OT: Apple M2 vs M3

[batman1425]

Originally Posted by tbike4

Egads. Please get some hardware with Apple silicon. If not today, tomorrow.
Seriously there is no comparison. You will be happy.

Yea... I try to get as much out of each machine as I can. Previous MBP I got nearly 7 yrs out of before getting my current one which is itself now about 6.5yrs. Now the keyboard is multi stroking from that crummy butterfly design or whatever it is but I have a one time free replacement on a warranty extension I can cash to get that fixed. Just haven't had an opportune moment. The touchbar is getting glitchy now and freezes a lot. Overall it's lagging out on relatively simple lifts more frequently.

Like most things, I like to have it really tell me it's time to be put to pasture before spending the money. I'm getting close...

[Ewiser]

If you are still on an Intel Mac upgrade to the M3 the battery life is crazy. I bought the M3 pro 14” 18 gig of ram an 1 tb SSD.
Will last me a while. Don’t think m1 or m2 users need to update. But tons of people still on Intel chips need too.

[ltwtsculler91]

Originally Posted by batman1425

Yea... I try to get as much out of each machine as I can. Previous MBP I got nearly 7 yrs out of before getting my current one which is itself now about 6.5yrs. Now the keyboard is multi stroking from that crummy butterfly design or whatever it is but I have a one time free replacement on a warranty extension I can cash to get that fixed. Just haven't had an opportune moment. The touchbar is getting glitchy now and freezes a lot. Overall it's lagging out on relatively simple lifts more frequently.

Like most things, I like to have it really tell me it's time to be put to pasture before spending the money. I'm getting close...

I'm the same way with my personal MBP, a Touch Bar 13.3" from 2016 with a core i5 that seems to be on its last legs. I did the keyboard though which was well worth it. The Touch Bar seems to be glitched out now and not all apps show the same things they used to, so it's not as valuable.

I have a 16" M1 Pro from 2021 as my work laptop, and I honestly don't really even bring my personal MBP around with me as between my work laptop and 3 year old M1 iPad Pro I feel covered. Performance-wise, it's silly how much better the M1 Pro is in every single way versus the Intel i5 but a lot of that is also age..

I know I'll need to get a new personal laptop when I get a new job, since not all companies let you treat a work laptop as your own, but we're not there just yet.

[.RJ]

Removing the touch bar and the return of the magsafe power connector finally got me to pay up for a new one this year - glad they're continuing both of those.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Removing the touch bar and the return of the magsafe power connector finally got me to pay up for a new one this year - glad they're continuing both of those.

It's funny - my work laptop has MagSafe again, but it never gets used because I'm charging via a USB-C hub (which also drives my monitors, etc).

But, MagSafe is awesome for home use, especially with dogs and kids.

[ltwtsculler91]

Originally Posted by Alistair

It's funny - my work laptop has MagSafe again, but it never gets used because I'm charging via a USB-C hub (which also drives my monitors, etc).

But, MagSafe is awesome for home use, especially with dogs and kids.

Same for mine. But MagSafe sure is nice while traveling.

I do miss the flexibility of the touchbar when I’m working on my laptop itself, but 85% of the time I am at one of my desks with a keyboard and mouse so it’s fine.

[vertr]

Originally Posted by Alistair

But, MagSafe is awesome for home use, especially with dogs and kids.

My cat has a thing for eating braided cables so I have the opposite situation.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by vertr

My cat has a thing for eating braided cables so I have the opposite situation.

Easy solution: get a dog instead.

[benb]

I still have an i9 at work.. my co-workers at work who have gotten M2s for their refreshes are spending like 50% of the time waiting for the computer as those of us still running Intel.

And our software development stack is not really end to end ARM software, and we are not targeting ARM for the software we build. I.e. the M2s are still about 2x as fast even at a task they are hamstrung at.

