Why I Returned My MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Max)

[@JustJoshTech]

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[@NavyBluesandShoes]

I bought a base M3 Max 14’ coming from a 2016 intel MacBook Pro. I definitely feel the power and performance and won’t need to upgrade for at least 6-7 years.

[@LibreGlider]

This is the way, you don't need to update every year or two or three, but content creators need content.

[@RastaHenkie]

@@LibreGliderLol that depends on what you use it for. But got luck keeping your SSD alive that long or getting it repaired.

[@nnnnnn3647]

This is the stupidest video I've ever seen. Why do you expect a big jump in performance after a year? Currently, major changes will be visible every 5, maybe 10 years. The current MBP models are for people who still work on Intel Macs.

[@nicosoftnt]

​@@nnnnnn3647Agreed, they are basically saying that the M1 laptops are not useful anymore, even the M1 Max, hard to take this seriously. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the market changes once other Linux laptops show up with ARM processors and upgradable ram and ssds, and for less than half the Apple price... Let's see how that goes.

[@johnmoore1495]

@@nnnnnn3647I mean considering the cost of the Max models I would expect a significant jump every year. But it’s Apple so you’re not going to get that in the real world. If you are running a business though it can definitely make sense to continually upgrade if it actually will make a difference in time since you’ll be able to write it off while also saving man hours. But that’s a small minority of buyers.

[@blueeyednick]

We're waiting on the "Why buying a laptop SUCKS in 2024" video.

[@JustJoshTech]

Ha ha! Glad to see you have been watching that series

[@drishalballaney6590]

Ngl this year the only significant upgrade was Intel going from iris xe to arc, the cpu as a whole is same as 13th gen iirc

[@MaiElizabeth]

Except for anyone buying a good laptop from 2023 as his/her first laptop

[@JustJoshTech]

True@@MaiElizabeth

[@LazyGrayF0x]

lol

[@bobbydemondukes]

Love my 16 M3 Max. Upgraded to 128GB and 8TB. Wanted to be safe. So far daily E-Mails and KZbin are running fairly smooth. Might push it and try Office Word this week. Glad I upgraded. Don’t want any lag. Wouldn’t use these machines for much more than the above tbh.

[@JustJoshTech]

lol

[@tullyriverquail]

You're silly

[@chocoloco9985]

Probably sarcasm, but I upgraded to the 128gb and 2 tb version and yes, what you said is absolutely true. At times had a nightmare experience on the M1 8bg ram Air

[@ILLAILLS]

😂😂😂

[@bencekaposzta8388]

Just a few points of distinction: 1. The beginning of the video suggests there was a fundamental performance issue with the M3 Max, leading you to return your purchase. However, this conclusion was drawn after testing it with only one video editing program (Adobe Premiere). If you're making suggestions for video editors, it would make more sense to take the time and test other popular video editing programs as well (Davinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro). Doing so would improve the quality of this video by providing more relevant information. 2. It's one thing that I wouldn't call an almost 20% improvement in Single-Core speed "a tiny bit faster" - Intel needed 3 years to achieve that back in the 2010s - but I guess the 65% Multi-Core performance gain could also have been worthy of mentioning/highlighting, just to get a more accurate picture of these chips' capabilities. Regardless, I think the conclusion is right: one should always consider their specific use cases and current setup before making any purchases, especially pricey ones, like this one. Thanks for the video, it's been food for thought.

[@Karina-rp4to]

Hi! So between an M2 Max with 32GB RAM 12CPU and 38GPU 400GB bandwidth and the M3 Max 36GB RAM 14CPU and 30GPU 300 GB/sec bandwidth, for video editing with premiere. What's better?

[@harsimran1]

M2 Max@@Karina-rp4to

[@PhyrexJ]

The M3 in the end. But the question is more about the actual practical benefits compared to the costs. You might pay 20% more for an incremental perfomance increase. That's something you have to consider for yourself.@@Karina-rp4to

[@johnmoore1495]

I think he made it pretty clear he was demonstrating why it wasn’t worth it for *him* by testing *his* workflow, which is fair.

[@bencekaposzta8388]

​@@johnmoore1495He said his use case was video editing at 0:15: "for my use case which for this laptop is video editing", which is a generic use case in my opinion. That was the basis of my original comment.

[@HamedAlgabbani]

Apple won't be happy about this video lol

[@victorc777]

Agreed! I have an M1 Pro MacBook that has been my daily driver for awhile, but I do hate having to wait so long for renders, batch photo processing, etc. I _was_ going to upgrade to the M3 Max MacBook but decided to take advantage of the steep refurbished discounts and get a used M2 Ultra Mac Studio and keep my M1 Pro for mobility. I don't render videos or do large processing jobs on the go anyways, and for the same cost of an M3 Max MacBook, the Mac Studio was a no brainer for me.

