Space Black M3 Pro Macbook Pro Review - I’m returning it 

Great video Oilur - All Max models (M1, M2 & M3) export twice as fast as the Pro models because the Max models have 2 Apple Media Engines vs 1 Apple Media Engine in the Pro models. The media engines haven't been changed over the last three years so M3 will export in a similar time to M1 as long as it's Pro vs Pro or Max vs Max. That doesn't explain the M1 Pro results in your video from 2 years ago but this is why your new M3 (Pro) is exporting at half the speed of your M1 (Max). Hope that helps :)

As someone who works in tech. I can say the reasoning others have stated for the issue you're experiencing has nothing to do with "memory bandwidth", rather it has to do with Apple's choice to reshuffle P (performance) and E (efficiency) cores this generation. In both previous generations of Apple silicon, both the Pro and the Max chips kept the same amount of CPU cores as well as P and E cores. For example the M1 Max and Pro chips both had 10 core CPU's with 8 P cores and 2 E cores. In the M3 generation however, they decreased the amount of P cores the Pro chip has and increased the amount of E cores to 6 P cores and 6 E cores meaning that your M1 Max actually has more performance cores. In addition to this the primary way to increase the speed of a GPU is to add more cores, meaning that since your M1 Max has more GPU cores, in most productivity tasks that dont take advantage of the new ray tracing and mesh shading technology, your M1 Max will be significantly faster than the M3 Pro. if you are looking for a substantial difference in performance the M3 Max will have far more GPU cores as well as 10 P cores and 4 E cores (16 total) on the top spec variant meaning it'll be a far faster chip in every way compared to your M1 Max.

Great video comparing the new pros. For me as a video editor, this helped a lot and have decided to pull the trigger on the m3 max. New sub!

The music for this video was gloriously selected!

this is why more youtubers should review both before recommending. so many youtubers review the Max model and then recommend the Pro as well even tho they didnt try it, simply off of benchmarks. you’re one of the few that tries both and its much more helpful. i got the M1 Pro and it has definitely had some issues i didn’t expect

thank you so much for posting this! I've been teetering on getting an M1 max (new) because M3 is such a crazy price tag, thanks for helping me make an important decision for my video editing needs!

maan, your video colour is gorgeous, thanks for it, m3pro 14in amazing, love love love, it was highly enjoyable to watch your review

Thank you for the wonderful wallpapers. When I bought my first MacBook Pro, I was reading a lot of reviews. I fell in love with the reviews and wallpapers, so I bought it. Thank you so much and I look forward to more great content.

Gutted you’ve had to return as you were so excited for the new version!

My 14” M1 Max is still flying through my workflows. I don’t expect I’ll need to upgrade for some years yet.

LOVEEE THIS SET UP IN THIS VIDEO!! holyyy 🖤🖤🖤

Great video & review gave me a few things to consider & look at, as I am looking to buy my first MacBook, Space Black. I plan to use it for editing photos, some website work, and the portability of the M3 Pro. Definitely looking into getting RayCast.

Hi Oilur. This time apparently M3 Pro is completely different chip compared to its MAX variant. With M1/2 it used to be that the jump from Pro to MAX was mainly in terms of graphics performance, but not in CPU. Basically the CPU cores configuration was identical between the two tiers. With M3 on the other hand, Apple is approaching things in a different way. M3 Pro has 6P + 6E cores, while M3 Max has 12P cores and 4E cores. This makes a lot more sense in terms of segmentation for Apple, because the majority of users that didn't that much graphics power were buying only the Pro models. Now going with a MAX variant means you have gains in both CPU and GPU. In your workflow, Final Cut relies more on the performance cores. Coming from 8P cores to 6P cores, inevitably will have a performance hit. This video is a really good deep dive into the M3 architecture and would definitely be useful to have a look at: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8bf3ORrE5hQ.html

As a non video editor. I was deciding between the M2 Air 13/15 and the M3 Pro Macbook Pro 12c 18GB. After trying both, I stuck with the M3 Pro Macbook Pro. Reason being, I prefer the efficiency cores of the new model. I could get idle battery usage at around 4Wh-5Wh giving between 18-14 hours run time. High performance tasks is not an issue with me, happy to wait now and then a few seconds and then gain from the longer battery overall.

