Review: Apple’s 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro crams Ultra-level speed into a laptop
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The M3 Max is such a little beast. Basically the power of my Mac Stdio M1 Ultra, which needs a massive heatsink. The M1 Ultra’s heatsink alone is close to the weight of an entire 14” M3 Max laptop. Pretty great progress!
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Balanced review, Andrew; I don't need one of these...but I want one.
But as you pointed out...the storage and RAM prices--my oh my.
Thanks for posting.
But as you pointed out...the storage and RAM prices--my oh my.
Thanks for posting.
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Are the laptop vs laptop comparisons run on battery, or on mains? In past generations, that has been a big differentiator vs AMD/Intel laptops, with Macs delivering the same performance either way vs Windows laptops dropping off dramatically.
My personal use case is almost exclusively on battery, so I'd find it useful to know what I'm seeing here.
My personal use case is almost exclusively on battery, so I'd find it useful to know what I'm seeing here.
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I preordered my M3, just the base version of the 14” but I feel it’ll have more than enough power for my needs. At $1999 I thought the price wasn’t bad given the fact that for a few hundred dollars more than a spec’d out M2 MBA I’m getting more ports and a faster chip.
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All plugged in, and all using default performance settings (so no High Power mode on Mac, no High Performance mode on PCs).
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Pretty impressive, as we all expected. Nice to see some AMD representation in the comparisons as well. Shows how Intel is trying to stay in the race by just pushing their CPUs well beyond their peak efficiency. Performance by sheer brute force leading to hot, loud, power hungry systems.
The single display output for the base M* is still ridiculous. My wife has an M1 work laptop (so save your "you should have bought a higher spec model" arguments, it wasn't her choice) and she wants to use multiple monitors but she can't. Meanwhile my lowly work XPS is driving three monitors. I couldn't do it.
The single display output for the base M* is still ridiculous. My wife has an M1 work laptop (so save your "you should have bought a higher spec model" arguments, it wasn't her choice) and she wants to use multiple monitors but she can't. Meanwhile my lowly work XPS is driving three monitors. I couldn't do it.
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Apple wants me to switch off my 2020 macintelbook, which still works great but any M series would be a big upgrade... and i REALLY want to... but they gotta fix this first:
It's the same thing that has held me off replacing my 2015 iMac at home with a new mini, studio, or iMac. To have the same 3TB internal storage I have now, it's like a 70-100% markup from the base model.
It's just not justifiable anymore, it's gotta be killing their uptake rates. Work would have bought me one recently except only 256GB SSD fit in their budget. I'll keep the slower laptop with the short battery life and the 2TB SSD, thanks.
It's the same thing that has held me off replacing my 2015 iMac at home with a new mini, studio, or iMac. To have the same 3TB internal storage I have now, it's like a 70-100% markup from the base model.
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Nice review! I do find it odd though, that despite a lot of talk about this being a great replacement for Intel Macs, they're completely absent in the benchmarks. But oh well, presumably they're getting smoked 
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Should be the same performance plugged in or not. At least that is how it is on my Air.
There's a "Low Power Mode" setting that you have to go and set to drop performance / save battery when not plugged in, but it's off by default. It can be handy but the battery life is SO good on Apple Silicon it just takes you insane battery life (for me ~2 full work days of work) to ludicrous battery life (I don't even run that mode because why).
It's nothing like the weird windows world where laptop performance and battery life sometimes feels entirely random / arbitrary.
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One suggestion for multi-monitors. Get a DisplayLink adapter, I have one for my work pc and it allows for an additional display. It works over USB so there is a performance hit - but it isn’t something I’ve ever noticed doing work things.
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I think at this point the "Should I replace my intel mac for apple silicon" is just an auto YES if you're at all inclined. The differences just don't need numbers anymoreNice review! I do find it odd though, that despite a lot of talk about this being a great replacement for Intel Macs, they're completely absent in the benchmarks. But oh well, presumably they're getting smoked
Granted if you don't "need" to... don't need to.
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Nothing on hand to test, unfortunately. But yeah, it's 10th-gen Intel laptop chips and two-gen-old mobile AMD graphics hardware, there's not really a comparison.Nice review! I do find it odd though, that despite a lot of talk about this being a great replacement for Intel Macs, they're completely absent in the benchmarks. But oh well, presumably they're getting smoked
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Even with bright Pro Motion screens, I miss the matte finished displays of yore as they mute reflections better.
BTW, looking at the last picture in the gallery, I couldn't help but feel Apple was mooning me.
Edit: ... or possibly Intel.
BTW, looking at the last picture in the gallery, I couldn't help but feel Apple was mooning me.
Edit: ... or possibly Intel.
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I would guess with the 20W extra power usage at max processing, the M3 will run hotter so more chance to hit the thermal limit if it is a long and intense task. Still more likely way better than and Intel based laptop.
A review test running on battery would be nice to have.
A review test running on battery would be nice to have.
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Thanks. A request for the future, then: can we get on-battery numbers in laptop reviews? For anyone who works on the go, knowing how much performance drops when unplugged matters a lot.
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I suspect the upgrade prices are doing more to disuade heavier duty PC users than Apple recognise. The M1 got me to make the jump for a utilty notebook, but my development machine is still a PC.
