Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023 M3 Max Review - M3 Max challenges HX-CPUs from AMD & Intel

[Redaktion]

The MacBook Pro 16 gets a massive performance boost thanks to the new M3 Max SoC and besides a more powerful GPU, the CPU offers the biggest gains. The SDR brightness of the 16-inch Mini-LED screen was increased as well. We review the high-end MacBook in the new Space Black color.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-16-2023-M3-Max-Review-M3-Max-challenges-HX-CPUs-from-AMD-Intel.766414.0.html

[Neenyah]

8529€ machine is barely beating an RTX 4070 LAPTOP GPU 😂 That's all I have to say about what I think about it.

[Mr Majestyk]

While the battery life is great, there is no reason at all you can justify the insane price to get that superior  battery life. This is a laptop that would cost more than a second hand car in Australia at something like $13K. That is literally insane for a non-upgradable laptop that will look like garbage in a mere 2-3 years. It would need to be 50% cheaper to even warrant consideration.

AMD for the easy win and it won't be long before we get Strix Point APU's and Meteor Lake APU's.

[Midnight.mangler]

8529€ machine is barely beating an RTX 4070 LAPTOP GPU 😂 That's all I have to say about what I think about it.

That may be, but multicore CPU performance is close to desktop Intel levels.

That is insane, at least 20% better than my Razer Blade 18 running a 13980HX CPU in a smaller form factor and important for my use case - CPU powered 3D rendering. (Some of my 3D applications do not support GPU rendering.) And if I run my Razer on battery you can kiss that CPU & GPU performance goodbye. 3D accelerated GPU rendering has its benefits, but also its limitations. And the enormous unified memory allows for greater VRAM for GPU rendering than Nvidia provides.

The value (like everything) depends on your use case fella.

[RobertJasiek]

CPU performance [...] the enormous unified memory allows for greater VRAM for GPU rendering than Nvidia provides.

See here for the very low GPU compute performance and efficiency:

www.notebookchat.com/index.php?msg=559690

[Matck06]

Hello,

first of all, thank you very much for the test!

Are you going to test the M3 Max 14 cpu and 30 gpu version?

[paviko]

The biggest surprise is that at the same power usage (55W), the Ryzen 9 7945HX outperforms the M3 Max in Cinebench R23 Multi, scoring 26,045 points compared to 24,024. Insane! Even Intel isn't far behind with 19,772 at 55W. It looks like in 2024, both Intel and AMD will be ahead.

Also interesting are the new benchmarks (2024, 6.2) favoring Apple SoC. This probably indicates some heavy Apple compiler optimization. I observed something similar in the past with the Intel compiler. It's not fair to use the Apple compiler for the Apple SoC and a generic compiler for the rest :)

Overall nice notebook with 128GB RAM and 8TB SSD, only price is too high.

[ariliquin]

Brilliant laptop with amazing technology overpriced for greed reasons. Its a shame.

[Midnight.mangler]

CPU performance [...] the enormous unified memory allows for greater VRAM for GPU rendering than Nvidia provides.

See here for the very low GPU compute performance and efficiency:

www.notebookchat.com/index.php?msg=559690

I am very aware of the delta, which is why I clearly emphasized CPU performance as important for my use case. If I want GPU rendering - which I use very infrequently - I'll use my Razer Blade 18 with a 4090 for that.

Nevertheless, the GPU performance is still usable on Apple silicon.

[hs4]

The biggest surprise is that at the same power usage (55W), the Ryzen 9 7945HX outperforms the M3 Max in Cinebench R23 Multi, scoring 26,045 points compared to 24,024. Insane! Even Intel isn't far behind with 19,772 at 55W. It looks like in 2024, both Intel and AMD will be ahead.

Also interesting are the new benchmarks (2024, 6.2) favoring Apple SoC. This probably indicates some heavy Apple compiler optimization. I observed something similar in the past with the Intel compiler. It's not fair to use the Apple compiler for the Apple SoC and a generic compiler for the rest :)

Overall nice notebook with 128GB RAM and 8TB SSD, only price is too high.

I think Cinebench R23 was not yet ready for ARM. In any case, Cinebench 2024 is a good to compare ARM vs. x86, with R23 the spread between 13900HX and M3 Max is 1.25x, with 2024 it increases to 1.5x.

My projection based on the information released so far puts the performance/power curves of M3 Max, Arrow lake-HX, and Fire Range in close proximity. Next holiday season, M3, Arrow lake-H, Lunar lake, Strix Point, and Snap Dragon X Elite will each be placed closer on the performance/power curve.

[RobertJasiek]

the GPU performance is still usable on Apple silicon.

It may - with existing software - often be usable but whether then it is useful at the relatively limited speeds depends on the application and user's requirements. (For my application and requirements, it would be way too slow. For others, this might differ.)

[LL]

A part of that price is the 8TB SSD and the 128GB Memory...


In GPU rendering with Metal we need to wait for Blender 4.0 release to have a real benchmark. Maybe Octane and Redshift(Cinebench 2024) are already updated but were not posted here.


The unified memory is what makes me look for Apple due to miserable Nvidia VRAM values. 16GB VRAM is the minimum to work in Unreal Engine.

[NikoB]

$8000+, approx.

Apple promised a memory controller 25% slower than in the M2 Max (apparently that's a lie, too, because I never saw its tests in the reviews) with 300GB/s. What do we see in reality? Shameful 122-125GB/s, i.e. more than 2 times slower and not much different from x86.

Slow card reader (or the testers have too slow cards).

A shameful screen with a monstrous response, on which it is even impossible to play a 60fps video! Without full support for AdobeRGB with low brightness and the real black level and contrast deliberately hidden from us by the review authors, which is obviously extremely poor. And also the real state of the calibration quality, hidden from us - apparently it also turned out to be clearly bad in terms of dE.

As always, a poor keyboard without a numpad, which sharply reduces the performance of data entry, group file operations, and navigation.

Let's go further - at 56W, Apple disgraced itself with a "3nm" SoC - AMD gained significantly in pure multi-threaded performance with the same consumption on the outdated 7945HX 2022 even with "5/6nm". It's not even Zen4 Phoenix with "4/5nm".

The overall picture becomes much less favorable for Apple, because improvement of technical processes is becoming slower and less efficient and gaining access to the most advanced technical processes no longer saves the Apple team from the problems of inefficiency in the development of Arm cores and the lack of a more significant leap in technical processes to break away from competitors in a stupid way .

Even at rest, consumption is gradually increasing. The noise increases. The rate of increase in performance per 1W begins to fall rapidly.

The question is, who and why will need such a laptop for $8000+? For this money in the x86 camp you can just buy a top-class uber-laptop or 2 supernotebooks.

Quite a beautiful trinket for rich bloggers, nothing more, but extremely ineffective in terms of capabilities/price for normal people involved in real business and development. For ~$4000 it has the right to life, taking into account the deception with the performance of the memory controller, SoC/igpu and other shortcomings, but not for 8000+

Sadly. 2023 brings experts only disappointment in the laptop market, time after time. Downgrade and shortcomings everywhere...

[larkhon]

The value (like everything) depends on your use case fella.

Not really... it depends on how much one (or rather, whoever is paying) values the gain they make from it. And it kind of comes down to personal choices too. If I were to ask my boss a 8000€ machine (or even half of it, which gets you 1tb/36gb) because it does one task 20% faster on battery he would probably question my 'use case'.

[larkhon]

outdated 7945HX 2022 even with "5/6nm". It's not even Zen4 Phoenix with "4/5nm".

Outdated?? there are no newer CPU generation in actual laptops, and the 7945hx was availaible like 3-4 months ago...