Your videos style is absolutely amazing, always.

I'd love to give raycast a try! Love your videos!

Thank you, I am just starting with vlogging and video editing. I will stick with my M1 Pro.

That definitely RAM, bandwidth is different significantly. It might be the case that software also not fully optimised to the new algorithm of allocating memory to GPU. It might get better overtime, but I doubt

I agree with you on the memory. 8GB is not enough for a "Pro" device. 16GB should be standard. Having said that, my M2 Air with 8GB works just fine for the office work I use the machine for. I think the difference you're seeing is software specific and the software not being optimized for the M3 chip. Speed might improve as software catches up.

I think it is because your M1 Max has two special rendering cores and the Pro has only one. This was the case with M1 and also M3.

This thing’s outer shell might not collect as many fingerprints, but the keyboard is an absolute fingerprint magnet

Your question is answered in Just Josh's video 4 days ago. It is because your m3 pro bandwidth is lower than m1 max's. But it is strange that m1 pro is as fast as m1 max in those tasks.

Great video! I'm currently using a 2020 M1 Air with 8GB of RAM as my main editing workstation, but as my skills and workload increase, it's starting to struggle, especially when editing 4K RAW footage from my Fujifilm XT4, color grading, and adding heavy effects. I also use Lightroom. I'm considering an upgrade and would love your suggestion. Should I opt for the latest M3 Max for future-proofing, or would a second-hand model suffice?

What Mic did you use to record this video? Sounds great!

Oli, do I take it performance while editing using the M3pro was fine? Also, do you work with background rendering turned off or on?

For me, the differences, the application, Vivid, it makes the display 50% brighter so I'm getting the 16 inch MacBook Pro

The answer to the problem is that final cut 10.7, which introduces optimizations for M3, was not released when you ran your tests. This should be available in the < 2 weeks. For every chipset iteration, FCP must be updated.

Have you used handbrake? How is it encoding h265/HEVC compare to other macs? I use the CPUS because that preserves quality unlike videotoolbox

Yes. I just get my m3 pro also. And i think i will wait until there's an explanation about M3pro works especially while works with polyline and enlarging pixels at the same time. I feel that lagging problem in that situation. There're no problem for me on anotheeperformances.

Did you have your Battery's energy mode set to High power? High power enables higher performance.

Could be due to specific video effects and settings. It would be good to confirm with video project with basic video effects and then add further effects. Also, I would try Davinci Resolve just in case, use the same video content as input and add same/similar effects and benchmark... In the end, this could just be to softweare optimization of M3 CPU/GPU...

Off topic but man your jumpers are clean, where are they from.

Watching this from my first ever MacBook Pro! 🙌 I went with 14" Space Black M3 Max 🤩

That makes so much sense! On paper it should make sense, but it all comes down to performance haha 😂 loved this!

Great vid!

i am probably going for the next year's M4 max. The Pro and Max chips of the past year and this year are very inadequate for my web browsing, video watching, editing, and gaming needs. People are blindly going for this year's minimal upgrade.

Cool background aesthetic !

Right on time

Completely agree on the silly costs from Apple to upgrade ram and storage. Very good review.

Max chips have twin video encoders. M1 Max, M2 Max, M3 Max all have 2. Pro chips have single video encoders. M1 Pro, M2 Pro, M3 Pro all have one. = big difference in video encode speed.

I believe your old scores comparing the M1 Pro and M1 Max models show little difference because you were using an older version of Final Cut Pro. Try comparing them again now and you’ll see the additional media engine in the max models have a stronger influence on video editing performance. This additional media engine in the M1 Mac is also why it performs better than the M3 pro in your use case. Hope this helps!

