Review: Apple’s 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro crams Ultra-level speed into a laptop

The next year or two will be a turning point for people who bought into the last few generations of Intel Macs. AppleCare+ subscriptions will expire, batteries will begin to lose a noticeable amount of capacity, software updates and security fixes will gradually dry up, and normal wear and tear will slowly take its toll.

Every new generation of Apple Silicon Mac is another opportunity for Apple to get those people to update, which may or may not help to explain why Apple is introducing its new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max MacBook Pros fewer than 11 months after releasing the M2 versions.

Apple MacBook Pro M3

$1599 14-inch M3 at Best Buy $1999 14-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $2499 16-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $3499 16-inch M3 Max at Best Buy

Like the early 2023 MacBook Pros, these late 2023 models are iterative improvements to the 2021 redesigns. They keep the things that made those laptops such a big improvement over the late-model Intel MacBook Pros while adding just a little more performance and one or two other minor improvements to entice people who still haven't made the Apple Silicon switch.

We can only paint a partial picture of these new notebooks' performance since we were only able to get a fully loaded M3 Max version of the 16-inch MacBook Pro for testing. But the short version is that two years of updates and the brand-new, more-efficient manufacturing process that the M3 uses should make these an appealing upgrade to anyone who couldn't quite justify paying for an upgrade before now. Just get ready to shell out because top-end MacBook Pro configurations are more expensive than ever, thanks to the new 128GB RAM option.

Table of Contents

Look and feel: Still a MacBook Pro

Specs at a glance: Late 2023 16-inch MacBook Pro (as reviewed)
OS	macOS Sonoma 14.1
CPU	Apple M3 Max (12 P-cores, 4 E-cores)
RAM	128GB
GPU	Apple M3 Max (40 GPU cores)
Storage	8TB SSD
Networking	Wi-Fi 6E; Bluetooth 5.3
Ports	3x Thunderbolt, 3.5 mm headphone, SD card slot, HDMI, MagSafe
Warranty	1 year, or 3 years with AppleCare+
Price as reviewed	$7,199

The M2 versions of the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro weren't too different from the 2021 redesigns, and the M3 versions are even less different, at least if you're talking about the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions. The size and weight are the same. The ports are all the same. The keyboards, trackpads, and 1080p webcams are the same, though a different image signal processor in the chip means that video from each webcam will look slightly different (to my eye, the M3's video quality was a tiny bit softer and less detailed than the M2's, but image quality was similar overall).

Apple has improved the ProMotion screens a bit, boosting the maximum brightness for SDR content from 500 nits to 600 nits. Sustained and peak brightness for HDR content remain the same as before, at 1,000 and 1,600 nits, respectively. This makes SDR content a bit easier to see when you're using the screen in broad daylight, though it's otherwise hard to see a difference.

There's a new finish in town, too. "Space black" takes the place of space gray, at least for the M3 Pro and Max versions of the laptop. It's darker than space gray but lighter than the M2 MacBook Air's "midnight" finish. But most importantly, it's no more fingerprint-prone than the silver finish is. The midnight version of the MacBook Air gets very fingerprint-y very quickly, and it's difficult to keep it clean. But a refined anodization process has apparently banished that problem for the space black MacBook Pros.

The regular M3 version of the Pro still comes in silver and space gray.

"Space black" (bottom) compared to space gray. It's darker, though you'll sometimes forget it is if you're not looking at the two shades next to each other. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

If you're stepping up from an M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro for some reason, the HDMI port's (apparent) bump to HDMI 2.1 may be useful if you're trying to connect a greater-than-120 Hz 4K display, and the Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 upgrades will also be new to you.

But chances are good that this will only really feel like an upgrade if you're coming from an Intel MacBook Pro, an audience that Apple pitched aggressively in its presentation about the new laptops. The Apple Silicon-era refresh of these systems undoes all of the worst things about the 2016-to-2020 era of Mac design.

It's notably heavier and marginally larger—between 4.7 and 4.8 pounds, up from 4.3 from the 16-inch Intel MacBook Pros—but there's no Touch Bar and no butterfly keyboard, you get your MagSafe port and an HDMI port and SD card reader back, and Apple Silicon provides a solid boost to performance and battery life while running cooler and quieter than the Intel and AMD hardware Apple used to use. The high-refresh-rate, HDR-capable ProMotion screen also makes a big difference—the notch remains a strange design compromise, and the strips of screen to either side of it remain under-utilized by macOS, but you do gradually get used to ignoring it.

We'll point you to our original M1 Pro/Max MacBook Pro review for a full accounting of the changes ushered in by the new design in both its 14- and 16-inch iterations. From here on out, we'll be focusing mostly on the differences between the M2 and M3 versions, with a particular focus on the fully loaded 16-inch M3 Max version that Apple sent us for review.

