Apple last week launched its new MacBook Pro models with M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips. We already took a look at the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, but we also wanted to test out the top-of-the-line M3 Max chip to see how it measures up.
While the M3 Pro's performance was disappointing overall compared to the M2 Pro and even the M1 Pro, the same can't be said of the M3 Max. Using Geekbench, the M3 Max is about as fast as the M2 Ultra, earning a single-core score of 3217 and a multi-core score of 21597. The M2 Max has a single-core score of 2737 and a multi-core score of 14503, and the difference is even more pronounced compared to the 2021 M1 Max, the first 16-inch MacBook Pro to get an Apple silicon chip. The M1 Max has a single-core score of 2379 and a multi-core score of 12206.
Other benchmarking tests show similar major improvements between the 2023 M3 Max and the 2021 M1 Max. In Cinebench, the M3 Max earned a multi-core CPU score of 1601, compared to a 788 score from the M1 Max. A classroom render in Blender took three and a half minutes with the M3 Max machine, and eight and a half minutes with the M1 Max machine.
Exporting a 16 minute 4K video with multiple effects took five and a half minutes on the M3 Max, and seven and a half minutes on the M1 Max.
As for SSD speeds, those were about the same. The M1 Max saw read/write scores of 5727/5980, respectively, while the M3 Max had read/write scores of 5032/6197, respectively.
You'll want to watch our full video for a more detailed comparison between the two machines, which gives a useful look into just how far Apple silicon has come in two years. The M1 Max is still a super fast chip and you're probably not going to want to upgrade to the M3 Max if you've already got an M1 Max machine, but in some tests, the new chip is up to twice as fast.