Regarding base M3, I think a lot of people forget that Apple isn’t just marketing to individual consumers but make a lot of sales to companies/businesses etc. who buy bulk units for employees. The M3 8gb model makes much more sense for these kind of businesses who want to get a slightly cheaper model to supply to mass amounts of staff who aren’t necessarily doing anything performance intensive

I can't explain the difference, but memory bus width and speed could be involved? In my case I do music not video, and after going through many many tests of DAW performance on the different generations, I have just bought a refurbished 2022 M1 Max Studio with 64GB RAM and 1 TB SSD (used with external TB4 4TB drives, NAS and maybe iSCSI) - and it is fast. I have moved from Windows and it will run Cubase reliably with much lower latency than an i7 12700K/64GB/6TB machine, and with more consistent results. The M2 Studio Max tests slower on my applications. There isn't an M3 Studio yet, but when there is I am not convinced I could get the same or better performance or similar spec for anything near the amount I paid. CBA says satisfy the need and not more, and I think this machine will do me nicely for a few years...

Does the lid stick to its top case once you open it in the morning making a sticky sound, for example, as it was on previous 14 inch macs? It makes some noise and i'm currently having the second one which is m1 pro, does it make some light sound (not related to the previous question) when adjusting the screen (opening) move back and forward and it makes a little click sound, does it happen on the 3rd gen (m3 pro)?

I only do a little bit of video editing with FCP X. Maybe some drone footage and GoPro footage in 4K 60. Some Lightroom and Photoshop work. I think for my needs, the M3 Pro will be a substantial upgrade. Especially coming from a MBP Core i7 from 2012. I completely understand the M3 Pro doesn't work for your workflow. Nice video, and very knowledgeable.

We have taxes in America too. Your same configuration in America is $3799 before taxes and $4122.86 after taxes. M3 Pro 14 12 CPU/18GPU, 36 GB of Ram and a 4TB HD.

Is render time really the most important metric? Surely the smoothness of the actual editing process is key? Like which machine allows you to play back effects laden footage best without stuttering? Personally, I'd much rather be able to scrub the timeline and watch changes i've made in the best possible quality without it slowing to a crawl than worry about a few minutes extra/less in the final render.

Could be that it’s new and software isn’t optimised for it yet? I don’t know if that’s the case but it may be worth waiting? Same thing happened with M1 I believe

9min vs 16mins export times (i.e. twice as fast) is due to twice the number of media engines (what used to be called afterburner cards in the Mac Pro, pre M Chips), It is not the memory bandwidth, The media engines are built into the Chip (SOC) M Pro has 1, M Max has 2 and M Ultra have 4, regardless of the whether they are M1, M2 or M3 chips, the Media engines only provide support for specific codex (H264, ProRes etc) when video editing and exporting, the only difference with the M3 media engines are they include AV1 decode support and 8k decode over the M1s 4k decode limit, otherwise they are very similar. I have an M1 Max MBP and a M2 Ultra Macstudio. The M2 Ultra is exactly twice as fast as the M1 Max for video work, regardless of CPU or GPU cores, frequency, or memory bandwith, there is a little more to this subject, but I am sure you do not want to read two more paragraghs on the issue, but in principle I hope this helps.

Nice video! I'm currently deciding on a MacBook Pro 16-inch for RAW photo editing and 4K/8K video work, and I'm considering three models: M3 Pro (12-core CPU, 14-core GPU, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD), M3 Max (14-core CPU, 30-core GPU, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD), and M3 Max (16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD). Initially, I was leaning towards the M3 Pro, but after watching reviews, I'm unsure if it would be sufficient for the kind of processing I need. Given my intention to use this laptop for an extended period without frequent upgrades, I'd greatly appreciate your advice on which model would best suit my needs, especially in terms of video processing and AI advancements. Thank you.

Not an Apple specialist but the issue might be because of the lowered memory bandwidth on the newer CPUs. Check "Memory Bandwidth M1 Max" and same for M3 Pro. A quick google search for me yields 150GB/s vs 400GB/s (not sure if 14-inch M1 Max can utilize the full 400).