[@simonbright2975]

How did it go? Is the purchase worth it?

[@JarrodsTech]

Taking my M2 Max to CES for video editing, glad to hear I don't need M3 😅

[@Guwapo77]

I’m certain you knew that before this video. What astronomical shift would happen in one M series generation?

[@Totland.pictures]

I have a 16" M2 Max with 32 Gigs and on a timeline where it stutters, my 16" M3 Max with 64 gigs plays it back smooth. That's valuable for my workflow.

[@Stopreadingmyusername23]

I got the 128gb ram model, absolutely no problems/slowdowns whatsoever so far. haven't even used swap or restarted my Mac since I got it. Absolutely worth it for my peace of mind

[@justahugenerd1278]

Okay but what are you doing that needs 128 gb of ram?? 😂

[@CE77777]

Yh ima wish your MAC a 20 year life-span anniversary ahead of time lol 😂

[@saturnotaku]

I tried both the 14-inch and 16-inch M3 Max. The former had horrible fan noise even when doing only modestly intensive tasks. The latter was also much louder and hotter-feeling than I expected. I'm instead using the 14-inch M3 Pro with 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU. While there is a significant performance hit versus the Max, it's a compromise I'm willing to make for a laptop that is much quieter and cooler to the touch.

[@tyestrains]

Apple has been doing constant updates with software and our Max is not hot at all. Runs at 70c at most hard hitting tasks.

[@stanchan]

Upgrading from M2 to M3 Max 128GB, just because I’m working on spatial with Vision Pro in 2 weeks. Also doing Resolve editing on it. I too am writing it off as a business expense.

[@PeterbFree]

I have observed that the majority of reviewers seem to agree with your findings, including MKHB. This is a valuable video with an important point: don’t upgrade unless your use case will definitively benefit from the expense. Your own example is a valuable case in point

[@AllgoodthingsTv]

This was one of the best videos I've seen on this topic and I watch a lot of Mac reviewers. I too bought the M3 MacBook Pro Max w/ 48GB of RAM, coming from an M1 MacBook Pro. I was specifically concerned with not being able to capably handle the 8K video out of the Canon R5. I watched a video about the M2 Max applying various filters and effects on 4K video from the R5 and thought, "The M3 has to be better?" But the problem is, my main hiccup in video editing is in navigating around FCPX UI, grabbing video and placing it in the timeline, scrubbing, etc. With 8K video, I still occasionally saw the spinning beach ball undertaking these tasks with the M3! Highly disappointing.

[@CanaldeAitor]

You finally convinced me to not doing the wrong choice of getting and M3 Max due the lack of memory band, just for coding. I'm fully going for the M3 Pro 12cores'. Than you!

[@bambinone]

FWIW, I am seeing a huge improvement in C# project build times moving from M1 Pro (8+2) to M3 Max (10+4).

[@JustJoshTech]

Yep i'm not surprised at all. M1 to M3 is a huge boost in single-core performance

[@scottdpeterstv]

This was always meant to convert gamers, 3d professionals, game developers and architects from Windows to Mac. Not video editors already using an M series Mac. The Scary Fast event made that pretty clear since the major focus was on the new GPU architecture, mesh shading and long awaited support for hardware accelerated raytracing. The amount of KZbin creatives shocked the creative sphere sometimes lands outside of amature content creation using DaVinci Resolve is insufferable at this point. Not everything is for you always.

[@NicholasKiersey]

My 14” M1 Pro chip w/ 16GB was bottlenecking on certain tasks. This year had option of educational pricing. Goal was a new machine with more RAM. The M3 Pro 32GB looked great for me, but for just a little bit more could get the lower end Max. It munches larger files. So far, I’m impressed.

[@mikaelbiilmann6826]

The “for just a little more..” is what Apple is aiming for by nerfing certain models so people have to pay more to get a little bit more.

[@johnmoore1495]

@@mikaelbiilmann6826yep literally the entire Mac product stack is artificially priced around you starting at the base model and upgrading yourself into a much more expensive model.

[@alex.muntean]

Upgraded to the 16 inch M3 Max MBP (16/40, 128 GB ram, 4TB ssd) from the 2019 16 inch i9 2.4 Ghz MBP (64GB ram, 2TB ssd) and even though the intel one held it's own in Davinci Resolve, the M3 Max is noticeably better and for a professional who edits and color grades videos for a living that performance boost is important. Also, I am in love with the battery life of this laptop. I don't know about how optimized Premiere is, but Davinci Resolve works great. Photoshop and LR too. I tried to save an image and didn't even see the render bar. Blazing fast. One thing though, Google Chrome is super laggy on the M-series Macbook. Safari doesn't have these issues, but Chrome is my browser of choice, at least on the laptop so it can get a bit annoying. I hope Google optimizes it.