Notes on the $1,599 MacBook Pro

Apple didn't send us one of the baseline, non-Pro, non-Max versions of the M3 MacBook Pro for review, so we can't say much about its real-world performance. I can say that people considering a "pro" machine should at least step up from the base 8GB of memory to 16GB, which increases the price by $200 to $1,799. I can also say that at that price, the $1,999 M3 Pro version of the laptop gets you some useful extra stuff, like more CPU and GPU cores, another Thunderbolt port, and an additional 2GB of RAM (for a total of 18GB).

For those who do get a regular M3 MacBook Pro, here are the differences you need to keep in mind, even though the machines look mostly identical to other 14-inch MacBook Pros:

You get two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports instead of three. There are two on the left side and none on the right side.
Apple labels these ports as "Thunderbolt/USB-C" ports rather than Thunderbolt 4. The ports are physically the same, and they should connect to all of the same accessories at the same speeds, but Thunderbolt 4 requires systems to support two daisy-chained 4K displays over a single cable, something the regular M3 doesn't do.
That's because the M3 still only supports a single external display rather than two (for M3 Pro) or four (for M3 Max).
The M3 MacBook Pro weighs 3.4 pounds, down from 3.5.
The M3 Pro uses the same 70 WHr battery as earlier M1/M2 MacBook Pros, while the M3 Pro and M3 Max Pros get a marginally larger 72.4 WHr battery.
But because the M3's power consumption is lower than the M3 Pro or M3 Max overall, the M3 Pro also gets "up to 22 hours" of battery life, up from "up to 18 hours."
Maximum memory is capped at 24GB because of the M3. Maximum storage is capped at 2TB for no readily apparent reason.

I won't go so far as to say that nobody should buy the base model MacBook Pro—it definitely makes sense for the type of person who is served well by the M3's performance but also wants a nicer screen, more ports, and other things you can't get in either size of the MacBook Air.

If nothing else, it's a better bridge between the $999 Air and the $1,999 Pro than the old 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro was. Between the $1,599 Pro and the 15-inch MacBook Air, Apple is offering a couple of plausible (if still pricey) semi-Pro notebooks that it wasn't offering a year ago.

Making sense of M3

Apple's M3 chip generation is its least straightforward so far. The basic M3 is a direct replacement for the M2, with no major caveats or asterisks to be aware of, but both the M3 Pro and M3 Max have odd wrinkles that the M2 Pro and M2 Max didn't have.

Let's start with the M3 Pro because it's the first Apple Silicon processor that hasn't taken a "same chip as before, but with more stuff" approach. As we noted in our M3 series overview, the M3 Pro actually has 3 billion fewer transistors than the M2 Pro, reflecting a change in how Apple is approaching the chip. The M1 Pro and M2 Pro used the same CPU core configuration as the M1 Max and M2 Max but with less total memory bandwidth and half as many GPU cores—a balance that made a lot of sense on a platform that still isn't really a gaming destination and where a "good enough" GPU is, frequently, good enough.

The M3 Pro takes a step away from the M3 Max and closer to the M3. The M3 Pro has just half as many high-performance CPU cores as the M3 Max—six, down from 12. And it has six high-efficiency cores, up from four in the M3 Max. That symmetry between P- and E-cores makes it feel a lot more like a pumped-up M3, where past versions felt more like a cut-down Max chip. The M3 Pro also has 150GB/s of memory bandwidth and 18 GPU cores, down from 200GB/s and 19 GPU cores in the top-end M2 Pro.

The M3 Pro should still feel a little faster than the M2 Pro, thanks to updated CPU and GPU architectures (we haven't been able to test this yet because Apple didn't send an M3 Pro model, though we're working on it). And it's easily faster than the regular M3. But on paper, considered as a year-over-year upgrade, it's as close to a lateral move as we've seen from Apple in the Apple Silicon era.

There's a little weirdness with the M3 Max, too, though it's generally a straightforward upgrade compared to the M2 Max. Apple sells it in two configurations: one with 10 high-performance CPU cores and 30 GPU cores and the fully enabled version with 12 high-performance CPU cores and 40 GPU cores (all versions include four E-cores). But the cut-down version, for the first time, comes with less total memory bandwidth than the fully enabled version—300GB/s, down from 400GB/s.

	CPU P/E-cores	GPU cores	RAM options	Memory bandwidth
M3 (entry-level)	4P/4E	8	8/16/24GB	100GB/s
M3	4P/4E	10	8/16/24GB	100GB/s
M3 Pro (entry-level)	5P/6E	14	18/36GB	150GB/s
M3 Pro	6P/6E	18	18/36GB	150GB/s
M3 Max (entry-level)	10P/4E	30	36/96GB	300GB/s
M3 Max	12P/4E	40	48/64/128GB	400GB/s

It may be that 300GB/s is all the memory bandwidth you need to keep a smaller CPU and GPU's cores fed! But it's hard to imagine a 25 percent reduction in memory bandwidth having zero effect on performance. Without one to test, it's hard to say. Also worth noting, the lower-end Max only supports 36 or 96GB of memory, whereas the fully enabled one can do 48, 64, or 128GB. The maximum amount of memory in the M1 generation was 64GB, so the increase is nice to see, though it's a bit frustrating to be pushed toward the higher-end processor if you want one of the midrange memory capacities.

