Monthly Archives: February 2024

Apple MacBook Pro M3 Max joins Mac Studio M1 Ultra

The perfect laptop and portable DAW part 2

Be sure to read my (growing) review: Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max

In January 2023, I purchased a 14″ MacBook Pro M2 Pro with 12 core CPU, 19 core GPU, 16GB of memory and 1TB storage. At that time, I decided then that for my portability needs, it didn’t make sense to bump the memory or processor/GPU cores up. As a secondary system, I found the M2 Pro with 16GB to be very adequate for my needs, but as I expanded uses of the laptop, I yearned for more memory.

In January of 2024, one of my granddaughters needed a laptop for college and I was able to rationalize an upgrade. I gifted her the M2 Pro and upgraded to a 14″ MacBook Pro M3 Max with 14 core CPU, 30 core GPU, 36GB of memory and 1TB storage.

I regularly use most of the 64GB on my primary system, a desktop Mac Studio M1 Ultra. If this M3 Max were my primary system, it would have been tempting to go with 96GB. I never would have guessed it a few years ago, but I am really getting used to having large amounts of memory.

90% of my workstation needs are met by my primary system, but this MacBook Pro compliments it well. In Geekbench, the M3 Max 14 core CPU, 30 core GPU is faster in single and multi core CPU benchmarks and slower in GPU benchmarks than my M1 Ultra 20 core CPU, 48 core GPU. From my perception, both machines seem about the same which is totally wild to me.

Thanks!
-Yehuda

The previous chapter, one year earlier: Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro joins Mac Studio M1 Ultra

Apple related pages
Updated periodically – Apple Silicon is the DAW standard
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M1 Max & M1 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M2 Max & M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Studio M4 Max & M4 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M1 Pro & M1 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M2 Pro & M2 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
Updated periodically – Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro & M4 Max
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra
Updated periodically – Apple Mac Pro M4 Ultra & M4 Extreme
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M1
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M2 & M2 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple Mac mini M4 & M4 Pro
Updated periodically – Apple Studio Display
Updated periodically – Apple M1 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M2 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M3 Processor Series
Updated periodically – Apple M4 Processor Series

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