[@Leynad778]

I've switched to Firefox few years back and was easier than I thought because Firefox is basically a Chrome-clone that also imports all Passwords and stuff. What certainly is better in Firefox: ad block and playing YT in the background still works without membership.

[@truthja]

Brave. The only browser to use.

[@TerrenceMcGinnis]

@@Leynad778 You have that backwards. Chrome is a Firefox clone.

[@tullyriverquail]

I hope Google stays far far away from my MBP. Brave & Firefox are the only browsers I use, and DuckDuckGo for search comparisons. Google can take a flying leap off the Meta building for all I care.

[@dksa8085]

Your content is insanely helpful and super well made. Thank you for this. You just saved me thousands of dollars during a hard time financially where I NEED a computer upgrade. I would love if you added some audio processing tests for the music producers and audio engineers out there! I’d be happy to help on what kinds of benchmarks/parameters to measure or reference some other creators who do similar!

[@AboutHouseMusic]

Yes, please.

[@AndrewReitze]

Right now I'm so torn, I recently had to make a switch. Had the MBP 2018 i7 maxed for the time. It held it's own. I then, went for an Alienware M16 i7 16ram rtx 4070 because I'm doing a lot of video editing, davinci resolve. But windows was so buggy. I went windows for budget reasons. But I was loosing so much time from formatting, fixing issues that I just went to Best Buy to return it and bought the M3 pro MBP 16" w/18ram cause it was what they had available. I got home to start editing right away, late for a project. At first I was in love. Far superior to the alienware, battery life is amazing. But rendering through my timeline has been lagging. Waiting for changes to take place. Not crazy bad, but annoying. I'm not a professional, but I do work in this as a marketer and produce youtube videos weekly. I'm having a hard time justifying the budget, but seeing the 150/mb bandwidth issue, I'm understanding my problems. I'm so torn cause I'm not sure I can justify the change, even for the M2 Max that would be at least another maybe $800 more (I got my m3Pro on sale for $2.129). The M3 Max is just so out of my range now. What to do? Any recommendations? Suck it up or return and try to find the M2 Max?

[@ant4686]

Josh, will you review Dell XPS 14 and 16 laptops? Would love to hear your thoughts.

[@JustJoshTech]

Yes. I'm writing that script this evening actually

[@50450720]

Why are you using Premier on a macbook??? Fcp is optimised for mac machines. Honestly, try shooting in prores and edit in fcp to see what the macbook can really do. What your doing is buying a Farari and running it on diesel !!!

[@i-Consume-Only-Useful-Content]

How premiere pro assets are easily accessible like on envato you get tens and thousands of templates for editing for premier b after effects where davinci apple final cut doesn't have much so most people only gonna use premiere

[@scavanger1000]

Me when I think I need to buy every new laptop, this is just as dumb as buying the newest iPhone as soon as its released

[@jaredweiman2987]

I bought one of these because I traded in my M1 iMac several years ago to help pay for a proper gaming rig. I needed a laptop as time went on so I settled on an M3 Pro. I don't regret it, but I probably would if I'd jumped from a generation that was immediately prior to it.

[@CozyMoose]

You're not alone -- sending my M3 Max back, too. Just not worth it. Very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the new Dell XPS 14/16 laptops and always appreciate your honest takes on tech.

[@lhakammedia]

You said, You have 2 degrees and 20 years of experience in tech world. "Thank you so much for sharing the truth and using your wisdom to help people like us. It really means a lot. Now I have a question. I've been using an iMac from 2014, and I want to upgrade my computer. I used to be an independent filmmaker 10 years ago before I left everything behind. Now, technology has advanced so much that it is very difficult to catch up. Finally, I realized that everything is digitized and social media has become a part of life. Now I'm upgrading my gear and editing computer. I have a budget, but saving money is a smart way to navigate in this critical world. Should I go for the refurbished 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Max chip, which costs $2,800, or should I go for the new MX3 version?" please put some light on my ignorant mind.

[@abdurrahmankhan129]

I’m coming from the 13” M1 MBP with 16/1tb. I’m looking to get one of the 16” M3 models from Best Buy since I have a gift card from them. I’m hoping to start learning how to code. I’m also planning on running windows 11 with parallels so I can do some gaming. I love Macs and I really don’t want a windows laptop. Some of the games I played made my M1 get a little warm and sometimes I can barely hear the fan so the airs are out. The 16” M3 pro chips only have 512 on the storage and the only way to get 1tb is to get the max chip which is about $3300 at Best Buy on sale. I’m thinking if it would be better to get the 16” M3 pro chip with 36gb ram and 512gb ssd so I wouldn’t have to worry about memory swap. I’m 63 now so I might have to look at future upgrading it. Any suggestions or advice? Keeping the M1 MBP is out of the question because it’s traded in to Best Buy for the gift card. Sorry for the long text.

