Help deciding

[IGBT]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been using MacBooks on and off over the years—had an older Intel one before, and more recently I’ve been using my partner’s M1 MacBook Air. So I’m not new to macOS, but I just picked up a machine that I’m really curious about and hoping to get your thoughts on.

Here’s what I’m working with:

My main computer has been a pretty solid Windows setup but it's got its hiccups:

Ryzen 7950X
64GB RAM
4TB SSD
RTX 3060 Ti
But now I’ve bought a 16” MacBook Pro with the M1 Max (10-core CPU / 32-core GPU), 64GB RAM, and 4TB SSD. Got it for $2,390.


So, here’s what I’m trying to figure out—and I’d really love your input.
I do a lot of editing in Lightroom, some in Photoshop, and I’m just starting to get into DaVinci Resolve Studio for 4K video with 2–3 camera angles. I was really excited to try the M1 Max to see if all the Apple Silicon hype was true, especially in terms of value for money and performance.

I’ve been running a few side-by-side comparisons between the MacBook and my PC, and here’s what I’ve found so far:



Quick Thoughts & Questions:
1. Was this a good deal?
Would you consider the M1 Max with these specs a good buy at 1795 pounds?

2. The Mac feels faster... kinda?
The MacBook feels noticeably snappier in general use compared to my PC—but my PC hasn’t been formatted in over a year and only had ~100GB of free space when I tested it. So maybe not a fair comparison, but still worth noting.

3. AI Editing with Aftershoot – what’s going on?
This was surprising:

MacBook: 8 min 50 sec
PC: 3 min 15 sec
I was expecting the MacBook to be at least close, if not faster. Maybe throttling? But here’s the weird part:


When I go from Aftershoot back into Lightroom, it takes 8–10 seconds for the settings to load for each image on the filmstrip (the bar at the bottom). On the PC, that same process takes 2–3 seconds. I'm wondering if this could be due to the difference in CPU cores (PC has 16, Mac has 10), or maybe how Lightroom uses the CPU?

Anyone that has similar workflow seen this behavior?


4. Exporting – Mac wins here!
One area where the MacBook did better:

MacBook: 13 minutes
PC: 17:30
So throttling might not be the issue after all, since exporting also pushes the system pretty hard and the Mac still came out ahead.

5. Import speeds – about the same.
Both systems took around 5 minutes to import 1000 uncompressed 24MP RAW files (~50MB each).

General Impressions
Honestly, I was expecting the Mac to blow my PC out of the water across the board, but that hasn’t really been the case. It feels more responsive, and I love the portability, but the raw performance isn’t as dramatically better as I’d hoped.


Thinking about the M2 Max
I’ve seen the ArtIsRight tests, and from what I’ve gathered, the M2 Max seems like a better bang for your buck. The used one I’m looking at (only one available) has 96GB RAM and 2TB SSD, but it would cost 700 more (would appreciate more ssd than ram but that configuration they don't have available).


Is the M2 Max worth it for 700 more with that configuration in terms of: Would I see noticeably better performance (smoother UI, faster exports, better handling in Aftershoot/Lightroom/Resolve)?


Still to test:
Just got the laptop yesterday, so I’m still putting it through my full workflow this week.
Haven’t tried video yet—DaVinci tests are coming soon.
Planning to try High Power Mode to see if it helps.

A few more questions I’d love help with:
Does High Power Mode really improve performance noticeably?
Will it cause the Mac to run hotter or throttle sooner?
Is it okay to leave it plugged in all the time at home, or will that wear out the battery faster?
Will the M1 Max be unsupported in the next year or two?

Why I’m doing this:
I want something portable that I can use around the house, bring to shoots for backups and light culling, and ideally get better performance than my PC. Right now, the MacBook feels great in terms of build and responsiveness, but I was expecting it to clearly outperform my PC, and it just hasn’t in all areas according to the whole hype around it.



Has anyone here used Aftershoot on M1 Max and seen similar issues with loading times or performance?
Also, would a Mac Studio with the same M1 Max chip perform any better than the MacBook Pro?

I could see myself buying a Mac Studio in a year time to replace my PC if I was to keep this M1 Max and then would have the best of both worlds a powerful stationary (not so much given their size can be taken anywhere) Mac and a mobile one.



Any thoughts, suggestions, or shared experiences would be super helpful. Thanks a ton in advance!

 

[Cromulent]

I have a Mac Studio M1 Max with 32GB of RAM and 512GB SSD and it cost me £2200 when brand new in 2022 so I'd say £1795 is on the expensive side. In terms of performance I'm not sure as I've never used a newer Mac and I don't do image / video editing.