I keep going back to the apple site to look for that sweet spot that makes me feel like I've found great value. However the ram and ssd upgrade prices put me off every time. Now I'm thinking I can wait a year as perhaps m4 will be different. I'm not holding my breath though.
I keep going back to the apple site to look for that sweet spot that makes me feel like I've found great value. However the ram and ssd upgrade prices put me off every time. Now I'm thinking I can wait a year as perhaps m4 will be different. I'm not holding my breath though.
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Pretty sure there's not a single current M series mac that has use replacable RAM or storage anymore. They're either soldered to the boards, or linked via the on-board memory controller which doesn't allow replacement of the storage even if the chips themselves are on a separate stick.
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The m series storage is in all practicality all soldered to the board (from what I remember there are a few options that technically aren't in the mac studio series, but some software locks are in place to make this very annoying if not impossible to circumvent)
(... the comment right above mine is more correct)
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I think it's time for Tim Cook to tight a bit the belt and lower memory prices bit.
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Yep, I was looking at replacing a 2019 MBP that I know I'm going to have to replace sooner rather than later, but after speccing out a 16" MBP I ended up with a price close to $5000.
Can I afford it? Sure, especially with the 12-month 0% APR financing Apple provides through the Apple Card. Do I want to? ... Nope. So I'm going to hold out for another year and hope that maybe the next generation of MBPs will bring in the rumored OLED display. As the article says, we're getting close to the point where Intel Macs will no longer be supported.
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No. It's all soldered to the mainboard. You get what you get at time of purchase. An upgrade mean trashing the old system for a new one.
I thought Apple was pushing the be the "green" option.
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Never have I actually noticed the notch on my M1 MBP that I've had for 2 years (except when I played with it on day one). It truly does not matter.
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Then buy an M2 at a discounted price. Performance is still impressive... or wait until the M4 is released and then buy the M3 at a discounted price. It worked for me, although my upgrade cycle is every 5 years as I can wait or buy second with really good deals
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...and yes, nice review of an extremely impressive performance upgrade...
Nice to have included the Geekbench 5 results
Nice to have included the Geekbench 5 results
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Nothing compelling for me to upgrade my M1 Pro. I’d mostly just want more memory, and I can get 4 more GB for like $400 more than I paid for my current machine. Plus the M1 is scary fast enough that I have no workload that it can’t handle.
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I upgraded from one of the last Intel MBP 13" to a M1 Max MBP 14". Sure, I upgraded to a model one or two tiers above, but the difference in everyday usage made me wonder how we put up with Intel for so long. It's hard to go back to jet-engine-sounding laptops after knowing it doesn't have to be that way.Nice review! I do find it odd though, that despite a lot of talk about this being a great replacement for Intel Macs, they're completely absent in the benchmarks. But oh well, presumably they're getting smoked
That said, I have no plans to upgrade mine not only because M1 Max's performance is still more than I need, but also because Apple's nickel and diming is pretty egregious. The base M3 still only supporting one external display, the way-too-low base specs and the cost of upgrading those paltry specs are actively anti-consumer decisions, and the worst part is that they can absolutely get away with it.
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Yeah the RAM and storage upgrade premium has always been a bit high (industry wide -not just from Apple), but...
With RAM and storage currently so low...
With the starting/minimum RAM on these systems being so small...
With that RAM being shared video+system memory...
With these things being entirely unupgradable...
This does seem especially galling and really put me off even considering the current lineup - at least for a personal purchase (and prices me out of them with how I'd want to configure them). Wouldn't say ''no' to getting one from work , but ouch. Them touting the gaming and 3d capabilities on systems that default to 8GB shared also seems a bit iffy to me. If 8GB or less of dedicated VRAM is already being talked about as giving desktop graphic cards a short shelf-life/retirement horizon, having that little shared (even if dynamic allocation is excellent) seems like it's setting people up for disappointment and creating some landfill fodder...
Am still very happy the M1-M3 have spurred ARM development beyond the Mac-o-sphere though.
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Yes, but the test MBP's built-in storage is 8TB, which also must be something of a record (or close to it). How many people can or do buy that much drive capacity in a laptop? (Especially at Apple's prices...)
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ubercurmudgeon
Ars Tribunus Militum
I've had my M1 MBP almost as long, and the notch still bugs me on a daily basis. Especially when I use software with a toolbar, and I momentarily lose the mouse pointer behind the notch when I move it to click an icon just below. Is it enough to outweigh nearly everything else about the hardware which is excellent? No, of course not. But it is very much a YMMV issue.
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Yes, please update the article accordingly!
The charts should actually include both plugged-in and battery-based results for each laptop! Also battery life.
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You may want to fix the typo of "42faster" which, at the rate things are going, will probably be the title of a future film in the Fast & Furious franchise.
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Probably not relevant for most, but it is worth mentionning that Macs now use unified memory.
RAM is shared with the GPU. You can run LLMs on your macs without a dedicated graphics card using Llama CPP.
A dedicated GPU with 64GB RAM would probably cost as much as the the base RAM Apple is charging for.
RAM is shared with the GPU. You can run LLMs on your macs without a dedicated graphics card using Llama CPP.
A dedicated GPU with 64GB RAM would probably cost as much as the the base RAM Apple is charging for.
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