[@LearningAndGrowingInLife]

Hi Josh, will you review the new zenbook 14 2024 OLED? I believe zenbooks were one of the laptops you recommended last year. Wondering if that's still the case for this one?

[@mondotv4216]

Interesting Josh - I'm using an M1 Pro Max with 32GB RAM and I'm not experiencing the slow render times. Pretty sure we'd be using similar media - Sony FX9, FX6, FX3, A7S3, the odd bit of DJI, 4K SLOG3 both using PP. Some reasonably complicated sequences with grades, multiple supers and captions. Admittedly most of the time I'm rendering to 1080P but if anything that's more work for the encoder to do. Perhaps we should talk?

[@tyestrains]

Premiere has horrible codec support for hardware encoding/decoding. It’s a total joke on Apple Silicon. Use Resolve, problems go away. But only on the newer systems. The M1 eh… it’s got lots of issues.

[@ompatil9831]

Keep it UP JOSH! your content is always great to watch.

[@JustJoshTech]

Thanks

[@wlcrutch]

Damn…You even explain the reality of the tax write-off. I love it! You are the only NO BS reviewer out there!

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

Sure it's a tax write off, but no one should just go buy one or anything just because you can write it off. If you don't really need it don't buy it.

[@TheMezaFamily]

My old apple 16” laptop is from Jan 2016

[@abdurrahmankhan129]

You said you returned this model because the M3 Max with 36gb was better. Best Buy now has the 16” M3 Max MacBooks for the same price. Both are on sale for $3000. $500 off on 36 ram and $1000 off on 48 ram. Which do you suggest for learning to code and gaming? I’m without a MacBook at this time but I have the 13” M4 iPad Pro.

[@usimortis1940]

I don’t have a laptop and want a powerful one. M3 pro 36gb 1tb is a good choice no?

[@kirolusmedhat1547]

I don't think the M2 chip owners are the target customers of Apple, not even the M1 customers. This is why your video makes sense but that doesn't mean that the M3 is a bad chip. You are just not the target customer of the M3.

[@dougnulton]

Why buying a laptop SUCKS in 2369

[@mb-watches]

Thanks for this one. Did find an M2 Max for good discount. Was on the fence for M3 but as I do just video editing and writing for my website I ordered the M2 Max, also due to your take in this vid .

[@Techno_Rama]

This is just my personal opinion from my own limited experience, Josh... i just gave up an m1 max macbook pro 32gb for a m3 max 128gb. I also tested it against a 4090 i9 14900k 192gb desktop pc i have, and i can tell you they are virtually identical in exporting times and that's in 8k 60fps. Your issue is adobe premiere pro likely in general and being as smart as you are, you know that with your tax break you likely should be using an m2 ultra if you cant wait for m3 ultra as they have double the encoders/decoders of max meaning 4x the pro. What made you think exporting with same number of hardware decoders/encoders and media engine was going to be better for h265/264/prores?

[@JustJoshTech]

Ah, let me clarify one thing.... and I'm going to include this in future videos... I insist everyone here uses laptops for everything. The reason is... I want us to give you reviews that are based on real hands on use of the laptops. Not just testing a laptop for the purpose of making a video. That is why we don't use desktops here for performance tasks. I hope that makes sense

[@Techno_Rama]

@@JustJoshTech i can understand that, then probably best to stick with m2 max for your use case if m3 max not of any benefit. Wish you well and agree the fans are a little more touchy on m3 max but less so in automatic mode vs high power. Keep up the good videos.

[@metroscap]

What if you're coming from a 2012 Retina MBP?

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

I can't believe anyone by now wouldn't know that Apple doesn't expect anyone to upgrade from one generation to the next generation. That's not how it works. Sure the M3's may have some features for specific work flows, but in general Apple expects you to skip 2-3 or even maybe 4 generations. You pay more for something that is designed to last for years to come.

[@rustyschackleford5800]

I don't think the Shareholders would agree with you...$$$$$$

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

I am a shareholder and I think their dividends could be better too. @@rustyschackleford5800

[@MrKar18]

Great point Josh! Buy for the use case and not for FOMO and showoff. But then, if it was software development primary and video editing secondary, this wouldn't be a problem? Also did you replace it with any other laptop?

[@thecdant]

I'll be upgrading from a 2016 MBP and the heaviest software I'll use is Figma & Adobe PS. Would M3 Pro be the better choice over Max?

