M1 Max or M3 Pro?

[Adamm01]

Hi all!

 

I’m looking to upgrade from my 2016 15” MacBook Pro for University next year where I’m planning to undertake a Film Production Major. I’ll be doing some pretty intensive editing I assume with this new laptop.

 

Originally I was planning to upgrade to the top M3 Pro 14” 36gb Memory and 1TB of storage for $4,949 NZD, however a recent Black Friday sale has come up for an 16” M1 Max 32gb 1TB for $3,999. I think it may be worth going for the Max to save some money as I’m getting the same storage and ram as the more expensive M3 and it seems like the extra GPU cores help with video editing quite drastically.

 

The main difference I can see between these chips is 3D rendering which is semi important to me as I do Blender on the side as a hobby but I am bringing my gaming desktop with me which has hardware raytracing in its 2060 GPU.

 

What would you recommend for my use case? 
 

p.s looking for a MacBook, I don’t like how Windows Laptops alter performance when unplugged.

 

Thank you!!

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!

M3
The M1 *will* suffer the first gen Apple drop. 
Note, you can change how Windows handles performance when on battery, and various models will do different things. But as an Apple hater, I respect your decision. 

[DrMacintosh]

Just my 2 cents. For a film production major, I would agree with getting the 36GB of RAM. Especially if you're going to be handling 4K+ content. However, for storage, 1TB will fill up fast and you might be better served getting only the 512GB model to save cash and simply editing off of external storage. 

 

I think the M3 would be your best bet. M3 actually adds hardware raytracing support, just fyi. 

[Adamm01]

34 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Just my 2 cents. For a film production major, I would agree with getting the 36GB of RAM. Especially if you're going to be handling 4K+ content. However, for storage, 1TB will fill up fast and you might be better served getting only the 512GB model to save cash and simply editing off of external storage. 

 

I think the M3 would be your best bet. M3 actually adds hardware raytracing support, just fyi. 

I already have a 2TB T7 drive ready to go, not willing to spend much more to be honest.

 

Do you think the M3 is worth the $900 more? Under a bit of a time pressure, M1 deal ends tomorrow

[Adamm01]

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to the forums!

M3
The M1 *will* suffer the first gen Apple drop. 
Note, you can change how Windows handles performance when on battery, and various models will do different things. But as an Apple hater, I respect your decision. 

Thanks!

Why M3? Is it worth the $900 more in your opinion? 

also not familiar with first gen apple drop?

[DrMacintosh]

57 minutes ago, Adamm01 said:

Do you think the M3 is worth the $900 more? Under a bit of a time pressure, M1 deal ends tomorrow

Here is a comparison between the generations:

Granted, these are all the Max versions. But M3 Pro is better than M1 Max, by quite a bit in CPU tasks, but by miles in 3D tasks. 

[RabbidEwok]

8 hours ago, OddOod said:

Welcome to the forums!

M3
The M1 *will* suffer the first gen Apple drop. 
Note, you can change how Windows handles performance when on battery, and various models will do different things. But as an Apple hater, I respect your decision. 

You’ll never get Mac performance out of a windows machine on battery though no matter how much you change 

[Darkseth]

Yup, and even if Windows Laptops do throttle (CPU often not that much, but GPU can throttle to much below 50% even), they still don't last as long as a Macbook during Work.

 

@ Thread: I'll vote for M3 too.

2 generations newer, M1 Max might have more Graphic cores, but the Cores got stronger and better.

Apple sais, M3 Max 40 Core GPU is 50% faster than M1 Max 32 Core GPU, but it's only 25% more Cores.

Also, M3 has better GPU utilization with dynamic caching, that could do something.

 

But for Video editing, you'll probably be carried by the Media Engine more than the GPU Cores. Also, M3 family supports AV1 now too.

Hardware raytracing, much stronger neural engine..

 

 

I would take M3 Pro over M1 Max for sure. Your biggest Difference might be 14" vs. 16" however.

[maplepants]

The M3 Pro gets 74835 on Geekbench for Metal, and the M1 Max Studio I'm on right now got 101308. 

 

That's a real difference, but another thing to consider is how long you want the machine to last you. Right now, the oldest Apple designed CPU they currently support for a major OS is the 7 year A10 on iPadOS. They dropped support for the A9 this year.

 

They support iPads longer than they support phones, and so it's reasonable to guess that they'll support Macs longer than they support iPads. But it's safer to assume that Macs will get the same 8 year support cycle as iPad chips.

 

So, is 5 years of support from the M1 Max enough for you? You're a student so upgrade budgets could be tight. If it is, then save your cash and go for the M1 Max. If you think you'll want to daily drive this laptop after 2028, then get the M3 Pro as it'll probably be supported for 3 years longer than the M1 family.