I would imagine the M1 Max will be supported for a few years. I use mine for programming, virtual machines and other random tasks. It feels fine to me but the new M4 Max Mac Studio has me tempted.

 

[IGBT]

I have a Mac Studio M1 Max with 32GB of RAM and 512GB SSD and it cost me £2200 when brand new in 2022 so I'd say £1795 is on the expensive side. In terms of performance I'm not sure as I've never used a newer Mac and I don't do image / video editing.

I would imagine the M1 Max will be supported for a few years. I use mine for programming, virtual machines and other random tasks. It feels fine to me but the new M4 Max Mac Studio has me tempted.

Thanks for reply. I was also tempted but just the base model for the mbp 16” m4 max is £3500 and people say that it’s been just incremental gains.

The laptop I got is the same mbp 16” but obviously m1max but it comes with 64gb and 4tb SSD. If I increase the m4max to 4tb the price jumps to £4500. I am pretty sure that the m1max configuration I mentioned (64gb ram, 4tb SSD and model 10/32) was at the same price point back then.

Do you reckons that £1795 is expensive with 1y warranty?

Tia

 

[Cromulent]

Thanks for reply. I was also tempted but just the base model for the mbp 16” m4 max is £3500 and people say that it’s been just incremental gains.

The laptop I got is the same mbp 16” but obviously m1max but it comes with 64gb and 4tb SSD. If I increase the m4max to 4tb the price jumps to £4500. I am pretty sure that the m1max configuration I mentioned (64gb ram, 4tb SSD and model 10/32) was at the same price point back then.

Do you reckons that £1795 is expensive with 1y warranty?

Tia

First of all I'm not sure so get someone else's opinion as well but a 64GB 4TB SSD does sound good for that price point especially with the warranty. Is it an Apple warranty or with a third party?

 

[IGBT]

First of all I'm not sure so get someone else's opinion as well but a 64GB 4TB SSD does sound good for that price point especially with the warranty. Is it an Apple warranty or with a third party?

No worries. I was just trying to understand if for this price this laptop is an excellent investment. In regards to your question, it's a company that just sells apple and they are the ones providing the warranty. It's very well known company.

 

[mid_gen]

I've just been comparing my new Mac with my PC setup in video editing in Da Vinci Resolve.

PC:
Ryzen 7900(non-X)
64Gb
RTX 4070 + Intel Arc A310 (for the hardware h265 decoders)

Mac:
2025 M4 Macbook Air 24Gb

I'm using Da Vinci Resolve Studio btw which uses hardware GPU decoding.

The hardware media engines on the Mac are great, chomps through all formats including h265 10-bit 422. Editing multicam 4k streams on the Mac Air is just as snappy and responsive as my PC, possibly even a little better. I can scrub the timeline as fast as I like and it's instantly responsive.

Exporting regular footage is likewise very similar, chews through it quite fast, haven't timed it.

Where Mac can't compete is with the GPU side. I do AI SuperScale upscaling on most of my videos, and the Mac Air is taking 8+ hours for something my relatively modest 4070 does in 2hours. I suspect you'd need to go M3 Ultra and spend £4k to get GPU performance close to a mid-range nVidia card for AI tasks.

BUT.....if you aren't doing heavy GPU tasks like AI upscaling, the Mac M4 is totally adequate for editing. When I'm just shooting general talking videos that don't need upscaling I'll be sticking to my Mac.

 

[Throrik]

Where Mac can't compete is with the GPU side. I do AI SuperScale upscaling on most of my videos, and the Mac Air is taking 8+ hours for something my relatively modest 4070 does in 2hours. I suspect you'd need to go M3 Ultra and spend £4k to get GPU performance close to a mid-range nVidia card for AI tasks.

A Macbook Air which has no active fan cooling and will thermal throttle much quicker because of it, will obviously be much slower than a 4070 + A310. I imagine any Mac with a fan will do it in a much better time, but yeah probably not going to reach the same speeds as a desktop grade dual GPU solution.

 

[mid_gen]

A Macbook Air which has no active fan cooling and will thermal throttle much quicker because of it, will obviously be much slower than a 4070 + A310. I imagine any Mac with a fan will do it in a much better time, but yeah probably not going to reach the same speeds as a desktop grade dual GPU solution.

Just in raw numbers, the M4 GPU is 4.6 TFLOP, and 4070 is 22-ish....so in line with the performance disparity I'm seeing. You'd need to spend £4k on the top M4 Max to get GPU performance on a par with the 4070.

I'm not dissing the MBA at all, it's a phenomenal machine.