[@karmatraining]

You say "Rendering a video" but don't provide which codec you were using, what settings for the codec etc. There is a huge variety of different performance in codecs. For example, the Apple codecs can be hardware accelerated and be literally orders of magnitude faster than software codecs, which will burn your laptop to a crisp. I do still use software codecs sometimes as the provide slightly better quality but I accept that I'm going to turn my laptop into a toaster oven to do so, it's almost as bad as mining bitcoin.

[@djp_video]

For what it's worth, I've been doing benchmarking on the M3 MacBook Pro ($2000 M3 Pro version) against an Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 in Premiere Pro (also $2000), and the Asus is doubling the performance of the Mac. Renders are literally taking half as long.

[@jameshuegli3534]

Something’s not right there. Maybe it’s not using the media encoding engines?

[@djp_video]

@@jameshuegli3534It definitely is; it's far slower with it disabled. But the RTX 4060 is faster than the GPU in the M3 Pro, so the performance margin is expected. I have a standard test video project that I use (kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3e8fYlta8-LhrM). I've rendered it hundreds of times now. It's a good sampling of what a "typical" KZbin project might be: 35 minute 4K timeline, 4K ProRes source footage, multiple layers through much of it, occasional scaled clips, multiple transitions, several animated lower thirds, a LUT applied across the whole timeline. It takes about 43 minutes to render on the M3 Pro, but just 21 minutes on the Asus StudioBook 16 with 13980HX and RTX 4060. On my desktop PCs: 3950X with RTX 2080 does it in 11 minutes; 8 minutes on my 13900K with 4070, or 35 minutes on i5 8600 or 3600X with RTX 2060. My M1 Mac Mini takes just under 3 hours, and the M2 MacBook Air takes about 2 hours. Don't even ask how long the Intel-based Macs take ;)

[@definingslawek4731]

Is that because the dGPU in the windows laptop is more than twice as fast? I'm fairly sure the cpu in m3 pro is better than any windows laptop available atm considering I tested its single core to be neck and neck with the top desktop chip available, i9 14900k and that's desktop watercooled hundreds of watts.

[@djp_video]

@@definingslawek4731While the M1 was faster than most Intel processors for single core when it came out, Intel has made huge strides in improving their chips, while the M2 and M3 are basically minor iterations. Most Intel processors i5 and higher these days are notably faster than Apple Silicon. But the big difference here is due to the GPU. The GPU in the M series just isn't very fast. Even a mobile RTX 4060 outperforms it substantially.

[@ak_hoops]

My question for you: why did you get an M3 after owning a M2?? (I know this was answered, but still)

[@MrTaserface]

I have been thinking of upgrading from a base level windows laptop to a MacBook. Watching your views on M2 and M3 is educating me about macs. I will most likely get an M3 Air when it comes out. Excited

[@ravoid36]

15" air is where its at right now. I doubt the m3 15" will have any big difference with the current m2 version

[@ChiefBrianIrons]

Watch Louis Rossman he will explain how poorly designed and engineered apple laptops are. Unless you have money to burn buy one.

[@nikorulando6125]

I want upgrade my old PC (Ryzen 5 1600 & GTX 1070) to PC who can handle Video Editing 4K 4:2:2 10 Bit H.265 without Proxies on premiere pro or davinci resolve Can you advise me, which better should i buy? Windows PC that have Intel i7 14700k & RTX 4060 OR Mac Studio M2 Max? Because the price really similar in my country, and for game i just play DOTA2, Valorant, and other light games. (maybe i still use old PC for the gaming)

[@stinkleaf]

Which one is more energy efficient in low power mode?

[@Guwapo77]

I bought the M3 Max 40, and I can already tell I won’t buy another until the M10.

[@batmanonholiday4477]

what kind of videos do you do that make your M2 max laggy? Is it 4k that causes such issues? I don't see you doing any crazy effects.

[@SneakyCaleb]

I’ve been saying this for a while now. 99% of people do not need to upgrade their laptops every year. 90% of people don’t need to upgrade their laptops every few years. Most people would still be fine with an M1 chip as that can do everything.

[@Tigerex966]

Apple needs to allow ssd and memory upgrades if rhey want these to sell well at these insane prices

[@hishamosman4341]

Macs is the Rolls Royce for laptops Bro. normal folks like us only drives a Toyota.😀😀😀😀

[@Tigerex966]

@@hishamosman4341 you can customize everything on a rolls before and after purchase there are no engineered lockouts ... One of the reasons I loved apple was they were premium because they allowed huge ram and SSD upgrades after purchase had tons of ports ir blaster battery light easy diy repair indicator digital and analogue out and in LCD status lights egpu Linux or Windows OS native That made them premium .. now they are kia and cost cut aside from the metal body.