Finally, on the subject of the 14- and 16-inch laptops—testing does indicate that the M2 Max ran a little slower in the 14-inch MacBook Pro than it did in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, presumably because of cooling capacity and heat. Bear that in mind when deciding which laptop to buy and when comparing the M3 Max's performance. The 14-inch M3 Max version of the laptop does have the same "High Power Mode" that has previously been exclusive to the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It allows the M3 Max to run faster for longer, at the expense of extra heat and fan noise. Again, with no hardware to test we can't say for sure how it affects performance or how performance differs between the 14- and 16-inch Pros.

Performance, compared to Macs and modern PCs

Our Apple-provided review unit is a 16-inch model with a fully enabled M3 Max; it has 12 high-performance CPU cores, four efficiency cores, a 40-core GPU, 128GB of RAM, and 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. So all of these numbers represent a best-case scenario for M3 Max and the highest speeds an M3-generation chip will offer until we (presumably) get an M3 Ultra sometime next year.

The hardware we have onhand for comparison is a bit of a hodgepodge—numbers from a maxed-out M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra Mac Studio show how the M3 Max stacks up against Apple's top-of-the-line chips from past generations. An M1 Max Mac Studio shows how Apple's chips have improved since the original 2021 MacBook Pro refresh. Our M2 Max Mac Studio is the variant with 30 GPU cores instead of 38, so the CPU scores should be comparable, but the GPU scores aren't. All tests on both PCs and Macs were run with the machines plugged into the wall.

And the maxed-out M3 Max does well. Single-core performance is up between 14 and 19 percent compared to the M2 Max and by 25 to 32 percent compared to 2021's M1 Max. The added cores mean that multi-core performance increases even more—the M3 Max is between 14 and 42 percent faster than the M2 Max and from 71 to 93 percent faster than the M1 Max in our tests.

Graphics performance also sees a solid boost, more than you'd expect from just a pair of extra GPU cores. The M3 Max benchmarks around 50 percent faster than the M1 Max—and playing Baldur's Gate 3 on it with all the settings turned up was generally a pleasant experience. The Mac still isn't a viable AAA game platform for most people, but Apple does seem to be trying, and if it ever succeeds, the M3 Max will be up for it.

Apple doesn't sell its Ultra chips in laptops, reserving them instead for high-end Mac Studio desktops and the Mac Pro, where the chips are easy to cool. But the M3 Max's performance is as close as we've seen to Ultra-level performance in Apple's laptops so far, matching or outrunning the M1 Ultra's CPU performance and coming very close to matching the M2 Ultra's CPU performance. GPU performance still isn't quite as good—it's hard for 40 cores to outrun 64 or 72 cores, even with Apple's generational improvements. But the M1 Ultra is usually only 10 or 20 percent faster than the M3 Max, much closer than you'd expect the two to be based on core count alone.

Moving past Mac-on-Mac comparisons, comparing the M3 Max to current high-end PC chips paints an even more impressive picture of its performance and efficiency.

The M3 Max chips can get pretty close to the single- and multi-core performance of high-end desktop PC chips like the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core i9-14900K, which is seriously impressive given that the M3 Max can fit into a laptop, and those are both top-tier consumer desktop chips that are drawing huge amounts of power and generating large amounts of heat. Generally, the M3 Max is closer in lighter tests like Geekbench, but it falls behind a bit in heavier tests like Cinebench or our Handbrake video encoding test, where the desktops' effectively unlimited thermal headroom let them run faster for longer.

We've also compared it to some PC laptop chips: the ultra high-end Core i9-13950HX (in an MSI GT77 laptop) and the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D (in an Asus ROG Scar 17), to show how Apple stacks up to Intel and AMD's fastest. Those are both gigantic 17-inch gaming laptops, though, so we also compared the M3 Max to a Razer Blade 14 with an 8-core Ryzen 9 7940HS—this PC is much more MacBook Pro-ish in its portability and design, but it won't fit as powerful a CPU or GPU.

When you compare the M3 Max to these more power-limited laptop CPUs, Apple's power efficiency advantage really shines. These chips fall far short of the M3 Max's single- and multi-core performance, and Apple's 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are quiet, relatively cool, and light enough to throw in a bag. The MSI and Asus laptops are both hulking, loud monstrosities that are only "portable" relative to a desktop computer.

