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

Are you going to buy an M3 MacBook Pro?

  • Yes

    Votes: 17 34.7%

  • No

    Votes: 32 65.3%
  • Total voters
    49
Dialup said:
How much RAM would people recommend, again considering the fact that I plan to keep this machine for as long as possible?
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Only you can answer that. Look at Activity Monitor, look at your current memory usage. You have 16Gb, are you using it all? If so, and you're into swap, how much swap are you using?
 
Dialup said:
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?
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I have 32GB in my Mac Studio which is fine but I'm going to be moving onto machine learning and that needs a bucket load of RAM. I'd say 32GB would be fine for normal software development including running virtual machines and Docker.

I run a Windows 11 Pro virtual machine on VMWare Fusion Pro and also test out FreeBSD and Linux.
 
Anyone else got theirs yet? Got my 14" M3 Pro in space black yesterday but haven't really had a chance to do much with it just yet. Initial impressions are good though.

It is a bit of a shame that Apple gimped the M3 Pro so that it's not really any faster than the M2 Pro in CPU tasks (or GPU unless RT is used), but as tests have shown, it does at least give the positive benefit of noticeably better battery life. The M2 Pro wasn't exactly slow so almost identical performance doesn't mean it's a bad chip, just a bit of a let down for a supposed generational improvement.

On the flip side I am happy enough with the performance anyway, and better battery life is a good thing.
 
Yes picked mine up yesterday. So far I really like my 14" Macbook M3 Pro. Coming from my 2019 15" i7 Macbook Pro everything is much snappier, hardly anything ever waits. I've actually be really surprised by how much of the web is faster - websites that I thought were my connection or just badly optimised are much faster to browse. I've not heard the fan kick in yet, but then i've not done too much intensive stuff but on my old laptop the fan would kick in occasionally watching Youtube or just re-indexing the hard disk. The keyboard is also significantly better now, this laptop is much nicer to type on. It actually reminds me of my 2013-era Macbook Pro.
 
daz said:
Yes picked mine up yesterday. So far I really like my 14" Macbook M3 Pro. Coming from my 2019 15" i7 Macbook Pro everything is much snappier, hardly anything ever waits. I've actually be really surprised by how much of the web is faster - websites that I thought were my connection or just badly optimised are much faster to browse. I've not heard the fan kick in yet, but then i've not done too much intensive stuff but on my old laptop the fan would kick in occasionally watching Youtube or just re-indexing the hard disk. The keyboard is also significantly better now, this laptop is much nicer to type on. It actually reminds me of my 2013-era Macbook Pro.
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Completely agree, coming from a 2015 MBP. Web is significantly faster then anything I've used before, the keyboard is a pleasure to use and the screen is awesome to look at. Redefines what a laptop should be, going back to work next week and using the supplied Windows laptop is going to depress me. :(

I'm glad I went silver., it would have been easy to get caught up in the hype of the black but it looks so classy sticking to the classic silver. The speakers have a interesting sound stage, it took me by surprise when I first heard them.
 
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I’m hoping to pick the sweet spot in MBPs to replace my 2015 15” MBP. Any new machine has an awful lot to live up to, and the addition (or reinstatement) of ports is a bonus. The problem I have is that my current MacBook is still really great to use. It’s not the fastest, but let’s be honest, I’m not gaming and I don’t really do hugely intensive tasks on it. Maybe retire it when it reaches 10 years old!
 
I went for the space black, mainly because I have a space grey M1 MacBook Air too (that my wife will now be getting) so fancied a bit of a change. I quite like the colour :) Lighting in this room is a bit dim, but here's space black vs space grey:

IMG-1158.jpg


Have to say that even that base spec M1 Air was doing a fine job for my usage, I just fancied a slightly bigger screen and my wife benefits as she's still using my old 2013 MacBook Pro at the moment which has a ruined battery as you'd expect.

Also as @Trifid mentioned, the speakers are quite a surprise - especially after being used to the Air's speakers for so long. I'm sure those who have had a 16" 2019 or later MacBook Pro will know what to expect, but it does sound significantly better.
 
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Apple says 8gb ram on the M3 MacBook isn't a problem at all

Reviews shows there is a massive performance difference

8gb ram is not enough for a modern computer it doesn't matter if it's windows or mac, 8gb is not enough

 
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Just picked up my 14” M3 Pro with 512GB, 1 year extended warranty and a 10% discount from my local independent Apple store today, cost £1,889.10 in total. I couldn’t upgrade the power supply for the extra £10 tho but happy so far!
 
Really enjoying mine so far. It does feel a bit of a waste in that I don't think I really do anything to push it, but it's a joy to use and I'm really liking the 14" screen. Coming from a 13" MacBook Air I didn't expect to really notice much when it came to the screen size, but I do.

Also glad to have MagSafe back again. Baffles me why they removed it in the first place back when they switched to USB-C.
 
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