[@davidoeberto]

Great video with a no BS approach. I'm a PP video editor needing to upgrade from an Intel Macbook Pro and confused by one point: If your M2 Max 32GB laptop is laggy, dropping frames and slow to render and the M3 is not worth the upgrade, what's the solution? In hindsight, should you have purchased more RAM on the M2 Max? Thanks for any tips

[@zerocal76]

The solution is always to build or order a PC/rig w/ a high-end GPU 😀 Unless of course you need the portability..

[@davidoeberto]

@@zerocal76 Lots of PC options (it seems) but I'm firmly entrenched in Mac at this point. @JustJoshTech What was your final solution to your laggy M2 MAX?

[@johnmoore1495]

Glad to see you being honest. We need pressure on Apple so they actually improve their products for the user rather than just showing vague graphs and slapping a new label on something that hasn’t changed much.

[@DeyanKostov]

A question: Why edit on a laptop? You are in a studio, not on the road. Make an editing workstation for less money, that you configure however you want. And upgrade, when your needs change. Laptops are for consuming, for browsing the net and watching movies. Tablets are even better for consuming media and text. For serious creative work, get a powerful computer with a giant ergonomic screen or three, ergonomic keyboard that "tocks" :) and power to dim the lights when it revs. :)

[@JustJoshTech]

Because our focus is on reviewing laptops. The best way we can do that is to use them ourselves. If we spend 90% of the time on a desktop and 10% of our time just testing a laptop... it won't make the laptop review real and insightful

[@DeyanKostov]

@@JustJoshTech Ok, gotcha.

[@Our.Father.Arts.in.Heaven]

I didn't return my Maxbook and I'm not disappointed.

[@FatherRayRay]

As a video editor upgrading from the final intel mac version, this is the most informative video I've seen on this topic. Thanks Josh

[@lacybeam7121]

Need Advice! I am considering buying the 14 inch MacBook Pro 18gb memory 512 storage. Would this be sufficient for playing Mac games (I know there aren’t many😂) such as resident evil, streaming shows (Netflix, Hulu, etc), and using spreadsheets?

[@Ultrajamz]

Considering M3 Pro 14” - because I’m considering doing some ios development and dont own a mac… but man part of me wonders if a m3 air in a few months will be just fine??… many downsides to the airs though.

[@xo_you_know9983]

If the tasks you want are not processor intensive (i,e. Fans won't kick in) and you don't want high performance or luxury screen/ports, the Air may be fine.

[@tanthokg]

Depends on how far you will persue that path. From my experience, for mobile development in general, you need more RAM than processing power. So M1 Pro or M2 Pro would be enough, but you might want to consider 32GB of memory. But if the budget is tight, then an Air is still really good for ios development. One downside is the fan, but the Pros don't even kick off the fan even when the temp is 80C. Another downside is the maximum external display, if you have more than one then you must have a Mx Pro.

[@coffeeandchocolategames]

Agree! Think like an IT purchasing manager when you buy capital assets --> Only upgrade when your old tech is totally worn out and unusable, or if there's a generational improvement that makes it worth your while to get the new tech. FOMO is not a reason to buy a new capital asset.... Good enough is good enough! My main machine is a Mac mini i7 2018, bought refurb'd for $1000, upgraded to 64GB RAM, and then upgraded with a used eGPU I got from eBay for $200. Sure, plenty of faster machines but it suits our needs, and until our channel explodes in views and I can quit my day job, it does the job just fine for rendering.... We even have Macs from 2012-13 that are still doing light duty as camera and screen capture devices, saving to NAS. They still work, nothing wrong with 'em!

[@laszlovarga_]

I live in the Netherlands and while the cheapest m1 macbook pro 14 costs 1700 euros refurbished, the brand new 14 inch m3 macbook pro costs 2400 euros in general but i have seen deals for 2250..... WHAAAAT?????????????????

[@mac24x7]

I purchased the mb3pro 11/14 18/512 and I am really wondering if I should return it to get the mb3max 14/30 36/1024 instead.

[@definingslawek4731]

I saw a different video where the presenter alledges that the media engine in the m3 series is roughly twice as fast as the media engine in the m2 series as in his tests, the m3 pro was exporting faster than m2 max despite m2 max having dual media engines. I can't remember who made that video but I'll have a look. It's very surprising to me that his results are not congruent with yours.

