The Apple M1 chip was good, but it's the M1 Pro and Max that would make us buy one! (2024)

FAQs

Which chip is better M1 Pro or M1 Max? ›

While the M1 Max is undoubtedly the more powerful of Apple's two new chips, the M1 Pro is no slouch either, and it's debatable whether most people need the added power and features of the M1 Max.

In terms of support, An Apple machine usually compatible with 5 major OS, for the M1 Macs, that means from macOS 11 - 15. For hardware support, Apple usually give 7 years support, after that the machine will be marked as vintage and service is only available if the part is available only.

The all-new MacBook Pro has been refreshed with powerful M1 Pro chip and M1 Max chip making this Macbook incredible in terms of performance and all-new capabilities for developers, photographers, and all artists who need a demanding workflow.

M1 and M2 are far from obsolete

Unless you're jumping from a base M1 to something like an M3 Max, you're unlikely to feel a major performance gain moving from one Apple Silicon generation to another.

If you're the typical engineering student running the typical apps, I say go for the pro chip (max is overkill unless you plan on running multiple apps at the same time). You will be fine with 16 GB unless you like to have multiple monitors/windows/apps open at the same time.

M1 Max features the same powerful 10-core CPU as M1 Pro and adds a massive 32-core GPU for up to 4x faster graphics performance than M1. With 57 billion transistors — 70 percent more than M1 Pro and 3.5x more than M1 — M1 Max is the largest chip Apple has ever built.

Apple today discontinued the MacBook Air with the M1 chip, which launched in November 2020 as one of the first Apple silicon Macs.

And for those who need more power than an M1 can offer, the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are still great options. But here's the thing: Unless you know for a fact that an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip won't be powerful enough for what you want to do, don't kid yourself into thinking you have to have an M2 Pro or M2 Max chip.

The ‌M1 Max‌ is better suited to extremely demanding GPU workflows, such as high-level graphic design, 3D modeling, and video editing. Users who often work with video may also benefit from the ‌M1 Max‌'s additional video engines.

Who actually needs a MacBook Pro? ›

If you're a graphic designer, music producer, professional photographer, videographer, 3D artist, or iOS game and app developer, a MacBook Pro would be the way to go, as far as MacBooks are concerned.

For general use, including writing, work, video streaming and light gaming, the MacBook Air M1 is still an excellent choice. Sure, the M1 chip isn't the newest processor out there but its performance is still sometimes better than Windows laptops in its price range.

While the M1 Air might have been the least expensive of the MacBooks on Apple's roster, it wasn't exactly the best value option. The M2 MacBook Air starts at $999, which is the same price that the M1 Air originally launched at, but you're getting a newer, more powerful device.

The new M2 Max includes faster CPU cores with 2 more efficiency cores to improve battery life, faster / more GPU cores (38 vs 32), and the RAM has increased from 64 to a whopping 96GB RAM (both models at 400GB/s).

M1 Pro offers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth with support for up to 32GB of unified memory. M1 Max delivers up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and support for up to 64GB of unified memory.

M2 Pro features 40 billion transistors, 200GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, and up to 32GB of fast, low-latency unified memory. M2 Max features 67 billion transistors, 400GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, and up to 96GB of fast, low-latency unified memory.

The M2 will be slightly faster in single-core but the M1 Pro/Max is faster in multi-core. The MBP has more features and more ports, plus you can configure with more RAM. I'd HIGHLY advise getting 24 or 32GB of RAM instead of 16GB.

The M1 Max will likely be single digit percentages faster due to a slightly higher core count. What Nvidia GPU is equivalent to Apple's M1 Pro? The Nvidia GPU that is closest in performance to Apple's M1 Pro would be the GeForce RTX 3060.