We conscionable again, MacBook Pro 16. And it’s a alternatively boring meeting. We don’t person each that overmuch to accidental to each other.

The 2023 MacBook Pro 16 is astir precisely the aforesaid arsenic the 2021 MacBook Pro 16 but that determination is simply a caller spot inside. And conscionable to get 1 happening retired of the way: no, determination is not a bully crushed to bargain the 2023 exemplary if you already person the 2021 model. I don’t presume galore folks were reasoning of doing that. But successful lawsuit you were tempted, see this a affable digit wag successful your direction. Your $2,500-plus 2021 exemplary is inactive fine. 

With the straightforward question addressed, we tin dive into matters that are a spot much absorbing and little straightforward. This is going to beryllium an antithetic reappraisal successful that you (the reader) and I (the writer, hello) person entree to each the aforesaid information. I won’t beryllium talking astir the keyboard, touchpad, oregon thing of that benignant due to the fact that those are each the aforesaid arsenic they were connected the 2021 MacBook Pro 16, and you tin conscionable go work astir that.

What I’ve done present is tally assorted benchmarks connected the 2023 MacBook Pro 16 (I was sent a $4,299 M2 Max exemplary with a 12-core CPU, 38-core GPU, 64GB of memory, and 2TB of retention — 8 show cores, 4 ratio cores), and I’ll beryllium presenting you with each of the numbers I got. I’ll beryllium telling you my interpretations of those numbers, but the mode I’m interpreting them doesn’t needfully request to beryllium the mode you construe them; our opinions connected however galore existent dollars a make-believe Cinebench constituent is worthy are each our own. (Note: portion we reviewed the 16-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro here, astir everything prevention for our artillery beingness impressions tin besides use to the 14-inch model, which tin beryllium configured identically.)

All that said, I bash person opinions astir those numbers, and you presumably clicked connected this nonfiction due to the fact that you’re astatine slightest somewhat funny successful proceeding what they are. I’ll beryllium dividing them into 2 wide areas: the M2 Max vs. the M1 Max, and the M2 Max vs. the M2 Pro. 

Alright. Get retired your calculator and instrumentality a bully agelong look astatine the charts below. When you’re ready, let’s dive into this together. 

Our M1 Max MacBook Pro portion is inactive successful transit to me, truthful I haven’t been capable to tally the XcodeBenchmark connected it by the clip of this review’s publication. We’ll get this effect into the array ASAP.

How overmuch amended is the M2 Max than the M2 Pro?

Full disclosure: we were not sent an M2 Pro MacBook to reappraisal successful clip for this article’s publication. We’re moving connected getting one. In the meantime, we bash person a Mac Mini with an M2 Pro spot inside, which I’ll beryllium utilizing for examination here. That portion has a 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, 1TB of storage, and 16GB of memory. (While the Mac Mini and the MacBook are antithetic signifier factors, the M2 Pro is truthful businesslike that I wouldn’t expect this to origin immense discrepancies betwixt their scores.) The lone happening we can’t trial connected the Mini is artillery life, truthful enactment tuned for an update connected that.

The M2 Pro is disposable with 10 GPU cores successful the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but successful the 16-inch model, some the M2 Pro and M2 Max person 12. That makes GPU powerfulness the important quality betwixt these 2 chips. The M2 Pro has 19 GPU cores (and tin travel with 16 successful the 14-inch model), portion M2 Max buyers person a prime of 30 oregon 38.

There are a mates different distinctions to beryllium alert of. Foremost, the M2 Pro starts astatine 16GB of representation and maxes retired astatine 32. The M2 Max starts at 32GB RAM and goes up to a whopping 96GB. (Although that enactment is lone disposable with the 38-core CPU — don’t you emotion however straightforward this each is?) M2 Max systems besides person doubly the representation bandwidth (400GB/s to the M2 Pro’s 200GB/s). 

Oh, and there’s a large terms difference. As mentioned, our 16-inch reappraisal exemplary spec costs $4,299. The implicit cheapest 16-inch M2 Max exemplary would beryllium $3,299, and the cheapest 16-inch M2 Pro exemplary would beryllium $2,499. (The further RAM is simply a large chunk of that upgrade.) The 14-inch exemplary starts astatine $1,999, though it has less CPU and GPU cores successful its precise basal configuration.

The M2 Max and the M2 Pro are cervix and cervix connected the CPU-bound synthetic benchmarks we ran. In astir cases, the M1 Max was a spot up but wrong the borderline of error. We tin look to the XcodeBenchmark arsenic well, a task that we’d expect to beryllium CPU-intensive. The scores are adjacent together. 

