MOST POWERFUL MacBook vs PC Laptop (RIP Windows?)

MacBooks have always been overpriced, slow, and they can't even get over 95 FPS when gaming on Counterstrike... At least, that is what's been thrown around internet forums for the better part of the last decade. With Apple's new M3 Max chips though, are those shiny MacBooks finally able to compete with Intel and Nvidia's most powerful systems?

Keyboard I use for both Mac and PC (Nuphy Air75 V2):

Products featured in this video:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR THIS VIDEO:
Q: There are cheaper Windows laptops with similar performance to the Legion 9i, why didn’t you use them?
A: Sure, but I only own the Legion 9i, and didn’t want to spend thousands more on a new one lol. The 9i also has a very comparable screen to the M3 Max MacBook Pro (3.2k resolution and Mini-LED screen). Regardless, price is not what I’m comparing in this video. I’m mostly interested in raw performance (but yes, you can get a similarly powerful Windows laptop for 20-40% cheaper than the M3 Max).

Q: During the Resident Evil gaming comparison, why did you enable DLSS on the Legion laptop? Wouldn’t it be fairer to disable this because the Mac does not support it?
A: I think it's more unfair to intentionally handicap the Legion by disabling DLSS. If you're playing on an RTX GPU, you are going to enable DLSS. The Mac has no raytracing support yet on games, so this is a realistic representation of real-life differences. There is also no DLSS option for "quality" on the Windows machine either.

Q: You look like an Apple fanboy, therefore all the data in this video is inaccurate/fake/biased.
A: IDGAF, and also feel free to compare the results in this video to other publicly available data/benchmarks/results. I did this before releasing the video to cross-reference my findings. I’m confident this video paints an accurate picture of (most) differences.

Q: Why did you compare Intel 13th generation CPUs instead of the new 2024 Intel Ultra lineup?
A: Pretty simple lol - the Ultra lineup was released about 4 days before I uploaded this video. Also, the high-performance Ultra CPUs have not even been announced, let alone the laptops they will ship in.

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00:00 Introduction
01:02 A Few Things…
03:05 CPU Performance
04:23 Creative Workflows
05:31 LESTRANGE Clothes
06:58 Video Editing
08:13 3D Workflows
09:44 Gaming
11:55 Fan Noise and Heat
13:07 Efficiency
13:55 Performance on Battery
14:17 The Future

#m3max #intel #gaminglaptop
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[theunknown]

Nobody hates Mac. People hate Apple for being greedy and not giving the option to upgrade or fix stuff yourself. In my country, upgrading the Mac from 48gb to 64gb RAM costs $250 whereas a 6000MHz ddr5 RAM costs $65 for a Windows machine. Same goes for storage, Apple charges $500 for +1tb, $80 for Windows. Also 8gb RAM on base models is not enough, swap will kill your ssd in a year.

[theDoctorwitTardis]

*Macbook:* "It's over Windows, I have the highground."
*Windows:* "I can also play games though."
*Macbook:* "F*CK!"

[garypranzo]

I got my Legion 9i Pro 4090 in December 2023 (Same time as this Video for $2499.00) The MacBook is still $4000.

[AndreiIorgulescu]

1. These are not "Windows laptops". They are laptops which have windows installed on them. You could just as well have had Linux or other operating systems on them.
2. You compare two 4k € Laptops and the question is "RIP Windows"? The majority, the vast majority of the world's inhabitants nowadays can barely afford a 1000 € laptop. Come back to Earth, please.
3. He starts saying "real life scenarios" and then does the same as every other YouTube and talks about rendering in whatever video software. Newsflash: the majority of people working on PCs will probably use tools like AutoCAD, Inventor, Catia, or other drafting/modelling software to produce stuff, palpable stuff for others, or just browsers, office tools, etc. Sometimes I get the impression these guys live in their own little bubble...

[pratiknaikedu]

I upgraded from the i9 MacBook Pro to the M3 and I seriously feel like an alien made the M3, the efficiency jump is ridiculous. Not a single hitch, it feels so strange to not fight with the system at all. No lag at all or waiting for anything.