[@TheMezaFamily]

I hope I get a response before this day gets started. I bought the 14inch MacBookPro M3Max with the following specs! 14 Core CPU, 30 Core GPU, 36GB of unified memory. I believe = max 300GB/‘s memory bandwidth. My question is this.,. I will ONLY use this laptop for editing 1080p and some 4k files (drone footage) maybe some 4k DSLR footage as well with a lot of 3rd party plug in’s for Final Cut Pro X like Titles, Generators, Effects and transitioning etc… should I return this product and upgrade to 64 GB of unified memory with 16 core CPU and 40core GPU? Which by the way would = Max 400GB/s memory bandwidth! OH and does 14” vs 16” make a difference with the same exact specs? Thank you in advance.

[@beace4436]

should i buy an M2 Air 16gb / 512gb now or wait for the M3 Air. My main use case is programming

[@sifatulrabbi1967]

Makes absolute sense. I really am grateful for this great review. Buying a laptop is getting very complicated day by day.

[@digitalrebel7718]

I am wondering if Adobe Premiere has has been fully maximized for the NEW M3 chips. These chips are still pretty new after all…

[@ogikay7056]

My m1 macbook pro 16 still works like the first day. Macs are the best laptops you can get if your apps support it.

[@mikehawk7307]

I got the 15in MacBook M2 Air. And it will be my last MacBook. They are so high priced that they do not have a reason to charge so much for their products. Computer parts have dropped like a rock and they are still charging an arm and a leg for those laptops.

[@Carlos_Lenz]

This is not my use case as I’m a sw eng but I must congratulate you: You do the best reviews period, in depth while understandable to a wider audience so I can share them when people ask for recommendations. Thank you.

[@aymaejaz6448]

Although it wasn't a good feeling , Im glad I returned my M3 max after watching this and sticking to M2 Max for video editing so this is relatable. Thank you. It will be interesting to see what apple will bring out in the future that may be worth upgrading on, let's see.

[@FhargaZ]

Louis rossmann enter the chat:" it was expected" 😂

[@prima6170]

Everyone should return their MacBook Pros, and switch to Linux. Linux is sooo much better.

[@garciajero]

from all the apple reviews i watch trying to get a new one and abandon linux , this guy makes the most interesting and down to the point reviews on youtube. Thanks for keeping it real , :wave: from England

[@petersimplife]

From what I hear these were the very first 3 nanometer chips produced, apple was desperate to get them out first, apparently not super optimized yet so it’s better to wait for the M4.

[@Watchandlearn91]

As always it’s a case of whether you need a new laptop now. If you do, these chips are great. So were last year’s and so will next year’s. If you don’t need a new laptop may as well hold off. If you feel your current one is slowing you down in your ability to make money or annoying you, time to upgrade. The only time I say hold off is if you have a machine that at least works and it is obvious that Apple is a few weeks away from a new drop as then you will save money if you go with the current model or you will get a better model for the same price.

[@hjwtest7050]

Thanks for the video, really informative. Can I ask how you are able to return it? All the laptops I buy online have come from sellers who refuse returns once you’ve logged in. I’m in the UK.

[@DantonMonteiroconsultor]

I found someone who can help me :) I have a cruel doubt here: Mac Studio M2 Max (entry $1999) or Macbook Pro M3 Pro (up to 12 CPU cores and 36GB memory) I work with video redering and photo editing. Can you help me?

[@kabauny]

There are very few use cases for M3 Max. An average consumer, will be fine with a M1 macbook air. When it dies, then buy a new one.

[@mtnmanchad]

If you come from a Apple Powerbook PRO thats 6 years old going to the M3 Max is a huge upgrade

[@mxynx]

My M1 Max with 64Gb RAM and 2TB still going strong!!

[@steffdia7080]

1. Buy M3 Max and don't buy M4 Max and buy later M5 Max new design. 2. Buy M4 Max and don't buy M3 Max/M5 Max and buy later M6 Max.

[@roskell95]

I upgraded from 2019 MBP i9 AMD 5500m 64gb to the M3 Max 16c 64gb and I notice a huge huge difference, but I feel there hasn't been a massive leap even from M1 to M3 than there was going from Intel tp Apple Silicon

[@jamiermathlin]

If you want a 4x improvnent in video editing performance, use an Ultra chip with 4 media engines and also use Final Cut pro, with my M2 Ultra Mac Studio 64GB Ram, a 60min 4K video can be exported in 6-8mins for single pass or 12-14mins for two passes. oh, and I never see a single dropped frame during editing. If speed and smoothness are the most important thing, this is the way to go !

[@saipavanavisetty5584]

Hello Josh , can you please suggest laptop (PC) for music production and occasional video editing

[@centuriomacro9787]

Great video. Choosing the right laptop really depends on ones personal needs, and on so many more factors than CPU performance. And sometimes that means that the previous generation is more fitting than the new one.

