Returning My M3 Max MacBook Pro

I got a refurbished mbp m2 12 core today like you mentioned in the video. I'll run some tests and see how it feels going back to macOS after five years. Im in the same position as I have a decent windows desktop I built and I'm thinking maybe I don't really need this its a bit overkill. It is impressive to have all this performance in such a small 14" laptop though. I was mostly attracted by the power consumption. Thanks for the video looking forward to the next

Bjørnar, your videos have been very helpful in deciding whether to swap over to macOS full-time. I ended up picking up an M3 Pro MBP 18GB 1TB and loved it for about a month, but I ended up returning it this week as I felt like there was nothing that macOS was doing for me that my current workstation and laptop didn't already accomplish. My music workflow is Maschine and Ableton. I did run into issues with Maschine installing on macOS Sonoma but was fine when NI sent me an installer. Overall I was very impressed by the performance of the M3 Pro but for nearly $2500 for the MBP and a Magic Trackpad I felt there was no reason to move on from Windows unless my current devices died. Very easy to fall into the "shiny new Apple product" trap, but if my laptop goes out I will strongly consider doing another MBP. Thank you for your content and I hope to see more from you in 2024

I hear you for sure. Functionally I realized my M2 Pro Max was identical in functional performance so I stuck that that. I feel like even now, the M1 Max and M1 Air are still the best value for the money.

Hey my friend! Thanks for the video as always!!! Do you not use any more macs now? Only on Windows? I was still considering a mac for producing away from home... Living in a apart sometimes sucks for producing haha. Ryzen 7 5800x here still haha.

My original comment isn't being uploaded, damn. I said congratulations. I think you made the right choice. Even M1 Studio Max is doing a staggering 174 tracks vs Mac Mini M1 at 109 in the project benchmark test via music-prod. It's selling used in the UK at well under retail too. I found this channel due to your M1 technical testing, so I'm not going anywhere lol. Plus, I'm a gamer and PC building geek too. I think cheaper products will offer more views longer term in your channel IMHO. More people have less to spend, that's my logic. Gr8 vid as always.

Respect

My original 8gb M1 Air has kept me from buying new computers - it’s just too good.

Was it the fans or just better value for money can be found elsewhere? I just the other day got rid of my M1 Max Studio and replaced it with a brand new M1 Max laptop (slightly better spec; 64gb/1TB and 32 core gpu; my Mac Studio was 24 core gpu version). I really didn't like the fact that every so often you can hear the fan. Usually when waking from sleep after a cold night. It's not the fan noise it's the pitch. I found out after I bought the M1 Max laptop that this is an issue with the M1 Studios that was fixed with the M2 Mac Studio. Had I known before I might have been tempted to buy a M2 Ultra Mac Studio but that said I do love the laptop ergonomics. I have more options now in terms of ergonomics and area setup. Makes a big difference. I would like the M3 Max though just for single core performance bump over the M1. That would be useful for things like Diva. Also I wouldn't mind 96 or even 128GB of Ram (probably 96 though as the fewer GPU cores might be a better idea to keep the fans quiet). Anyway, looking forward to what you'll do next on the channel music production wise. Cheers.

I came from a 2019 Intel, insane difference and I got the $4,000 model. No qualms of course since the jump was huge! Your views are pretty in line with what most are saying, I totally feel like a lot of people including MKBHD said the M3 was barely an upgrade in a sense.

Would you recomend studio one on pc or mac ?

Thank you very much for the honest review which are very rare for Apple today. If RME (the king in writing drivers) has problems, there is really no hope. As they removed support for drivers in the kernel, all of this affects latency. Goodbye apple from professionals.

I am thinking about giving it back to.

I too want to return my M1 Max but return is not there in my country I liked intel one much more as I can play games on windows partition too

The Moog app is also not super stable on my Intel Mac… it’s just not a reliable program

How about a hackintosh on your ryzen rig?

M3max performance boost are for 3d and GPU. Great for 3d and apps that uses GPU. Audio and video apps won't get much performance boost. Also the hardware video encoders are basically the same for m1max to m3max. You will get minimal performance boost. Wait for software to be optimized for m3. Blender 3d for example. M3max renders 19 sec vs Desktop 3090 17 sec. Desktop 4090 7 sec. M1pro 3 and a half minute. Laptop wise, Apple Silicon are awesome. Insane performance and battery life. MacOS is good and bad.I use Windows and Macs and just deal with it.

Pretty much m3 series seems to be a upgrade for those coming from Intel MacBook but not m1 or m2 there is not much gain except you use more 3d related one

Personally a 9 min vid isn't a long thing to watch, with the knowledge and reasoning included within. We come here for details, impossible to please everyone lol.

Mac is awesome, but I've already decide to use PC because the Mac is getting so high to afford for me

sorry half of the video I still don't understand why you give it back! you have that chance but why buying such a machine to give it back?!