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#1
11-12-2023, 08:32 AM
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OT: Apple M2 vs M3
Time for a new laptop for the wife. I see they just came out with the M3 chipset. A 14" with 1TB/ 24gb seems like the choice for her. I can get an Apple referb with the M2 1TB/24gb for a bit less, about $400 less.
Is the M3 that much better? I can see Apple doing chipset upgrade every other year or so so I doubt it will become unsupported within the next 8 years or so. Her 2014 is still working but starting to have a few issues. Anyone have the new M3 yet?? For me my 2012 15" I9 is still running fine but will be getting a 15" Air soon. 
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#2
11-12-2023, 08:40 AM
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Gawd, this never ends. As a serious Photoshop user, they have me by the you know what, because Adobe engineers its software for the never ending chip and system updates. Now that AI is here, I'm looking for a new Mac. I'm guessing that even an M1 chip will be good for ten years. I hope. The conspiracy theorist in me says that this is the only way Apple can stimulate Mac sales, which have been fairly poor for awhile.
What does your wife use her Mac for?
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It's not a new bike, it's another bike.
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#3
11-12-2023, 09:17 AM
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Not new. I have the 1st generation of the Macbook Pro M1 Pro. It’s way more computer than I will ever need. Amazing micro LED screen and fast! I can’t see upgrading for a long time.
__________________
A bad day on the bike is better than a good day at work!
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#4
11-12-2023, 09:23 AM
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Try arstechnica.com for informative reviews. M3 is pretty incremental compared to M2, but the details depend on if you are comparing base to base, Pro to Pro, or Max to Max.
If you're looking at 24 GB RAM either your wife must be doing some serious tasks or you're looking to not buy another one for 10 years...if the latter I would maybe not go refurb.
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#6
11-12-2023, 10:12 AM
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Quote:
It does seem like the new chips are coming every year but when you dig into the real world performance of them - at least for right now - there's little difference between the M1/M2/M3 chips. In the future it may become more relevant as photo/video processing apps take advantage of the faster processing. This would be a really good time to pick up a refurbished M1 macbook pro for photo work. For the OP - unless you are doing things that really tax the laptop it wont matter and likely a 13/15" Air is a better choice for most things.
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#8
11-12-2023, 11:46 AM
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For those in the know - how do the later and current M processors compare to the Intel Core i5 models? I have one of the first MBPs with the touchbar, the one before the M chips were the standard offering. It's a bit over 6yrs old and hit its OS update ceiling a while back. It's been great to me but is starting to show it's age keep up with the relatively mild workload that it sees. I expect to be doing more audio and video recording and editing in the future as a part of my job but it will still mostly see microsoft 365 and internet based use. Having a similar debate if I should get a new MBP or a refurb.
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#9
11-12-2023, 01:57 PM
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I ordered a refurbished 15" M2 Air yesterday to replace my 2010 MBP. The MBP was bought as a refurb in 2011 and is seriously the best $1500 I've ever spent on anything. Impressive quality - it's still going strong minus the clapped-out speakers. It's starting to have trouble running browser tasks - otherwise I would just keep it rolling.
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#10
11-12-2023, 02:19 PM
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The M1 was limited to 1 external monitor, even on the Pro version, which was weird. But the M2 fixed that. If you get a refurb M1 and want external monitors, plan on using one large/wide monitor instead of two.
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#11
11-12-2023, 02:33 PM
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Quote:
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#12
11-12-2023, 02:49 PM
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Seriously there is no comparison. You will be happy.
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#13
11-12-2023, 05:13 PM
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What are you going to be using it for? For raw power, M3 is not comparable to Intel or AMD at all. If you plan to do CPU heavy tasks then I would suggest a PC. Macbooks are good for all day battery life as their chips are incredibly power efficient.
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#14
11-12-2023, 05:54 PM
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Quote:
For single thread performance apple has the top three spots of anything on the market: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html Multicore is generally about the amount of cores you throw at the problem. When M3 Ultra comes out it should be comparable to a 14900k etc. M2 Ultra is around 50,000 points and the 14900k (which was just released) is at 60,000 points. Keep in mind these are Intel's desktop processors being compared to Apple's mobile processors. The Ultra chips are just two SOCs smashed together essentially. Last edited by vertr; 11-12-2023 at 05:57 PM.
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#15
11-12-2023, 06:45 PM
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Quote:
Even if its not as good on the benchmarks, I cant imagine its not good enough for the most taxing work and then there's all the other reasons that owning a mac makes far more sense.
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