Hey guys its Vadim with Max Tech and welcome to our new Macbook Pro buyers guide.
Alright so Apple made their new 14 and 16” MacBook Pro configurators EXTREMELY complicated with
various chip options with different core counts and features, as well as more options for RAM,
so it’s no wonder why many of you guys are commenting nonstop about which model to purchase!
So this video right here is our official Buyer’s Guide for these new M1 Pro and
M1 Max MacBook Pros, where I’m gonna take you through the mistakes you need to avoid
when buying one of these new Macs, and I’m also gonna recommend different models for
each use case and I’ll reveal the model that I bought for myself, so let’s get right into it!
First up, I know a lot of you guys are gonna be tempted into making the mistake of going
all out of the chip configuration that you buy when you really don’t need to,
so let me give you guys some perspective so you can make a rational decision!
If you really think about it, the current M1 chip is already more than fast enough for most people,
even those who actually do productivity work like photo editing,
video editing, music production, programming, etc!
For example, the M1 MacBook Pro literally
outperformed our $15,000 Mac Pro in terms of Xcode programming performance.
And in Lightroom Classic, it wasn’t as good but it outperformed the $2400
16” Intel MacBook Pro and it was keeping up with the crazy 27” desktop iMac!
And for the most common 4K H.264 video editing work, the M1 chip closed the gap even further!
So because of that, we actually replaced our main editing 27” iMac
that Angelika used every day with a 24” M1 iMac that edits video even faster and more reliably
than my $5000 iMac Pro, which is mind-blowing!
So the point that I’m trying to make is that the M1 is already more than powerful enough
for most people, so if you think you need to go and fully spec out the new 14” MacBook Pro
with 32 GPU cores and 64GB of RAM for $3,700, you’re probably wrong!
That machine is gonna be overkill for 99%
of the people out there, and chances are, the base model 14” Macbook Pro
with both a binned CPU and GPU is gonna be more than fast enough for a lot of people out there!
Now if you have no idea what the term ‘binned’ means,
I’m gonna explain that real quick because it’s extremely important to this video.
As you can see, I have a graphic of Apple’s new M1 Pro chip labeled by Anandtech, and you can
see the cluster of CPU Performance cores right here, and the cluster of GPU cores right here.
Now since nothing is perfect in life, sometimes there are imperfections in these chips,
like for example, a couple of the GPU cores have some flaws that impact performance,
so instead of tossing this chip in the trashcan and losing all of that investment,
Apple simply disables those two cores, turning the 10-core chip into an 8-core
and they sell it at a discount to make it cheaper for consumers.
Now the same thing can be applied to the CPU cores, with Apple disabling two of
them instead of tossing out chips with faulty cores, creating a 14-core GPU,
and that’s how we ended up with the double binned base model 14” MacBook Pro for $2,000,
with you having to pay an extra $300 just to get a perfect unbinned chip.
And this also applies to that 24-core GPU upgrade for $500, it’s really just a 32-core
M1 Max chip with 8 of the cores disabled so Apple can offer you a cheaper upgrade option.
Now with all of that said and explained, I wanna mention to you guys that we bought 8
different M1 Pro and M1 Max configurations so we can deliver the best comparison videos out there,
so if you appreciate our effort, subscribe right now and definitely check out our merch like this
Sharpie edition T-shirt down in the merch shelf below and use
the M1Pro promo code to save 20% on ALL of our merch!
With that said, let’s move on to the next mistake, which is actually thinking that these
MacBook Pros are overpriced compared to buying an M1 MacBook Pro, which is COMPLETELY WRONG!
The M1 MacBook Pro starts at $1,300 and comes with only 256GB of SSD
and 8GB of RAM. To match the same 512GB SSD and 16gigs of RAM as the new 14” base model has,
the price of the M1 goes up to $1,700, only $300 less than the 14”!
So let me quickly fly through all of the advantages you get for that extra $300!
Of course, you get the new design language with the flat top and bottom,
you get MUCH more ports including an extra Thunderbolt 4 port,
an SD card slot, an HDMI port, and of course MagSafe charging!
The 512GB SSD is actually MUCH faster on the 14” since it uses new technology.
The 16GB of RAM is also MUCH faster, using LPDDR5-6200
MHz RAM instead of the older and slower LPDDR4X-4266 MHz RAM.
Then on top of that, add in the larger 14.2” display with a 3K resolution instead of 2.5K,
as well as the new mini-LED display tech that can go up to 1600 nits of brightness
compared to just 500, and then add in the ProMotion 120hz display refresh
rate tech, making it the best display ever in any laptop.
Then, of course, you’ve got the much better 1080p webcam that takes in 2x more light for a cleaner
image, then add in MUCH better quality speakers and other details like a new 3.5mm headphone jack
that supports higher impedance, which kinda sounds like it has a built-in DAC.
Then add in the new keyboard with a full set of function keys, as well as the new cooling system
that moves 50% more air, and the upgraded display support as well!
And of course, don’t forget the MUCH faster
M1 Pro chip, even the one with the binned 8-core CPU and 14-core GPU.
So in reality, that extra $300 for the base 14”
is an absolute no-brainer if you’re already buying a similarly specced M1 MacBook Pro.
And I’d even go as far as to say that everyone should be avoiding the M1 MacBook Pro at all
costs if at all possible, so either buy the M1 MacBook Air on sale on Amazon for $929 right now
or go straight to the 14” MacBook Pro for $2000, I’m not even kidding, it’s worth it!
Now with all of that said, if you’re already dead set on buying one of these new MacBook Pros,
let’s jump right into the configurator, starting with the base 14” model.
