It is extremely unlikely you’ll notice the difference between an 11 or 12 core CPU. The upcharge is for the SSD. You get 4 more GPU cores as well. If you don’t need the space, it’s really not worth the charge. How much space are you using now?
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Anyone buy M3 Max when they don't need it?
- Thread starter AVBeatMan
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180GB at the moment. I've always got 1TB but think the most I've got up to is just under 400GB.
Did you get the base 512Gb or the 1Tb one? What do you use it for?
I went with the base 512.
At work, Microsoft Teams calls, Excel, PowerPoint.
At home, recently I have been editing some old family videos in Final Cut and some photo editing in Affinity Photo.
Like I said, M2 Air was more than enough for what I do, but I needed to have that Space Black color.
If you’re already in the habit of offloading data, why waste 300 pounds? Just get the base model. That would be my recommendation. I only need 2TB because I use video in teaching and I teach 3 hours away from home. Having all my materials on the internal drive saves me from having something else to lose on a podium in a classroom somewhere, and saves wear and tear on fragile usb 3 cables and connectors. In your case, I’d highly recommend a base model or an Air.
If I had plenty of money sure. I have no problem with doing that. Or anyone else doing that. If they want to spend the money it's their prerogative.
Ha, totally. My main work machine is a 16" M3 Max, and I've recently replace my M2 Air (travel buddy) with a 14 M3 Max. Derp.
Do you feel any difference between M3 and M1 with your tasks?
Well, the M3 feels a bit faster, but that could be the "honeymoon" effect? My main worry is reports of the Max getting hot. Surely that's just under heavy workloads though?
You’ll enjoy your products more when you buy them for your own needs, rather than basing your purchasing decisions on Apple affiliated YouTube videos.
The M1 would’ve lasted you for many years, as will any variant of an M3 Mac.
M3 Max does run a bit hotter under heavy workloads but you’re not likely to experience that in your daily use. You already have the machine, so open all the applications you like to use and give it a test.
I did. I needed the higher amount of ram, but M3 Pro would have probably been fine.
I don't do any type of vid/pic editing of any kind but I have the 16" M3 Max.
Youtube, Twitch and other sites like that is my main entertainment and I could have 30+ taps open easy at any time so 48Gig of ram is nice to have rather than the 24gig maximum on the air which would do me fine but the 16" screen, speakers, heat sink, performance figures and so on with the M3Max on the 16" is good to know I have it lol
Youtube, Twitch and other sites like that is my main entertainment and I could have 30+ taps open easy at any time so 48Gig of ram is nice to have rather than the 24gig maximum on the air which would do me fine but the 16" screen, speakers, heat sink, performance figures and so on with the M3Max on the 16" is good to know I have it lol
Finally! Someone else similar to me. Glad I'm not alone 😂
I went from a maxed out 16" M1 Max (64 GB / 8 TB) to a maxed out 16" M3 Max (128 GB / 8 TB) for no good reason.
If you want and its within your means, why not. 🤙
Just buy what you are financially capable of buying. That's the answer to so many questions. You don't need a justify it for anyone online. Want the M3 Max for the heck of it? Can you afford it? By all means, do it!
I purchased the MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip and 12‑core CPU, 18‑core GPU, 18GB RAM with 1TB SSD storage - the stock config. I have the same use case as you, but wanted the Space Black, which is stunning! The icing on the cake was the cost, I got it for £1841 - nearly 30% off.
I've discovered after the M2 Air release almost all tech YouTubers are garbage. The only two that I saw that actually gave good reasonable reviews were Lisa from Mobile Tech Review (her analysis was spot on with my experience) and iJustine (which like her or hate her, her usage was spot on too for that product).
Too many reviewers just run benchmarks and any IT person worth their salt knows how utterly useless benchmarks actually are. If you went by most YouTubers you'd think the air couldn't handle anything but the most basic of tasks without overheating and throttling but that wasn't remotely true. I would run Houdini, Blender, Final Cut (exporting 4k video), Logic, Unity, Xcode, Godot, random video games, Motion, etc without a single hitch, hiccup, or "overheating".
For your use case, unfortunately you did overpay, the Air would have been perfect and thinner/lighter to carry around. The 14" M3 Max MacBook Pro is amazing, I do have one I just recently bought but only because the trade in on my M2 Air was so good and I wanted a bit more screen real estate without going to a 15 inch.
I also got the 14 M3 Max but I wanted more ram this time and more SSD for a longer future and the Max chip upgrade was not that much more. Also I plan on using Davinchi Resolve here and there as well as occasional photoshop and Lightroom. This M3 Max is 1.7x faster than my M1 Pro in CPU. Also I noticed that when editing video, having laptop open and Studio Display plugged in wasnt a super smooth experience on the M1 Pro so the Max is good if you want to plug in more screens at some point. Anyways I was upgrading Macs every 2 years and always getting the base ones since 2010. This time I got a max and will use it until it fails. But my main agenda was to get more ram and to switch to 14". If I already had a 14" M1 Pro with 32gb ram, I probably would not have upgraded but again, there is this slight lag with the Pro if using Mac screen and 5k display at same time. It's little quirks but I rather pay the extra $1000 for the max than to spend the next 5 years questioning myself and drooling over upgrades.
I think these Macs have reached a power level where I really cant benefit from more power. Even when editing video, I use 6k compressed files and they play smooth. In your case you didnt need the max and would have been fine with the Pro unless you platoon using 3-4 high resolution screens.