There might be some video game or graphics cards related benchmarks that a purpose built (expensive) Intel machine still walks all over the Macs. You know who you are if that's you though. It's been like 20 years since I cared about video games.

If your use case is not demanding I think an M2 at a good price might be worth it over waiting for an M3.

[11.4]

Still haven't heard what your wife is doing on the computer. With that in mind, I have and am actively using a M1/Max/64GB/4TB 16 inch, a M2/Max/64GB/2TB, and now have a M3/Max/128GB/4TB 16 inch. All are maxed out on chipsets and configurations except for the SSD since I work with external banks of SSDs to manage large data files.

My work is a combination of hi-res video and advance math for modeling epidemiological events. The latter used to run on Crays and then on a 100-node Intel server, now on a notebook.

What I've found so far is that the M1 still is very respectable if I don't mind it being a little slower (a typical infectious spread model takes about 2 minutes on an M1/Max but is a perfect fit for the M3/Max and runs in about 14 seconds. The M2 was something of an improvement on the M1 but not particularly noticeable. The base M3 configurations are also incremental improvements, but if you go to the M3/Max and blow it out with max memory and the highest configuration options available so you also get better infrastructure (that usually doesn't get mentioned in the specs), the difference is tremendous. But that's a $5,000 notebook. If your wife is on a M1/Max and doesn't push sophisticated software or large iterative processes (like large video files, very high-res photo images, large statistical calculations) -- and can put up with slightly slower speed -- the M1/Max (not the Pro or less) does anything you need. A couple caveats: First, a M1/Max blown out and running challenging work eats power like crazy -- my battery goes in about 3-1/2 hours, the notebook is too hot to sit on my lap, and if you don't rest it a bit at regular intervals it will start to throttle and slow down. However it's still head and shoulders above anything with a 5 nanometer chip -- the power efficiency is not just battery life but the ability to do the work without throttling immediately. For any routine MSOffice, Photoshop, web design, etc., the M1/Max is just fine and is now dirt cheap at B&H Photo and the like.

[kppolich]

13" M2 MacBook Air user here (512GB. SSD//16GB RAM).

I had the M1 and the M2 is a little better, but the construction of the M2 MBA machine with additional charging port sealed the deal for me. The M2 13" air is the go to for me with an additional display as its portable and powerful as is, without the dumb Touch Bar on my work M2 MacBook Pro that I despise.

I see no place for the 15' Air, but the M2 Air is a sweet spot machine for 99% of the public with all day and night battery life, light weight, solid screen and speakers as well as a few USB-C ports for charging/external displays, etc.

I bet the M3 version will be nice, but not enough features at the moment for me to jump from my M2 Air to a M3 pro.

[pdmtong]

$400 is a non-trivial pct of the M2 purchase price so unless she "needs" the M3 chip for a specific purpose, I would go M2 and be happy.

[zmalwo]

A AMD core will walk all over M2 on all tasks except on battery life. a notebook AMD core 7945HX scores higher on benchmarks than Apple's desktop version M2 Ultra.

Originally Posted by benb

I still have an i9 at work.. my co-workers at work who have gotten M2s for their refreshes are spending like 50% of the time waiting for the computer as those of us still running Intel.

And our software development stack is not really end to end ARM software, and we are not targeting ARM for the software we build. I.e. the M2s are still about 2x as fast even at a task they are hamstrung at.

There might be some video game or graphics cards related benchmarks that a purpose built (expensive) Intel machine still walks all over the Macs. You know who you are if that's you though. It's been like 20 years since I cared about video games.

If your use case is not demanding I think an M2 at a good price might be worth it over waiting for an M3.

[skiezo]

She does photo and video editing as well as music editing. Other stuff is basic work stuff like power points and such. She is pretty much technically challenged when it comes to hi tech.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by zmalwo

A AMD core will walk all over M2 on all tasks except on battery life. a notebook AMD core 7945HX scores higher on benchmarks than Apple's desktop version M2 Ultra.

And in reality for most users... ?