[@aelaan12]

If they come out with the M4 this year, I am seriously going to scream. We do not need minor upgrades each year to replace the whole laptop. Just allow us to replace the core (motherboard), but wait that will never happen. This is why I still like working on my Mac, but I have what I have (M2 Max) and that is it. Not going to replace it anytime soon. With the Canadian dollar being at an all-time low against the USA Greenback, there is no way people can keep affording these laptops. Business maybe, but the enthusiast that does some photo editing and some video editing... not worth it anymore. The alternative is, however, not really an option either so I am going to use the laptop for lighter duties and my beast of a desktop for hobby work.

[@avcreations2494]

It's funny to hear you say a render can actually take 20 minutes. I've been editing since the early days of digital and used to endure multi day renders, regular crashing and lip sync issues.

[@kostaspapadopoulos.]

@just josh for the graphic designers this laptop is a good?

[@Ronniezim]

It takes me like 6 hours to render a video on my 2019 MacBook Pro hahaha. Just picked up an M3pro I’m excited to see the improvement

[@JKPOrigins]

I canceled my maxed out M3 Max & got a refurbished M1 Max 24 core 32GB ram 4TB for $2600 😎 I agree, for animation, M3 Max all the way, for editing only, the M1 Max/M2 Max is fine. I think M1 Max is better cause it’s cheaper so win win

[@muhammad-bin-american]

This is the kind of videos I like to watch. Valuable information for the consumer and certainly not brand worshiping.

[@lxndrnns]

Became a fan of this channel, like your approach. Can I have your opinion on laptop I should buy? I am a math tutor, and don't really need a lot of power, but I want something with a good screen, keyboard and probably speakers. That's gonna be a laptop for 3-5 years. I considered a mac pro 14 m3 16/512 but saw your videos on windows models and it got me thinking 🤔. I use some programs for tutoring and PowerPoint. Wanna try macos, but is it worth it?

[@JustJoshTech]

Any of the following would be great for you.... MacBook Air 15 as its a big screen so people you are tutoring can see it. MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Pro (not the model you have there). If you want to save money Asus Zenbook 14 (2023 Model) is super cheap and honeslty will be 95% as good as these Macs for your use case.

[@lxndrnns]

​@@JustJoshTechthank you. Is there a big difference between m3 and m3 pro?

[@JustJoshTech]

@alexanderchervinskiy926 Yes. The M3 Pro is almost a different laptop. I cover the differences in my updated MacBook buying guide out next week or week after. The M3 Pro has a 3rd USB C port, which is useful. More CPU and GPU cores. Faster memory. More memory. Supports more than 1 external monitor etc.

[@CaffeinateNCode]

Nice video. I’m looking to go back to school/certifications for coding/cyber security but want to have flexibility for gaming as well (nothing too high end I don’t think). I am stuck between the Asus G14 (AMD 9 7940HS/RTX 4060) and Zenbook 14X (i7-13700H/2.8K OLED) 16gb/512gb SSD for both. Which would you recommend?

[@MaiElizabeth]

Average users don’t upgrade their laptop every single year. Don’t worry.

[@borisbojic]

The difference between M2 and M3 are not great enough to upgrade. And they are not even one year apart. But for example in my case - I’m using an M1 Pro now and I’m waiting for the upcoming M4 Max - that’s quite the difference 👌😁

[@goobfilmcast4239]

...in the same way that the M3s are a MAGNIFICENT upgrade for users finally ditching their Intel Macs.

[@zakparamir755]

​@@goobfilmcast4239so is M2

[@megamastah]

Great no bullshit takes, pragmatic and objective approach, breaking out from the herd, mentioning the marketing and psychology tricks used by the biggest money hoarder in the world (Apple). You even provide the summary at the beginning! Keep it up, this kind of moral integrity reminds me of Louis Rossman.

[@Sam-oz8tw]

Love the videos! Your room/mic/mastering could use 2-4db less in the 320hz range. It was obvious enough I noticed on cheap headphones, and it became more obvious once I threw on my main Sennheiser headphones.

[@JustJoshTech]

We are desperately hiring an audio engineer because we are really at our limit in this department. If you or someone you know can help please email us!!

[@weirdcityboi]

@@JustJoshTechI can absolutely help you with that!

[@timothyjholloway]

I would like this video more if you told us why you didn't get a Mac Studio with M2 Ultra chip. Why didn't you get it before (when you bought the M2 Max MacBook Pro) and did you consider it when upgrading to an M3 Max MacBook Pro?

[@timothyjholloway]

I'm actually rewatching this video months later and wondered the same thing only to see that I asked this question already. Why DIDN'T you get something less portable but more powerful?

[@RalfPrebeck]

This would also apply for M1 Max vs M3 Max right?