$3,300 custom 16 inch MacBook Pro vs base model: is it worth it? 

9:15 if you just want the answer

Watching now. Regardless of the results, THANK YOU for making this. This was the comparison I was looking for before purchase.

The ridiculous fact is that here in Greece the base Model 16inch is 3000 Euros and the higher tier model is 3400 Euros. It is more economical to fly to the US and back and purchase it than to buy it from a local shop.

You need 32 GB Ram if you are going to use google chrome.

I have the base model, and I’ve never had a computer before, so I literally can’t imagine a computer being faster than the one I have now. This thing is a beast!

Can we say a prayer for all of the people that bought the old 2019 mbp's more than 2 weeks before this one came out.

Thanks for the comparison! I have been looking for a while on a comparison between the base and upgraded model, this helps a lot.

Super helpful! Upgrading from my 2013 retina MBP and weighing the upgrades. Thank you! Subscribed!

I ordered exactly the same configuration and now just see this video. Simply wow!

Thank you for the amazing videos. I LOVE when you make these types of videos and they motivate me every single day.

An excellent review tackling a question many users are facing when taking a plunge in the new 16inch Macbooks. Thanks alot!

Really nice comparison! I really need help from you Luke! You are amazing!

Very educational video regarding to buy which one for what porpoises. Thank you for your effort and giving us all that information.

Very comprehensive video. Was definitely wondering if I needed all of that RAM and storage, but this definitely sold me on a cheaper Mac. Thanks a bunch!

Brilliant video Luke!

Thanks for the review! I chose the Base model 16” today on sale at BB for $2099! over the new $1799 13”

You deserve more subscribers, your videos are really good!

You say 32GB ram helps, but AFAIK, you haven't explicitly tested the importance of more RAM. The importance of more RAM will likely show in real world usage, using and switching between multiple applications.

Kudos to your taste in background music! Smooth, catchy shit!

Just bought this same exact setup. Solid video.

This is the video I have been looking for!!

Another helpful video. Love them!

Thanks for this! I've been considering going for the exact custom-built one you went over in this video and I think I'm going to go for it. +1 sub, thanks!

Thanks a lot Luke for doing all the work and sharing this video. Would you think that the i7 base model with 32gb RAM upgrade is enough for video editing or the i9 with base specs would be better? I would be using FCPX for editing FHD videos and probably a little bit of 4K. I also only do video edits as a hobby. I’m not much worried about the storage as I am planning to get an external SSD to save files. I just can’t decide if I should go for a 6 core i7 + 32gb ram or 8 core i9 + 16gb ram for my usage. Also the comparison you made with the graphics cards were pretty helpful, it at least made my decision on that part easier now. I would appreciate your expert advice and suggestions. Keep up the great work and God bless!

Wow. i just ordered the same exact specs as your customize version. Great comparison there.

I like your vids man keep up the work. I see u reaching a mill soon

Could've bought a car with the money of these two combined. Not that you really need another car, or if that really matters. This comment is pointless.

Excelente video. Saludos desde Panamá 🇵🇦🇵🇦🇵🇦

if this shows anything, its the fact that the base 5300M is super solid. Beating Vega 20 and pretty close to 5500m. Nice change in the pro lineup, actually offers a good value proposition in the 16" this year. Awesome!

Awesome video! You are the king of MacBooks, undoubtedly!

Great video... much appreciated.

Great Video man. Do the fans kick in more often on the i9 compared to the i7? And is the 32gb ram worth it?

nice information!

I got your custom with 64gb ram, super happy having upgraded from a 2011 MBP....

Just bought a base model 16 Mac Pro with your link... thanks for the great info and allowing me to make an educated buying decision! Cheers

Nice video! I was just wondering, how long do you plan to keep this Macbook Pro for more or less?

Nice video as always. I bought the 2,400$ base model in silver which replaces my 12" MacBook 2016. I usually don't need that much power. Some recording, designing and editing videos at home should fulfill my needs.

i customized it the same way!!! base model upgrade ram, upgrade graphics and 1 tb!

I ordered the same customised model! Figured the ram would be more future proof and wanted something that could handle 4K video editing easily

The 5500M upgrade is great for more VRAM demanding workloads, for example Blender benefits a lot from the extra 4GB of VRAM

Everything about your videos is top class except the sound since you moved to the new space (it has a slight hiss and echo). It doesn’t bother me but would love to see your channel grow and make you some of those well deserved RU-vid dollars. Go get it son and thanks for such great work!

I see every reason to get the specs that you got Luke. That's what a person on the go would need for completing their work while on the go. Thank you for the review.

Hey Luke! Excellent videos as always. A bit of constructive (hopefully!) feedback, as an iOS developer the video editing centric comparisons are not as applicable to me. In future videos, could you include a compile time comparison? Firefox compile is an easy one. Or since this is a Mac centric channel, an Xcode compile of some type? Thank you for the awesome content as usual! Cheers!

Amazing video - thank you. Wondering with a budget allocated at 3.2, what would you advice? i9, 16 RAM, or i7 with 32 RAM?

