M4 Pro vs M4 Max 16' MacBook Pro - Just save your $1500?!

M4 Pro vs M4 Max! Which chip is the one to buy in the 16" MacBook Pro chassis? Let's find out!

Timestamps ⬇️
M4 Pro vs M4 Max MacBook Pro - 00:00
Spec Charts - 00:12
Geekbench 6 CPU - 00:37
Speedometer 3.0 - 01:21
Xcode Benchmark - 01:35
Logic Pro X Benchmark - 01:49
Cinebench 2024 - 02:12
Geekbench 6 Metal GPU - 03:50
3DMark Steel Nomad Light - 04:05
Blender Party Tug - 04:42
Lightroom CC 500x 42MP Export - 05:36
Final Cut Pro 11 Benchmark - 07:59
DaVinci Resolve Noise Reduction - 08:34
DaVinci Resolve Benchmark - 09:08
Battery Performance Heavy Testing - 10:35
Is It Worth Getting The M4 Max? - 10:58'

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[kevinc-]

Reminder if a faster computer burns twice the power but finishes in half the time, the battery drain on that task is the same

[tomladdus]

Just bought M4Max 14 core. The things that pushed me were, I wanted a base config so I don't have to customize which isn't available for retail. I had to have at least 1TB, extra memory and extra gpu cores.were pluses. If you customize you lose out on the sales. Upgrading from an i7 so this is a huge jump, this thing rocks.

[FFHamilton]

My current Laptop is the M1 Max with 64gb of Ram and 4tb, I ordered the M4 Pro with the faster chip and 48gb of ram. For my work flow final cut export with the dual encoder chips, my M1 was faster... which is a huge time saver for me. I have returned the M4Pro for the M4 Max and I am waiting till the end of the week to do more tests. 1/2 export times with the dual encoders allows me to get back to my edits as we do 2-3 videos per day along with about 1200 raw 50mp images in lightroom/photoshop. I really wanted the M4 Pro to be able to do the job but again compared to the M1 Max FOR OUR WORKFLOW the speed boost wasn't enough.

[thatgoldscooter]

I want to see full M3 Max vs binned M4 Max, as well as binned M4 Max vs full M4 Max. Please!

[Galgomite]

I was ready to buy one of these to replace my 2014 MacBook Pro but with the cost of storage being so high, I ended up getting a minty M1 Max MacBook with 8TB instead, “just” $2k. I can’t *believe* how fast “good enough” is these days…

[MrPromethium]

Idea: Binned 14” M4 max vs Unbinned 16” M4 max

[thomasmiller]

Despite your advice, I bought a 14 In. MacBook Pro Max’s (unbinned) with 64 gig and 2 TB. Upgrading from 2016 MacBook Pro. (Still works and will use it to store critical files as backup). The new MB will be used as a test machine to see how it can be used as a universal software development computer using Parallels, Windows and Linux. Have a grandson majoring in computer science. I want to see if this kind of machine will work for him in his senior year and masters program. Currently the school requires Intel Windows. It’s good to be a grandpa sometimes.

[karldoblinger]

I got the M4 Pro with 48GB Ram and I am happy with one exception. I absolutely HATE the space black. Finger and paw prints everywhere. All the time I save from the faster chip I use to wipe this damn thing down.

[OliverBusse]

tl;dr; it's only important to choose between Pro and Max if you are doing heavy video editing. I am running my M4 Pro with 2 Parallels Win 11 VMs and a lot besides that - and it's not even starting to spin the fans. CPU load is around 7% and super fast - with 24GB RAM only. SSD is the fastest ever with around 6GB/s - M4 is a game changer compared to M1 Pro which I also use.

[GuugiYae]

after standing in Apple store a more than 30mins thinking which one i should buy, I finally bought the M4 Pro base model instead of extra $1000 M4 Max base model. In my use case, both Pro and M4 feel no different to me, they both so freaking fast. I came from the 16" 2019. Totally day and night

[dris]

Great as always. I've been watching you since Max had his own channel. I recently watched some videos from 1- 2 years ago and it's incredible how much the quality of the videos has improved... even from just a year ago. Cleaner, brighter and just better presented.

[digitaldevigner]

The main benefit of the Max and Ultra for video editing is going to be the extra media encoder. No matter the CPU and GPU power and usage that seems to have the most export impact.

That’s just for exporting however which frankly is already short and not really an issue anymore.

Like everything else in computing you need the tasks to actually take advantage of the raw power in these machines now. There are very few tasks that really take advantage or even need to.

Even in the gaming side I feel like it has reached a good enough peak years ago already. Everything else has high diminishing returns now. Stable HD 60p gaming is pretty much a good place to be and that’s with most games not even well optimized for Metal yet or running through pure emulation.

Even from a Blender perspective the M4 Pro binned model surpasses the 3060 in my desktop PC. That’s incredibly impressive to reach Nvidia levels in a few short years. AMD can’t even do that with decades of experience. While it’s nice to have faster Rendering with Blender this level is used all the time by Blender users. It’s a production ready level of performance now.

At this point it all comes down to time. How fast do people want things and are they willing to pay a premium to get it faster. Do they truly need to get it faster or is it more of an impatient thing.

Some pros it does come down to speed. They have tight deadlines and every hour equals money. That doesn’t apply to every professional however. For example my M1 Pro MBP can export a 60 minute 4k video in like 30 minutes. Making that faster and cutting off 5, 10 or 15 minutes isn’t likely going to have a huge impact on my life or deadlines.

Now I do work with raw video sometimes and noise reduction and those are painful to work with at times. The extra performance would be welcome but not everyone needs to do that. It’s a special case just like Blender rendering.

[mangler]

The reviewer in the summary could be a bit more precise. If you’re doing 3D rendering the Max blows away the Pro. It’s a no brainer for those users to get the Max. For everyone else, he’s probably right.

[balletbeauty]

Somebody said “Nobody cares about your M1 MacBook” and I felt that to my core!! We’re comparing the M4 chips, why does everyone feel the need to talk about their previous chips? Adds nothing to the conversation we’re attempting to have 🙄🤣

[spencerfr]

What about m3 max vs m4 pro? They are about the same price with upgraded ram/storage… workflow is large lightroom libraries & Final Cut 4K multi cam editing (documentary films). Will I see noticeable gains from the m3 max?

[ianflint]

If you're going to be editing top end video camera footage, I would have thought you're going to be more easily able to justify the additional costs for the M4 Max to support it. Skimping on £1, 500 (or the same in dollars) simply doesn't make sense considering the capital investment in the rest of the production workflow. The rest of us will cope with the M4 Pro. If you're doing professional work, the set up in cost isn't a big jump.

[ilz_]

I saw a review where they showed the fans in 16" M4 Max were larger and quieter compared to the others.

[chiliverde]

I went with this MacBook Pro but with 48 GB ram. My main use is Lightroom Classic and processing RAW photos. I think it will be a good fit for my use.

[dasdos]

Why does the max have to double the pro? The max is 60% more expensive than the pro. So any time you get 60% more power for something that cost 60% more then you’re good to go. Expecting near double the amount of power for 60% more cost then you’re expecting too much.

[RiceCubeTech]

A 4000 dollar laptop shipping a 1Tb SSD is a huge slap in the face regardless of the other specs it has.

They should be shipping the MacBook “Pro” with a minimum of 1TB and the upgrade should come with 2.

Storage is super cheap. I can get a 2TB NvME PCIE 4.0 ssd for like $140 bucks now.

With no user upgradeable storage this is horrendous.