Looking astatine benchmarks that measurement graphics, by contrast, the M2 Pro and M2 Max look to beryllium connected antithetic planets. The M2 Max is acold and distant the astir graphically almighty laptop spot that Apple has released; the M2 Pro is overmuch person to the remainder of the pack. The M2 Max instrumentality got the fastest clip I’ve ever seen from a laptop connected our 4K Premiere Pro export trial (which is GPU-accelerated); the M2 Pro Mac Mini took implicit a infinitesimal longer. On some Geekbench Compute and the Puget Systems benchmark for Premiere Pro, the M2 Max displayed implicit a 40 percent summation implicit the M2 Pro. (Neither strategy is touching the ludicrous M1 Ultra, of course.) 

But the astir drastic betterment is besides the 1 that’s apt slightest applicable to the mean Mac user: gaming. The M2 Max enactment up 103fps connected Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s highest settings astatine 1920 x 1200 resolution, a full 66 percent betterment implicit the M2 Pro. That’s a precise disposable quality — the benignant of quality that gamers walk other wealth connected high-resolution screens successful bid to see. 

I deliberation — enactment the pitchforks away, I cognize these are wholly antithetic things and determination are each sorts of problems with this examination — that the simplest mode to deliberation of the MacBook Pro with M2 Max is arsenic the summation of an RTX 3070 GPU. It’s not quite providing the framework rates that we’ve seen from the biggest RTX 3070 computers retired determination (MSI’s GS76 gave america 114fps, for example) but it’s not excessively acold off, and it’s good supra what we’d expect to spot from an RTX 3060 gaming machine. The M2 Pro Mac Mini, which lone enactment up 62fps connected Tomb Raider, is person to RTX 3050 territory.

Now, the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max is not a gaming laptop. It’s a Mac. If you privation a gaming laptop, you tin get actual RTX 3070 gaming laptops for implicit a 1000 dollars less. I’m simply proposing this arsenic a thought experimentation for those debating betwixt the M2 Pro and M2 Max. The M2 Pro, similar the RTX 3050, tin grip the occasional game, has nary occupation with Premiere, and is good for astir people. Folks who are buying a laptop primarily to bash a graphically intensive task will person a much amusive clip connected the M2 Max. 

How overmuch amended is the M2 Max than the M1 Max? 

The M2 Max is an incremental upgrade. I don’t mean to usage that connection arsenic a synonym for “inadequate” oregon “boring”; I conscionable mean that the M2 Max is simply a comparatively akin bundle to the M1 Max. The MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max is besides priced the aforesaid mode the M1 Max exemplary was, though you tin present regularly find the M1 Max connected sale.

Here’s what’s antithetic (in summation to the information that the M2 Max uses Apple’s second-generation architecture). The M1 Max maxed retired astatine 10 CPU cores, portion the M2 Max has 12 — though it’s worthy noting that those 2 further cores are ratio cores. The M1 Max maxed retired astatine 32 GPU cores, portion its successor has up to 38. And the M2 Max tin besides accommodate up to 96GB of representation wherever its predecessor was capped astatine 64. (Though our reappraisal portion has 64GB, arsenic did our M1 Max model.)

This means, by the way, that the M1 Max inactive has less CPU cores but rather a fewer much GPU cores than the M2 Pro, which volition explicate immoderate of the numbers here.

One different thing: the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max is hotter and louder than the M1 Max instrumentality was. While it was moving PugetBench, the M2 Max machine’s fans were truthful large that radical crossed the bureau were coming implicit to spot what was going on. I would not person wanted to beryllium typing astatine that clip — the apical of the keyboard was toasty. I lone saw this during PugetBench — it was not astatine each large oregon blistery during mundane Chrome usage — but the M1 Max machine, by contrast, was astonishingly soundless and chill each passim my investigating period. 

Anyway, what bash the numbers show? I’m going to travel close retired and accidental that the most impactful quality betwixt the M1 Max and the M2 Max is the efficiency. For my peculiar workload (which includes bureau enactment successful 20-ish Chrome tabs astatine a clip with occasional streaming overtop done Apple Music, Apple TV, and the like) that translates to respective further hours of enactment that I tin get to 1 charge. I usually got conscionable astir 10 hours retired of the MacBook Pro 16 with M1 Max; I’m averaging adjacent to 14 retired of the M2 Max exemplary and person seen implicit 18 hours from immoderate trials. Everyone’s workload is different, but I’m assured astir radical volition spot further hours of artillery beingness from the 2023 MacBook Pro. (I expect to spot an adjacent longer lifespan from the M2 Pro instrumentality based connected the M1 Pro’s awesome results.)

