Poll: *** The official M3 MacBook Pro thread (it has the M3 chip, is available in Space Black and everything!) ***

[Andrew Moore]

21st of November.

Silver, 64gb RAM, 2tb SSD, 16” 16/40core M3 Max.

The gaming computer given I only play wow and the odd crappy game from years ago is now redundant even with a 7950x and 3080ti.

M1 16”, 12.9” iPad Pro and M2 air can also go. I’ve got too many devices that all serve purpose that is currently to fill my desk and depreciate.

Moving back to a phone and an iPad mini with a MacBook Pro as my only computer (if we exclude home lab stuff) actually feels quite refreshing. I’m looking forward to the declutter and doubt I’ll really notice any slowdown or performance drops anywhere given what I will ultimately use it for.

Happy chap! Bring on the 21st!!

 

[silvagti]

The real question is eithe the M3 or M3 pro? and how many cores. No real heavy workloads, but for future proofing I feel the M3 Pro will last a lot longer because of the big increase in core count

M3 pro seems like a better call if you want 16/18gb RAM but I guess it might be worth waiting to see some benchmarks/reviews to help decide.

 

[Andrew Moore]

M3 pro seems like a better call if you want 16/18gb RAM but I guess it might be worth waiting to see some benchmarks/reviews to help decide.

I agree with this but on the flip note I think apple are goign to cause themselves issues. The old M2 Pro was 8/4 Performance/eco cores with 19 GPU cores. The m3 Pro is 6/6 with 18 gpu cores... On paper it looks like a worse deal.. Even if the performance cores at 15% better, itll mean over all performance will be pretty much similar if not the same. I understand why it has been done as Apple really did need to differentiate between the Pro and the MAX chips more outside of media engines and GPU cores and doign this has given the MAX twice as many performance cores almost making it "ultra" like in that respect compared to the M1 and m2 ultra series of chips.

The M3 base model with the extra RAM and Storage is too close to base 14" M3 pro for my liking making anything outside of base spec a bit pointless.. Perhaps the goal here is to push people to the entry model M3 pro.

 

[HACO]

The M3 base model with the extra RAM and Storage is too close to base 14" M3 pro for my liking making anything outside of base spec a bit pointless.. Perhaps the goal here is to push people to the entry model M3 pro.

That's Apple's lineup strategy across all products.

 

[Minstadave]

That's Apple's lineup strategy across all products.

Yup Apple are master upsellers.

 

[Zaf]

Looking at finally upgrading my early 2015 MPB but can’t decide on the M3 16GB or M3 Pro 18GB both with 512GB. I’ll mainly be using it for product design with Fusion 360, is it worth the extra £200 for the M3 Pro?

 

[Andrew Moore]

Looking at finally upgrading my early 2015 MPB but can’t decide on the M3 16GB or M3 Pro 18GB both with 512GB. I’ll mainly be using it for product design with Fusion 360, is it worth the extra £200 for the M3 Pro?

It will be yes. Moderately more ram, much better GPU and more performance cores and eco cores all for £200? In Apple value that’s a steel.

 

[Trifid]

Is it worth buying from John Lewis for their 2 year warranty? It looks like Apple only offer 1 year? I presume I can still use their genius bar for the first year too?


Edit: Ordered 14" M3 pro, 18/512.

 

[Phemo]

Done the same. Ordered the base 14" M3 Pro with 18GB RAM and 512GB SSD in space black. Will be great for my use case. As I said in a previous post arguably my base model M1 MacBook Air is coping with everything I want very well indeed, but I've justified it to myself with a slightly bigger screen, MagSafe, still having 3 available USB-C ports even while charging and my wife gets a big step up with my M1 Air too. More performance and RAM as well as 120Hz screen will be nice too. I just really wish Apple hadn't introduced the notch to the MacBook line.

For desktop use I currently have (as well as a beefier PC) a 27" iMac with 6 core i5 and 48GB RAM (way more than I need) so after I buy a half decent monitor I'll be able to get rid of that too.

 

[daz]

Is it worth buying from John Lewis for their 2 year warranty? It looks like Apple only offer 1 year? I presume I can still use their genius bar for the first year too?


Edit: Ordered 14" M3 pro, 18/512.

I have gone for exactly the same. I was looking at a 15" M2 Air with more RAM and disk, but for a few hundred more can have a significantly better screen, more ports and a more modern system overall.
I am upgrading from a mid-2019 MacBook Pro 15" 2.6GHz i7!

 

[ChrisD.]

Is it worth buying from John Lewis for their 2 year warranty? It looks like Apple only offer 1 year? I presume I can still use their genius bar for the first year too?


Edit: Ordered 14" M3 pro, 18/512.

You can buy AppleCare+ from Apple which IMO is entirely worth it.

 

[Feek]

You can buy AppleCare+ from Apple which IMO is entirely worth it.

I'm inclined to agree with this, it makes it so easy if ever you need to get something fixed. If you've got AppleCare+, they just do it.

 

[Phemo]

Well I changed my mind and upped my order a bit from the 11C/14G/512GB M3 Pro 14" to the 12C/18G/1TB M3 Pro 14" instead. Figured an extra £400 was no big deal since this is gonna be the one I keep for quite some time

Surprisingly enough I've already had a dispatch confirmation too (not from Apple though) so looking good for Tuesday.

 

[Rainmaker]

Sorely tempted by the 14" M3 Pro 12/18 with 18GB and 1TB. Costco have it at £200 cheaper than Apple with a 2 year warranty, and I'm upgrading from my trusty (and still perfectly functional) mid-2012 Core i5 running Monterrey with 16GB and a Samsung SSD. Do you think it's worth the upgrade? I've been threatening to upgrade since M1, but this gen finally has a decent keyboard, AV1 decode, SD slot, MagSafe, HDMI etc etc. It's only missing Ethernet (which I use daily), but that's never coming back...

 

[ChrisD.]

Do you think it's worth the upgrade?

Any M series CPU is a huge upgrade over Intel! You can get a 2.5 GbE USB-C adaptor for about £30, a 1 GbE adaptor would be cheaper.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

Anyone have any thoughts on 128GB of RAM? I tend to buy one of these machines and keep it until they stop supporting it. My last purchase was a late 2013 MBP which had a max 16GB of RAM which I chose and am glad I did.

But don't know if 128GB is overkill if I am going to keep this one for a decade or more?

 

[Cromulent]

Anyone have any thoughts on 128GB of RAM? I tend to buy one of these machines and keep it until they stop supporting it. My last purchase was a late 2013 MBP which had a max 16GB of RAM which I chose and am glad I did.

But don't know if 128GB is overkill if I am going to keep this one for a decade or more?

Probably overkill but then I don't know what you use your computer for so hard to say. Some people might find 128GB too small.

 

[ChrisD.]

Anyone have any thoughts on 128GB of RAM? I tend to buy one of these machines and keep it until they stop supporting it. My last purchase was a late 2013 MBP which had a max 16GB of RAM which I chose and am glad I did.

But don't know if 128GB is overkill if I am going to keep this one for a decade or more?

Overkill unless you know you need that much, in which case you likely wouldn’t be asking.

 

[Feek]

Anyone have any thoughts on 128GB of RAM? I tend to buy one of these machines and keep it until they stop supporting it. My last purchase was a late 2013 MBP which had a max 16GB of RAM which I chose and am glad I did.

But don't know if 128GB is overkill if I am going to keep this one for a decade or more?

Serious overkill. I mean, proper serious overkill.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

Thanks folks.

I do software engineering and run multiple Docker containers.

How much RAM would people recommend, again considering the fact that I plan to keep this machine for as long as possible?