I ended up ordering the same spec as you, but opted for the maxxed out processor. I’m planning to put the extra money for storage into a thunderbolt 3 storage drive/nas later down the line.

Thanks for that comparison! It helped me a lot! I currently own an 2016 Touch Bar i7 MacBook Pro and a 2013 Mac Pro (which blows the MacBook out of the water) and I want to upgrade my MacBook. Which one would you recommend for photo editing? I think the base i7 16" would be more than sufficient.

Excellent video as always! I actually bought a 15 inch retina from 2014 but it doesn't quite cut the cake for me, especially considering the shoddy battery life (particularly considering mine had a new battery installed by Apple a couple of months ago), and the weight (that extra half pound definitely makes a difference). I actually have some money in my pocket for once and started getting spec boners again, but something told me that I personally would never use the extra power as the base model is super powerful already for someone that mainly does graphic design, heavy web browsing/multitasking, and the occasional 1080p video edit. This video only further helped clarify that, plus I love how they increased the screen size but kept the actual size of the computer the same, the good keyboard is back, and there is a physical escape key!!! Anyway, I'm gonna bite the bullet and drop 3 racks and some change (3000 CAD where I live plus a juicy 13% sales tax) but I think it will be well worth it and hopefully this machine will serve me for a long time.

Bro I make videos full time and we got nearly the same exact configuration! Mine arrives Monday. I got your config but with 2TB cause dang 4k footage takes up so much!

Awesome review! Will you be selling your MacBook Pro 15”?

Sorry Luke. I know this isn't maybe best place to ask. But, Do you know something about new Mac Pro. The fall is gonna finish and is still not available. Other question. What do you think. Which Mac is better to buy. iMac 27" 2019 3.6ghz i9, 1TB SSD, Pro Vega 48 or MacBook Pro 16" base model only with 8GB VRAM and maybe 32gb of RAM. Can you made some kind of test. Last question. RAM in MacBook pre 16" is solder on main board or is possible to upgrade by your self.

At 7:05 you mixed the stock with the upgraded model 😅

I ordered the basic i9 / 32GB / 5500m / 4TB SSD. I‘m excited

Thx! I watched several videos and your was the best. You helped me a lot, now I know what to buy and finally I can sleep well (literally). Cheers!

Luke.. love the content. The videography is great... the audio... not so much. It’s time to get a directional mic and put up some sound deadening. The echo is kind of rough on your audio.

Idk why but I love the Intel 16” MBP. It’s the only really good high-end MacBook, especially in terms of graphics, that Apple made ever since the mid-2015 (up until Apple silicon ofc). It’s also the last machine with this beautiful thin and lightweight design, which I believe Apple could have kept around due to the efficiency of Apple silicon.

We are ordering every spec maxed out including 8TB. In Canada this costs around $7,600. Only thing we settled on was the middle option Radeon 5500 w 8GB GDDR6

Great comparison man, I ended up getting the i9 but 16GB of RAM and it’s still real quick even with the slightly slower RAM. I’m subbed too man, love your work.💪

Great choice of specs, since specs are not user upgradeable (well, without some iFixit wizardry at least) it is best to go as high as you can afford as the laptop will stay with you for a while. I'm currently using an Early 2013 Macbookpro retina with i7 2.7ghz and 16gb of ram with 512gb storage so upgrade date is approaching. I'm a software engineer but I do some editing too so I might go for the same config you got or something similar (considering the 64gb option, but that might just be overkill unless editing 8k video or similar) Usually the cpu right before the maxed out one and at least 2x base ram and 2x base storage sounds like the sensible choice to make to be future proof for the next 5-6 years. Love your channel!!

You missed me 😔😂 My comment wasn’t here on RU-vid, it was on Twitter. First I guessed i9 8core, 32 GB of RAM, 5500M 8 GB and 1 TB of SSD. One day later I corrected to i9 2,3 GHz because I forgot the 2,4 i9 option (it’s so pointless I didn’t even remembered). But still was guessed correctly. Enjoy your machine, I would pick that exact same config.

Here in Canada we would call that a Double-Double MacBook pro... 🍁

I am glad you made the right choice and might get me a I9 very soon. The 1-TB is enough because if you need to upgrade to more TB later, just order an additional micro SD cards from the Sanddish website, I would do that.

Just Great thank you !!

Is 64gb worth the money or 32gb is sufficient? This is my question. Thanks

Luke, finally! After MaxTech you are my favourite channel about Apple products (:

Tks for the info. Just so Expensive.

One of the best tech channels on youtube you got here

The lofi intro music gets me in the feels every time

I'm currently loving the base model... I'm not sure if I'll upgrade or not. I haven't noticed any limitations of the 16gb of RAM just yet...

I got the exact same spec, very happy with mine. However I think the storage is worth upgrading too, a 2TB samsung x5 costs $800 with the same or less performance.

Just made a design comparison video featuring the first generation MacBook Pro and the 16" model. The 16" really is a great machine.

Absolutely no one on RU-vid tested the 5500M with 4GB of VRAM (the base i9 version). That’s the one I have and it scored well (over 3400) on cinebench. But I’m curious how it stacks up!