This model is meant for almost everyone who does even a decent amount of hobby productivity work
since it’ll fly through many of the most common tasks!
However, the first thing I would do is go down to the power adapter option and pay the extra
$20 for the 96W power adapter because it gives you the 50% fast charging in 30 minutes feature!
And as far as the RAM, I honestly think that for most people, 16GB of unified memory is
gonna be perfectly fine because first of all, it’s much faster this year, and we’ve already
proven that Apple’s unified memory in the M1 Macs is incredibly efficient at handling massive
workloads compared to 16GB of traditional RAM in a Windows Laptop, as you can see in this chart!
On top of that, the SSDs in these MacBook Pros are much faster which
will also greatly improve the performance of SSD caching which acts as make-shift memory
if you ever do run a bit low on RAM, so I would recommend 16GB for most people unless you wanna
buy it for the very long term and you really like the extra peace of mind of having 32GB!
Now on top of that, both the 14 and 16” come with 512GB of SSD storage, and I would honestly
recommend everyone to spend the extra $200 for the 1TB SSD option because it’s just such a good bang
for the buck, but I’d definitely recommend holding off on buying the crazy SSD options
like the 8TB SSD because it’s insanely expensive and most people just won’t be able to fill it up!
Instead, you could literally buy a 4TB Thunderbolt 3 SSD
for only $700 on Amazon right now if you want to store files for the long term,
so I’ll leave that link down in the description if you’re interested.
But with that said, let’s pivot over to the chip options just in case you’re willing to venture
away from the base model and pay for some of the chip options, which I would definitely
recommend if you’re actually using your Mac professionally for business or to make money!
First of all, if you pay the extra $300 to get the unbinned M1 Pro chip with the 10-core CPU and
16-core GPU, you need to realize that you are now only $200 away from the base $2500 starting price
of the 16” MacBook Pro, which is a MUCH better buy because you’re getting a larger display with
higher resolution, quite a bit better battery life, a much more powerful 140W power adapter,
and a larger and more useful trackpad which I think together make it a no brainer for $200 more.
So because of that, I think anyone willing to spend $300 on that chip upgrade on the 14”
should just jump straight to the 16” Macbook Pro
unless you REALLY want the smaller 14” size for portability.
And if that’s the case for you, here are the chip upgrades that I would recommend for the 14”!
First of all, if you’re someone who mainly relies on the CPU performance for things
like programming, music production, or photo editing, then I’d say the $200
upgrade to get a 10-core CPU is definitely worth it because the crazy M1 Max chip won’t really do
that much for you since you don’t need graphics power.
Instead, upgrading to 32GB of RAM is a smart choice for all of those
professional tasks because they can use a lot of memory, especially high-end photo editing!
But as far as upgrading to 64GB of RAM, I don’t think it’s worth it for 99% of the people
because you’re forced to upgrade to the 24-core M1 Max chip before spending $400 to upgrade to 64GB,
bringing the price up to $3,300, so only go with 64GB if you absolutely know you need
like if you’re gonna be running VMs or doing the craziest graphics rendering out there!
And that finally brings us to the graphics side of the equation
with the M1 Max chip and who should actually be buying it!
But before I get into that, I want to put something into perspective,
the base $2500 16” MacBook Pro model is so powerful that it actually outperforms
the very best $3,500 i9 Intel 16” MacBook Pro in terms of CPU performance, while also
outperforming the insanely expensive $$800 Radeon Pro 5600M upgrade!
So comparing the new 16” to the previous one, you’re getting more performance in every
aspect alongside a bunch of new features like the display and 10 hours more battery life,
for $1,000 less than before with that new $2500 base model, so keep that in mind!
Now moving onto very high-end graphics-related use-cases,
if you’re dead set on buying 32GB of RAM either for the 14 or 16” model,
you should ABSOLUTELY hands-down spend $200 on the 24-core M1 Max chip upgrade!
You’re first of all gonna get 50% higher graphics performance instantly for just $200 more, but on
top of that, you’re getting around 100GB/s higher memory bandwidth, you’re getting better external
display support, you’re getting a larger cooling system to cover the larger chip, and you’re
literally getting double the Video encode engines and double the ProRes encode and decode engines!
Now that last part is absolutely HUGE for video editors because most video exports are actually
limited by those decoders, as you can see in this chart where the much more expensive Macs with
much faster graphics barely improved export times, and even the M1 chip was limited by the encoders!
So there’s a good chance that the much faster 16-core GPU in the M1 Pro
isn’t gonna export videos that much quicker than the regular M1 chip,
but since the M1 Max chip features double the encode engines, it’ll likely export videos
at least twice as fast as the M1 Pro, and that goes for ProRes work as well!
So if you’re editing and exporting many videos per week
or you want those other advantages, just pay the extra $200 for the 24-core M1 Max chip!
And now, let’s finish off with who should be buying the crazy 32-core GPU.
Well, if you’re a gamer and you want the fastest possible gaming performance,
buy the 32-core for sure, and you’ll likely be just fine with the standard 32GB of RAM.
Now if you’re doing very high-end graphics-related work like 3D rendering or editing RAW video which
is extremely GPU intensive, then you should also be buying the 32-core GPU, and in those cases,
64GB of RAM might actually make sense if you know you can use it!
But like I mentioned earlier in this video.. if you’re not gonna
be making money or doing professional work with one of these MacBook Pros,
then you’ll likely be just fine with even the base 14” MacBook Pro for $2,000.
So hopefully this video helped you make a decision, and if it did,
go ahead and use the links below to find the best deals on these MacBook Pros and accessories like
the external SSD, and click the circle above to subscribe for more videos like this one!