[XBRoughneck]

Price to performance is won by Apple??? Some of the posters below me seem to scoff at the idea that people are concerned about upgradability, yet ignore that you can get a 32GB dual SSD in RAID laptop with a dedicated GPU (4060) for 70% what an equivalently performing Macbook would cost. Battery life and HEAT Apple trumps in spades, but there is more to buying a laptop than that. A LOT more.

[xaratemplate]

My recommendation is to buy both mac and PC and whichever is respecting the consumers needs is the one to stick with. I have PC for upgradeability and mac for portability. PC desktop is best for upgrade paths and macbook is nearly unbeatable for portability and great battery life.

[Snarkyafterthoughts]

It is an exciting time for chips. The next couple years should release a bunch of surprises. Apple and AMD really motivated the market to innovate. As always I don't think anyone is cross shopping these laptops. Windows is best at 80-90 percent of flagship abilities for 30% the cost.

[crazyelf]

One major issue with gaming on the Macbook Pro is that the display has a very slow response time. Apple would have to release a gaming laptop, ideally with an Oled or high response time Mini-Led.

Another is not all games are on Mac. Only a handful of games.

That being said, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia need to work on making more efficient chips with better IPC.

[conseil]

11:25 It's a lie bro. Don't even compare the performance on gaming between m3 max and a 3090. How can you say that it's close. You're only testing games that are optimized for Mac chips. What about Cyberpunk or even Rdr2. Tchrr

[crestofhonor]

If resident Evil Village were on max settings for both windows ad MacOS that means that the PC was doing a lot more. Windows version supports hardware RT so that would make it much heavier

[FranFyrhart]

A couple months ago I was give by my employer an M1 Macbook 14 and I really enjoyed the general experience of using it, but had to switch to a windows laptop because the Mac didn't handle working with game engines very well, but this and future M-chip macbooks look like they'll be viable for game development.

Now if only the EU would force apple to make macbook hardware upgradeable down the line....

[ExtremelySimplified]

Really appreciate the effort put into making this video! Great comparison!

[TheDude]

Thing is Intel isnt the top dog on the x86 side atm. The 7945hx is faster in most tasks especially high core count ones and the 7945hx3d is the best laptop gaming cpu available. When it comes to power consumption the 7X40 or renamed 8X4X series offers the best energy efficiency. Though its hard to beat the TSMC N3 process on the M3 macbooks. Im not quite sure how the new core ultra chips are doing atm but when I last had a look they needed some software support for sure.

[jamiermathlin]

Lower power means much longer battery life ! I still have an M1 Max (now 3 years old) and I can still use it for work all day (8-9 hours) and then use it in the evening for another 3-5 hours and often it still has 10-20% battery remaining, basically the only time my Mac is plugged in is when it is on charge overnight. This is the reason I use an M Series Mac Book, it is very fast, quiet, cool and does not need to be plugged in when being used. Benchmarks tell people nothing important, everyday use is the key, and with Mac's now costing around the same money as equilent PC Laptops, there is no comparision, if you use your computer as a laptop...

[vietnecheese]

What about the 7i pro with the 13900hx and 4090? This can be had for $2500 currently. Thousand dollars cheaper than the 9i pro with the water cooled vram and carbon fiber lid….

[Tanax]

Considering one platform can do it all (Windows) and the other platform (macOS) will require you to buy a separate machine if you want to do gaming, I think it's safe to say that many many people will choose Windows simply for the fact that they don't want/have the room for 2 systems. The GPU performance of the M3 is also not at all on the same level as Nvidia or AMD. Apple will have to up their GPU performance significantly if it wants to be able to compete in gaming. Until then, I guess we still have to buy Windows. Which is a shame really because macOS is quite nice for work tasks and the physical quality of their computers are really nice. Hopefully this M-adventure is the start of something great and Apple will continue their efforts into real gaming and not just mobile gaming..

[braider]

M3 is epic and it uses 1/3 wattage.

Incredible efficiency.

[MD_Production]

I have a PC and Macbook and I gotta say Macbook is really good and I would pick Macbook any day over Windows laptop. IMO Windows is best for PC’s not laptops.

[AndrewKneebone]

Hey this was outstanding!! Just a tip. If you could do a text prompt when the fan audio test came to an end. I kind of got blown away by your smooth voice because I turned up the volume to hear them side by side

Cheers from Melbourne Mate!