Would you consider comparing the 16 inch to the 2012-2015 15 inch? I know a bunch of people who have that generation MBP and didn’t upgrade to the 2016-2019 Touch Bar MBP because of the keyboard issues, it’d be interesting to see the performance gains and overall improvements from the last Pro that had a good reputation (also a direct keyboard comparison would be cool cause I’m sick of hearing “Apple just put the old keyboard back in”)

This video is very helpful! I think I'll go with i9 2.3 GHz, 32 GB, 2 TB, 5500M 8GB. Mostly 1080 & some 4K 10bit editing on the go.. maybe some DAW for music.. and it is not my only workstation. I am a Windows-PC user and this will be my first MAC ever :)

I more or less bought your $3,300 custom one but with 2 TB SSD. Runs like a dream! Big upgrade from my Mid 2012 MBP. I would recommend that everyone in the market for a new MBP now upgrade to 32 gigs of RAM. Sure 16 gigs might be fine for your needs now, but that might not be the case in a couple of years.

Thank you for review Luke, how is it base model performing in premiere pro timeline, editing 4k? Is it smooth experience on full rez or do you need to lower it down to 1/2? And what about if project gets larger and you add effect, color grade? (Camera i use is sony a7iii)

I need a new laptop...my 2011 17 “ MacBook Pro died after owning it for 9 years now! Saving money to get the 2019 model. Definitely getting the higher end model with 32gb ram!

I tried the basic one and the custom highest one, neither of them could change the crazy fan noise and heating surface. Checked.

You got the exact configuration I want to get. I put bootcamp on mine so I want the extra space. I don't need the extra graphics but for $100 I would take it

Thanks for the video. I actually have all those same options selected, except for the storage. I was going to go with 4TB. Do you think thats a waste of money? Thanks again!

I bought yesterday MacBook Pro 16 inch 1tb ..but tomorrow coming..I thought maybe I feel regret already yesterday but watching your video make me feel better now , I think I choose the right one...?.. isn’t ?🤔

Thanks!!

Did you ever hesitate between the 1TB or 2TB ‘future proofing’ SSD sizes? Or do you feel safe relying on an external HDD for storage? My personal situation also prompts me to use windows at times, so a good 512GB of that tends to go to a boot camp partition...

hey !!nice Chanel , when did you get your mac book to customize?

I only got 16gb of ram with my 2018 MBP and wish I'd bought more, for me it struggles with After effects. Obviously once you've bought the configuration you're stuck with it for good so choose wisely. Apple prices for ram are ridiculous though.

Luke.. where do you find your bargain imac ... Love your vids

Did you get apple care? If so is it worth it? Still debating about getting it

if only ram upgrade was not this inappropriate, I'd have decided already my configuration.

Well for my base model with 16gb of ram, I have some hope for 4k video editing since I could edit some short pieces of 4k video in the MacBook Air with 8gb ram,and even put it some effects. Since FCPX doesn't suck so much ram, I hope this base model lasts a few good years.

Didn't see this video or the videos before this one, but I came to the same conclusion with my MacBook Pro 16" configuration.

hopefully Apple can refresh the 13’ MacBook Pro with the new magic keyboard and if they do, I plan on buying it.

For the same $2,799, would you choose the base i7 2.6 GHz 6-Core 16" MBP with the RAM upgraded to 32GB ($400), or the base i9 2.3GHz 8-Core 16" MBP with 16GB RAM, Radeon Pro 5500 and 1TB SSD ?

love it!

So I disappeared down the rabbit hole of your mac videos, ached to buy a shiny new 16" MBP.....then decided to get a new battery put in my 2011 MBP, put an SSD and more RAM in my 2008MBP to use whilst that happened and bought a 2nd hand iMac to do 360 video edits on. Saved 2K . Thanks for ALL the info, really useful, particularly pointing out how good older macs are, the ones I can afford.....

Ordered the exact same spec. Hope it’s worth it by the end of this video.

Hey there, I just wanted to let you know that you are the Kinobody of tech! Loving the content!

Does upgrading the graphics card only make sense if you plan to edit videos or play video games?

Luke, someone else did a comparison and the main difference in the graphics is that in graphics programs like Blender the 8GB VRAM there is a noticeable performance gain.

Want to order the higher tier model you bought. Primary use will be for Audio/DAW. Moving from a mid 2015 MBP, it wil be interesting to see how many instances of high CPU use plugs(Adaptiverb, Diva etc) this model will handle?

Question, does the 8 GB of VRAM vs 4 GB of VRAM help out with say preventing an out of memory gpu error in Dav Vinci Resolve. I know Luke uses Final Cut (I would love Resolve to be added to your benchmark's though, especially since Resolve has a great free version), I still would love the input. Should I save the money, or is it worth it for video editing or streamlined workflow graphics usages like Adobe mogrts or denoising footage/adding film grain, etc.

Great, I ordered MPB 2019, i9 2.3GHz, 32 GB, 5500/8, 2TB. I ordered it for 3.799€ via Alternate.de (Apple.de you pay 4.279,00 €) - saving 480€!