anyone is in this case. The other patological case is where the Mac is sitting idel doing exactly "nothing" in this case even a 1000X faster CPU will have no effect at all.

Likey you are in the midel, between a continous pinwheel and do nothing and the effect of that 2X faster multicore benchmark will depend on where on that continum you are.

Right now my M2-Pro CPU is doing next to nothing. I am typing this and the computer has to wait for me (not the other way around.). But in 10 minutes I'll do a screen recording using Quicktime to record the output of a robotics simulation. But even then, only about 5 cores will be in use so a 30-core "ultra" would not help me.

Years ago, as a software developer, I'd start a compiler then get up and get a cup of coffee and take a walk. Those days are over. Now it is 5 to 30 seconds and done. I can not make an economics-based business case for reducing that occasional 30 second wait to 15 seconds. even if I value my time at $100/Hr.
Oh I'm with you. I can't even come close to maxing out the multicore performance on my M2 Pro either. Well, I do max it out when I'm compiling the Linux Kernel (I use a VM on my Mac to compile kernels for embedded stuff), but my Mac can already get it done in 9 minutes.

It's definitely not worth the upgrade for me. I could see Hollywood music producers or video editors making use of it, but I just don't do those kinds of workloads.
 
Hello!

I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to upgrade my M1 Max Pro (32 GB of memory with 1 TB hard drive) to an M3 Max. The offered trade-in amount for my unit is pretty high and I'm wondering how much that value will likely drop in coming months. Any thoughts on how fast trade values typically drop? Right now, I can get about $1350. Thanks!
Look at Activity Monitor while you’re doing your usual stuff…both CPU and memory usage. Much of your answer is there.

My advice on trade-ins: if possible, bring the trade-in to the Apple Store. You still have the two weeks to bring it there, and I’m hearing a LOT of horror stories about the third party company (Phobos?) that processes the mail-in returns. I’ve not experienced it myself, but a couple trustworthy friends of mine have. Made-up stories about “scratches” that lowered the value. Plus, at the Apple Store, I experienced a case last month where the trade-quote went UP after the person in the Apple Store looked it over. Quoted trade in when doing the transaction was $1210, and that went up to $1545. I bet that would not have happened if I’d mailed it in.
 
"wondering if it's a good move" is a form of hesitation. if you were sure and certain of your decision, your order would have been placed already. trade in values are always worse than private sale.

a 2 year old $3K+ device with a trade in value of $1.3K is a poor offer. if you do that every 2 years you are losing about $1K a year on trade ins. after 4 years you have lost $4K.

if you had kept the initial $3K device for 4 years, you would still be able to get your work done efficiently and save money.
I don't think you're understanding what I'm actually asking. Please re-read my original post. This is not a situation where "hesitation means the answer is no"....It's about if the time is best right now. I'm wondering how long trade values will last (for potential deals later on, etc.)
 
Look at Activity Monitor while you’re doing your usual stuff…both CPU and memory usage. Much of your answer is there.

My advice on trade-ins: if possible, bring the trade-in to the Apple Store. You still have the two weeks to bring it there, and I’m hearing a LOT of horror stories about the third party company (Phobos?) that processes the mail-in returns. I’ve not experienced it myself, but a couple trustworthy friends of mine have. Made-up stories about “scratches” that lowered the value. Plus, at the Apple Store, I experienced a case last month where the trade-quote went UP after the person in the Apple Store looked it over. Quoted trade in when doing the transaction was $1210, and that went up to $1545. I bet that would not have happened if I’d mailed it in.
Interesting. Do you just ignore the kit they mail you and bring it to an Apple Store instead? Also...can you do that at any Apple Store by simply setting up an appointment? Or is it only select locations?
 
Interesting. Do you just ignore the kit they mail you and bring it to an Apple Store instead? Also...can you do that at any Apple Store by simply setting up an appointment? Or is it only select locations?

In my case, the trade was done on the day of purchase so no trade-in kit was mailed. But I believe the answer to your question is yes, and I confirmed with the Apple Store employees that one still has the two weeks before bringing it to (any) Apple Store. I don’t think any appointment is needed, just the purchase receipt number.
 
I don't think you're understanding what I'm actually asking. Please re-read my original post. This is not a situation where "hesitation means the answer is no"....It's about if the time is best right now. I'm wondering how long trade values will last (for potential deals later on, etc.)
the best time was before the announcement, the second best time is now. every year the offers will be slashed.
 
Computers are lousy "investments" in themselves because they depreciate so rapidly. The "investment" is what they allow you to do.

Computers, unless perhaps you’re talking about a “collectible” one with a reasonable expectation of increased future value, are not “investments” in any form of that word. They are tools and depreciating assets. Financially, quite similar to cars.
 
Computers, unless perhaps you’re talking about a “collectible” one with a reasonable expectation of increased future value, are not “investments” in any form of that word. They are tools and depreciating assets. Financially, quite similar to cars.
Yes, indeed, hence my use of quotation marks to indicate my rejection of the term “investment “ when applied to computers. I’ve seen it used quite a few times on MacRumors and it always makes me laugh how people use this term to justify their purchase.
 
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