Don’t the M1 Max got more media engines? Also less performance cores right? The M1 Pro was really close to the M1 Max. They used to be both powerhouses, but now they differentiated them a bit more. So m3 maximum efficiency, m3 max maximum performance and m3 pro in the middle rather than it leaning towards the power side like the M1 Pro did.

Nice wallpaper!

I have a 2016 MacBook pro and want to know if I should upgrade.

Love the vid oliur. The M3 MAX definitely seems like it’s more the spec for you, I know your reason with going for the pro over the max, but with the M2 and M3 chips, Apple has given much more of a GPU advantage to the MAX chips

Maybe the video project you were exporting on the M1 Max vs M1 Pro was simpler? Exporting a project has multiple components, the transcoding is handled by the video engine, which is the same in all M-series SoCs. If the project didn't have any color correction or fancy effects, the main job would be transcoding. Whenever you start applying color correction the GPU starts to handle lots of the work. And the GPU on M1 Max is faster in practice than M3 Pro. The M1 Max also has more video engines, which helps if you have multiple very high resolution sources playing at the same time.

It’s the memory bandwidth it even shows it on the website from Apple it’s literally half unless you get the max

I figured it out!!! As a RU-vidr with the same workflow I purchased the 14inch M3 Max model FULLY SPEC’d out……I experienced the same in my workflows with Premier Pro and Final Cut!!! The 14inch Starts Throttling and getting really hot and the performance because of it takes a massive hit! Even the fans spin up like crazy….i returned the 14 inch m3 max and grabbed the 16inch M3 Max and OMG THE PERFORMANCE difference is insane!!!! The heat signature is way lower in every aspect….it doesn’t heat up even close to the temperatures of the 14inch I had…..performance is groundbreaking and so is the battery life…..I know you love the form factor and so did I but the 16inch is the way to go….you won’t experience any throttling and you will see the massive performance leap you’re looking for MaxTech also did a 14vs16” m3 max comparison with this and it backs up and shows everything I just mentioned. Hope this helps everyone😊

it could be because mot the things you've used haven't been optimized apple did say this upgrade was for interl USERS and m1 users not any of the pro or max chips machines

I honestly think its about app optimization..like just wait some Final Cut updates or something...

I can’t place the video I watched regarding the M3 review. but apparently some popular software are not yet optimised for the M3 chips

If you just need more storage, you can get 3k read/write speeds from the SanDisk Pro-G40. 4TB of ultra fast storage for under $400. No need to buy a new machine just for storage.

It’s great that you throw this out there and don’t just join the fanboy parade. I’m happy with my M1 Max MBP and will gladly keep it another few years. Thanks!

question, im new to mac. how come youtube videos do not fit the whole entire screen? i have a 14" MBP

I'm about to buy a MacBook Pro M3 base model, I’m not a heavy user, only use my MacBook for online Zoom classes and a little browsing. Do I need 16gigs ?

Part of it is likely the 18 core GPU vs 24 core GPU? I mean that seems obvious. Another thing to analyze is potentially you got a damaged board somehow? Avoid a bench software and make a basic script to do hardcore cpu crunching and another one for gpu crunching.

I am happy with my m3 pro. It's my first macbook pro so I have nothing to compare it to other than my 4090 htpc and 3080 pc..

Possible problems (imho): 1) FCPX not yet optimised for M3, 2) much less memory bandwidth: M1 Max = 400GB/s, M3 Pro = 150 GB/s

I bet this is to do with the fact that Apple reduced the memory bandwidth. They reduced it on the Pro models.

That thumbnail 🤌

Throttling with the 14 inch happens more with the heat compared to the 16 inch to. Look up performance videos on it between 14 and 16 inch plus memory bandwidth .

Never heard of raycast. Any codes left?

You might get better results once Apple releases the new 10.7 FCP update.

How will m3 pro ???

In the US taxes are state specific. In NC we pay almost 7%. So that $3799 machine is really $4064. I would love to for us to only be charged $100 extra dollars. Great video btw!

Just amazing how many people cant seem to watch the video properly. If i had to guess the issue I would go with Final Cut needing to be updated. I think you should keep this laptop personally.

Very nice!

