mini (and unbiased) review of the Macbook M1 Max (32 cores/64g of unified ram)

[-GD-X★ 7,808]

For professional content creation - "on the go" - this is the clear choice...with some caveats. The battery life is fantastic, typically lasting a good 6 - 8 hours with medium intensity (color grading and video editing) and 3 to 4 hours with heavy use (3D rendering, motion tracking, compositing ). The laptop only takes an hour to fully charge - which is pretty damn awesome! Speaking of rendering, no matter what I throw at this thing, it never gets warm or hot. I can barely even hear any kind of cooling system (unlike the jet sound from comparable intel-based laptops).

 

On a performance level, this is a mostly amazing machine! It can handle 4/6/8k raw clips with 0 lag via Davinci Resolve, even with color grades and effects. On Premiere, I did notice stutters when I added noise to my 6/8k red raw clips. Though, it was easily remedied when I dropped the playback quality to 1/3 resolution. The media encoding engines in this laptop are pretty impressive even with adobe applications, which haven't been fully optimized with M1 chip support.

 

Now, unlike the fanboy review sites, I will state the cons (which I hinted at earlier). A comparable priced PC laptop, sporting a 3080ti and 32g of ram will handle GPU-dependent rendering SIGNIFICANTLY better. There's no way of spinning this. I've seen it firsthand. The Macbook M1 Max is close to 11tf, while the mobile 3080ti gpu clocks in at a whopping 23.6 tf! Though, that PC laptop will run warm/hot, sound like a jet, and will need to be plugged in. If one has headphones and a convenient outlet at each of their remote locations, then the PC laptop will be the better choice, especially for 3D rendering. If the user also wants to game, well this is a no-brainer lol. Gaming on mac   Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still $54.99 on the app store This brings up another issue: price. Now, most content creators are perfectly fine with the Macbook M1 Pro (with only 16g of ram). That is more than sufficient for 1080p video editing (even 4k if you are fine with creating proxies). My machine is overkill unless you are handling layers of 6k/8k footage and doing heavy 4K renders. If you are just browsing the web and want to fuck around with Garageband or Imovie, get the Macbook air with the basic M1 chip. it's under $1,000 (by comparison, my system is $3,500).

 

For me, the Macbook M1 Max is perfect for what "I" need. I move around a lot, work with different producers/directors and I need the most efficient and quiet, mobile workstation. My score is a 9.5, based on its incredible engineering and for the fact that it feels like it was built for content creation. But is this "the absolute best in every way"...or "the most powerful" laptop out there? no lol.

 

 

[Remij 4,712]

8 minutes ago, -GD-X said:

For professional content creation - "on the go" - this is the clear choice...with some caveats. The battery life is fantastic, typically lasting a good 6 - 8 hours with medium intensity (color grading and video editing) and 3 to 4 hours with heavy use (3D rendering, motion tracking, compositing ). The laptop only takes an hour to fully charge - which is pretty damn awesome! Speaking of rendering, no matter what I throw at this thing, it never gets warm or hot. I can barely even hear any kind of cooling system (unlike the jet sound from comparable intel-based laptops).

 

On a performance level, this is a mostly amazing machine! It can handle 4/6/8k raw clips with 0 lag via Davinci Resolve, even with color grades and effects. On Premiere, I did notice stutters when I added noise to my 6/8k red raw clips. Though, it was easily remedied when I dropped the playback quality to 1/3 resolution. The media encoding engines in this laptop are pretty impressive even with adobe applications, which haven't been fully optimized with M1 chip support.

 

Now, unlike the fanboy review sites, I will state the cons (which I hinted at earlier). A comparable priced PC laptop, sporting a 3080ti and 32g of ram will handle GPU-dependent rendering SIGNIFICANTLY better. There's no way of spinning this. I've seen it firsthand. The Macbook M1 Max is close to 11tf, while the mobile 3080ti gpu clocks in at a whopping 23.6 tf! Though, that PC laptop will run warm/hot, sound like a jet, and will need to be plugged in. If one has headphones and a convenient outlet at each of their remote locations, then the PC laptop will be the better choice, especially for 3D rendering. If the user also wants to game, well this is a no-brainer lol. Gaming on mac   Shadow of the Tomb Raider is still $54.99 on the app store This bring up another issue: price. Now, most content creators are perfectly fine with the Macbook M1 Pro (with only 16g of ram). That is more than sufficient for 1080p video editing (even 4k if you are fine with creating proxies). My machine is overkill unless you are handling layers of 6k/8k footage and doing heavy 4K renders. If you are just browsing the web and want to fuck around with Garageband or Imovie, get the Macbook air with the basic M1 chip. it's under $1,000 (by comparison, my system is $3,500).