Those fewer hours are rather a large woody successful the existent laptop landscape. The MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max is present precise competitory (in artillery life) with beauteous overmuch each different laptop connected the market. That includes laptops similar LG’s Gram and Asus’ ExpertBook, whose full shtick is agelong artillery beingness — the M1 Max was a spot down those models, portion the M2 Max is precise good ahead. 

Getting into the benchmarks, we’re looking astatine astir a 20 percent CPU uplift successful multicore show and a 10–15ish percent summation successful single-core show successful the tests we ran. We besides saw astir a 20 percent summation successful graphic show connected Geekbench and Tomb Raider. We did not see that ample of an summation successful Premiere Pro performance, wherever scores were overmuch person together, truthful instrumentality from that what you volition if you’re chiefly looking to edit video connected this machine. 

There’s an elephant successful the room, which whitethorn already beryllium evident to immoderate readers from the somewhat tepid code of my summary here. If the differences betwixt the M1 Max and the M2 Max are truthful incremental but the M1 Max is present being sold for clearance prices astatine places similar Best Buy and Amazon, should 1 not conscionable acquisition a discounted oregon refurbished MacBook Pro 16 with M1 Max instead? 

Short answer: maybe. Long answer: it depends connected the discount. Here’s 1 mode to look astatine it: arsenic of this writing, determination is simply a 10C / 32C / 32GB / 1TB M1 Max instrumentality connected merchantability for $2,999 on Amazon. A likewise specced M2 Max instrumentality is presently going for $3,499 connected Apple’s website, meaning that you’ll beryllium paying 14 percent much for a 15–20 percent summation successful multicore CPU power. On paper, that seems worthy springing for — particularly considering the artillery beingness interaction — but immoderate markdown bigger than that makes the M1 Max look similar a amended deal.

Of course, astir radical don’t store this robotically. Many radical (especially those with pockets heavy capable to beryllium buying successful this category) conscionable privation the shiny caller thing. To which I say: fine. It’s faster. It’s not knock-your-socks-off faster, but if your occupation depends connected your compiling and exporting being ace hella fast, it’s not similar there’s no difference. 

Who is the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max for? 

Ultimately, the MacBook Pro 16 hasn’t changed each that overmuch since 2021. But the laptop marketplace has. 

Intel’s laptop chips couldn’t clasp a candle to the M1 Max’s CPU show erstwhile those archetypal 16 inchers deed shelves. That’s nary longer the case, and I don’t expect it to beryllium the lawsuit this upcoming year. Intel’s Core i9-12950HX has enactment up multicore scores that are rather competitive with these. The institution has a 24-core chip coming retired that looks apt to stroke each benchmark retired of the water. AMD has a 16-core monstrosity connected the way, and that one’s not adjacent utilizing big.LITTLE architecture with antithetic sized cores. I don’t expect that Intel’s and AMD’s apical H-series chips volition beryllium retired of their extent successful the Geekbench database this year. 

That doesn’t marque the MacBook Pro 16 immoderate little of a bully purchase. It does mean that the archetypal 2021 M1 Max purchaser and the archetypal 2023 M2 Max purchaser look a spot different. 

The M1 Max, contempt having little earthy powerfulness than its successor, was the evident prime for shoppers trying to maximize their CPU powerfulness successful 2021. The M2 Max is nary longer that — the core-hungry shopper who ne'er unplugs their laptop volition person amended options from Intel and AMD successful 2023. What we don’t expect those options to have, successful immoderate capacity, is artillery life. That’s wherever the M1 Max is the undeniable champion. And that’s the calculus that does stay unchanged from 2021: the MacBook Pro 16 remains the champion operation of show and ratio that you tin get. That’s wherefore the M2 Max, contempt being much almighty than the M1 Max, whitethorn people little of a “power user” assemblage this year. 

If I ran a Windows laptop company, I wouldn’t beryllium excessively frightened of the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max. What I’d beryllium terrified of is the backlog of M1 Max and M1 Pro laptops that are astir to spell connected big-time sale. If adjacent one of those 16-inch models (okay, possibly not 1 with 16GB of RAM) is regularly disposable for little than $2,000, I tin ideate that tempting adjacent immoderate of the astir loyal Windows users. 

Even with show aside, the MacBook Pro 16 is acold up of astir Windows laptops successful areas similar surface quality, audio, touchpad size, and build. And determination are conscionable truthful galore compromises that today’s Windows workstations inquire erstwhile it comes to artillery life, efficiency, noise, and vigor — and if you tin get your hands connected 1 of these 16-inch MacBooks, you conscionable don’t person to interest astir immoderate of them anymore.