Any more RayCast codes?

thxxx for this!!

SSD speeds?

As others have pointed out, I believe it is the double amount of media encoder/decoders in all max vs pro models

If u already have a m1 or m2 chips, there is absolutely no reason to get m3 chip…now it’s a perfect time to get an Apple refurbished m1 or m2 on their refurbished store.

The more reason i barely pay attention to benchmark results these days. They don't really translate real world usage scenarios.

My M1 iPad Pro is still kicking ass. Apple is 3 generations overpowered each time the release a new machine and SOC.

Excellent video! You just earned a new sub from me!

JustJosh made a video on this. CPU memory bandwith seems to be the cause...

Final cut pro is not yet optimised for the m3 chips

@justjosh's video on the memory bandwidth limitation is the explanation. Please have a look

Just Josh did a videos on this recently. He explains the memory bandwidth changes that Apple has made is the reason for this. Memory bandwidth has been downgraded heavily in all but the M3 Max full spec model. Highly suggest you check it out!

What’s the song at the end of the video?

The m1, m2 and m3 pro have one hardware video encoder unit and all the max model have 2 of them. Thats why you are having half the speed just for video rendering. If that one specific task is so important for you I sugest going for a base m3 max with 2 tb storage. You will be paying 200 pounds less for a computer with half the storage but same ram amount and much more cpu/gpu/video encoding power.

You helped me to not make the same mistake. Thank you.

How's the performance for web development (iterm, vs code, swift, figma, etc)?

This year with M3 series , Apple changed the core configuration to segment the lineups. M2 pro 14" 10-core CPU with 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 16-core GPU 16-core Neural Engine 200GB/s memory bandwidth M2 pro 14" 12-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 19-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 200GB/s memory bandwidth M2max 14" 12-core CPU with 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 30-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 400GB/s memory bandwidth M3 pro 14" 11-core CPU with 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, 14-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 150GB/s memory bandwidth, Hardware-accelerated ray tracing M3 pro 14" 12-core CPU with 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, 18-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 150GB/s memory bandwidth, Hardware-accelerated ray tracing M3Max14" 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, 30-core GPU,16-core Neural Engine, 300GB/s memory bandwidth, Hardware-accelerated ray tracing Look at the P core configurations and bandwidth. Some apps like audio only use P-Cores and no E-Cores and no gpu. Will wait if the developers start using E-cores more. Apps like Davinci Resolve, 3D, Ai use a lot of GPU so pick the right configuration for the apps you are using. For video editing, filters, effects and color grading use CPU, GPU. Rendering part is hardware encoders for the supported codecs. Media encoders on M1-M3 are basically same . Pros have one , Max have 2, Ultra 4. So for rendering videos, you can see the speed difference but not too many youtubers are talking about it. A good test would be to use a software encoder to benchmark render speeds. This will give a better idea of core performance minus the encoders. For encoding benchmarks use Handbrake and set to use Videotoolbox. Use an app like MX Power Gadget to monitor how your app use CPU and GPU. Neural Engine monitoring you need Asitop.

What external monitor do you recommend for a MacBook, preferably with USB-C so I have the 1 cable setup but also want to be able to game with it?

Your experience is going to depend on your use case. If you do a lot of video editing or professional video editing, note that Max chips are twice as fast at rendering videos because of their architecture. Also, it will depend on your software. In many cases, especially mixing music, software doesnt adequately use efficiency cores, so you might see better performance on M1 chips because they have more performance cores. If you do anything like blender or graphic intensive tasks, work with ai or game, go with the m3 chips because theres a significant increase in performance for those tasks. Also, I'd stay away from max chips on the 14 inch, some people experience thermal throttling

I'm just wondering... why do you wear 2 watches?

Mx Pro chips have slower encoders and decoders, that's the sole reason why any generation Max chip will be always faster the Pro chip in rendering h.264

So what would you recommend? 14" 1tb 36gb ram M3 pro or 16" 1tb 36gb ram M3 Max for web dev or programming in general?

Thanks, why don't you buy M3 Max? 😇