Based on the handful of cross-platform GPU comparisons we ran, the M3 Max's GPU performance can't keep up with the laptop version of Nvidia's RTX 4090. In the Cinebench 2024 GPU test, it's also a little short of the laptop RTX 4070, but it's much faster than the 4070 in the GFXBench benchmarks. The M3 Max can definitely play high-end games if given the opportunity, and the MacBook Pro manages to run relatively cool and quiet while doing it. You just have to be satisfied with the handful of Mac-compatible AAA titles that currently exist.

Power efficiency

Our CPU power efficiency test calculates the amount of energy it takes for a CPU to run a heavily multithreaded workload that keeps the entire processor busy for a few minutes—specifically, using the CPU to encode a 1080p video. These are software-reported power-consumption numbers, so comparisons between platforms (or even between different generations of Intel, AMD, and Apple products) aren't always precise.

But even if these are just ballpark numbers, three things jump out. First, power consumption of the M3 Max as reported by thepowermetricstool is considerably higher for the M3 Max than for the M1 Max or M2 Max—about 20 W more than the M1 Max and 13 W more than the M2 Max. But the M3 Ultra finishes the work so much more quickly than either of its predecessors that it still manages to use a little less energy overall to accomplish the same amount of work (this is something Apple seems to target with its chips—no matter what generation you use or how fast or slow a chip you pick, they all tend to fall within a pretty narrow range when it comes to the amount of energy used to perform a set task).

The PC comparisons show what's special about Apple Silicon. The high-end desktop chips can accomplish the task in the same or a little less time, while generally using a lot more energy to do the work. The laptop chips still use more energy and manage to be quite a bit slower than the M3 Max overall. That's what Apple is offering that its competitors just can't (or aren't).

Our typical PCMark battery test doesn't run on macOS, so we don't have exact battery numbers to quote. Apple says that the 16-inch Pro will get up to 18 hours in typical everyday use, and over about a week of using the machine, I can say that battery life feels like it's in the same ballpark as my M1 MacBook Air. I have no problem making it through a full day without having the laptop plugged in.

Conclusions

Apple's 16-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro. Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Switching to its own chips continues to pay dividends for Apple. In the three years since Apple moved away from Intel, Intel has put out three successive chip generations with the exact same integrated GPU in them, processors that have improved CPU performance by a lot but often at the cost of battery life. And there's no Windows notebook I've tested, whether we're talking about a thin-and-light ultrabook or a ridiculous gaming laptop, that doesn't sound like a jet engine when it's running a game or some heavy CPU-intensive task for more than a few seconds.

Apple MacBook Pro M3

$1599 14-inch M3 at Best Buy $1999 14-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $2499 16-inch M3 Pro at Best Buy $3499 16-inch M3 Max at Best Buy

The end of Apple's Intel era is coming. It could be here as early as next year, but all signs point to the last Intel Macs being dropped by 2025's macOS release. All Apple Silicon Macs have been some kind of an upgrade compared to the Intel models they've replaced, but the M3 generation will be perfectly poised to catch a lot of people who own those last two or three Intel Mac generations, ones made between 2018 and 2020. For them, it will be an immense upgrade—everything that was good about the M1 and M2 releases, but with a bit of extra speed and a handful of minor hardware refinements.

The worst thing I can say about the new MacBook Pro is that it doesn't really fix any of the problems that might keep people away from a Pro-level Mac in the first place. Entry-level models like the $1,599 MacBook Pro still leave something to be desired for a lot of pro-level users, like its paltry 8GB of RAM or lacking external display support.

And upgrade prices for additional RAM and storage remain absurd, easily inflating Apple's base prices by hundreds or thousands of dollars. Storage prices in particular are positively usurious compared to what high-end PC storage costs. Upgrading from 1TB to 8TB of storage costs $2,200. This is more than a lot of laptops cost.

It's also worth saying that I don't think people who already own any kind of M1 or M2-series Apple Silicon Mac need to consider upgrading to any of these M3 models yet. Performance is better, but it was already good. Upgrade if you're also stepping up in the lineup—from an M1 Air to an M3-something Pro—but most people can afford to wait for another, even better chip generation or a more substantial hardware redesign before they replace a Mac that's still only a couple of years old.

The good

Another chip generation keeps Apple's reputation for performance and power efficiency intact.
The M3 Max can beat or come close to the M1 Ultra's performance in many situations. That's a solid performance gain in just two years.
Apple Silicon MacBook Pro design is still a major improvement over 2016–2020 Intel models.
Big, fluid, nice-looking ProMotion screens.
Good keyboard and trackpad.

The bad

The notched strip of screen at the top still feels less useful than it would without a notch.
8GB of memory in the $1,599 config.

The ugly

Sky-high upgrade prices for storage and RAM.

Listing image: Andrew Cunningham

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Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter

Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue.

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