Apple last week launched new MacBook Pro models featuring the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips. We’ve already reviewed the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, but we also wanted to test his top-of-the-line M3 Max chip to see how it rates.
The M3 Pro’s performance was disappointing overall compared to the M2 Pro and M1 Pro, and the same cannot be said for the M3 Max. Using Geekbench, the M3 Max is almost as fast as the “M2” Ultra, with a single-core score of 3217 and a multi-core score of 21597. “M2” Max has a single-core score of 2737 and a multi-core score of 14503. And the difference is even more pronounced when you compare it to the 2021 M1 Max, the first 16-inch MacBook Pro with an Apple silicon chip. The single-core score of “M1 Max” is 2379, and the multi-core score is 12206.
Other benchmark tests show similar significant improvements between the 2023 M3 Max and 2021 M1 Max. In Cinebench, M3 Max got a multi-core CPU score of 1601 compared to 788 score for ‘M1 Max’. Classroom rendering in Blender took 8.5 minutes on the M1 Max machine compared to 3.5 minutes on the M3 Max machine.
Exporting a 16-minute 4K video with multiple effects took 5.5 minutes on the M3 Max and 7.5 minutes on the M1 Max.
As for SSD speed, they were about the same. The ‘M1 Max’ had a read/write score of 5727/5980, respectively, while the M3 Max had a read/write score of 5032/6197, respectively.
Watch the full video for a more detailed comparison of the two machines. This video will help you see how much Apple silicon has progressed in his two years. The M1 Max is still a super fast chip, and if you already own an M1 Max machine, you probably don’t need to upgrade to the M3 Max, but some tests show the new chip is up to 2x faster is.