 

For me, the Macbook M1 Max is perfect for what "I" need. I move around a lot, work with different producers/directors and I need the most efficient and quiet, mobile workstation. My score is a 9.5, based on its incredible engineering and for the fact that it feels like it was built for content creation. But is this "the absolute best in every way"...or "the most powerful" laptop out there? no lol.

 

 

Nice writeup man.  I've heard others with pretty much the same sentiments you have about it.   

[-GD-X★ 7,808]

Just now, Remij said:

Nice writeup man.  I've heard others with pretty much the same sentiments you have about it.   

thanks homie! i have had this machine for almost a month now and i've been able to do TONS of comparisons!

[Remij 4,712]

1 minute ago, -GD-X said:

thanks homie! i have had this machine for almost a month now and i've been able to do TONS of comparisons!

It's honestly pretty crazy how much power and battery life you get in such a thin laptop.  The M chips are fucking incredible at certain tasks.

[-GD-X★ 7,808]

1 hour ago, Remij said:

It's honestly pretty crazy how much power and battery life you get in such a thin laptop.  The M chips are fucking incredible at certain tasks.

They truly are! I haven’t been this impressed with a macbook In…fuck…a long time lol. 

[Tears of the Cows 1,226]

I don’t think you’d find anyone to disagree other than @jehurey  @TLHBO and @Goukosan, the forums only apple haters. What they’re doing with these M chips is insane. 

[TLHBO 2,170]

6 hours ago, ghostz said:

I don’t think you’d find anyone to disagree other than @jehurey  @TLHBO and @Goukosan, the forums only apple haters. What they’re doing with these M chips is insane. 

Lol ghostz begging for an argument and fishing for someone to play with him

 

I don't hate Apple, not like I do Microsoft and Facebook. My problems with the iphone where that it was a locked down pos where Apple limited other Apps to give advantages to their own software. The hardware itself was nice. If the EU can force Apple to open up there phones would be much better.

 

I've never used a Mac but I would take one over a windows pile of shit anyday. I just don't care about paying £1000+ for an ultra thin trendy laptop or a monitor with a chip inside...I have no need of those kind of devices I just want a regular PC. Mac itself doesn't look so bad, having had to install windows 10 in a vm recently for some work related projects its shocking how it has gotten even worse and right from the get go its all about advertisements and data mining. Microsoft is such a greedy shit company . I just wouldn't care about trying Mac until you can install the OS on a regular PC and that will never happen, but I'd rather not be forced to be tied to a multi-billion dollar corporation so I doubt I would switch anyway.

[Tears of the Cows 1,226]

4 hours ago, TLHBO said:

Lol ghostz begging for an argument and fishing for someone to play with him

 

I don't hate Apple, not like I do Microsoft and Facebook. My problems with the iphone where that it was a locked down pos where Apple limited other Apps to give advantages to their own software. The hardware itself was nice. If the EU can force Apple to open up there phones would be much better.

 

I've never used a Mac but I would take one over a windows pile of shit anyday. I just don't care about paying £1000+ for an ultra thin trendy laptop or a monitor with a chip inside...I have no need of those kind of devices I just want a regular PC. Mac itself doesn't look so bad, having had to install windows 10 in a vm recently for some work related projects its shocking how it has gotten even worse and right from the get go its all about advertisements and data mining. Microsoft is such a greedy shit company . I just wouldn't care about trying Mac until you can install the OS on a regular PC and that will never happen, but I'd rather not be forced to be tied to a multi-billion dollar corporation so I doubt I would switch anyway.

Fair enough. 👍🏼

[TLHBO 2,170]

23 hours ago, ghostz said:

Fair enough. 👍🏼

So how does an Apple worshipper end up becoming a Microsoft cocksucker I'm curious.

 

We should be teaming up to free PC gaming from the shackles of Microsoft.

[Tears of the Cows 1,226]

47 minutes ago, TLHBO said:

So how does an Apple worshipper end up becoming a Microsoft cocksucker I'm curious.

 

We should be teaming up to free PC gaming from the shackles of Microsoft.

Id be all over an Apple console. But I don’t have that choice 😭

[TLHBO 2,170]

5 hours ago, ghostz said:

Id be all over an Apple console. But I don’t have that choice 😭

That doesm't explain why your sucking MS dick. Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. Reject Microsoft.

[Tears of the Cows 1,226]

5 minutes ago, TLHBO said:

That doesm't explain why your sucking MS dick. Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave. Reject Microsoft.

I hate the PS controller and find their OS janky as hell, those are two big reasons. They’re also anti consumer as can be, way worse than MS. 
 

im not a MS fan. I’m a Nintendo fan. But there so debate to be had because switch is selling like hot cakes still. 

Edited August 12, 2022 by ghostz