Just wondering what GPU would compete he M3 gpu setup, and ofc it’s the overall performance it delivers, but what would be the closest combination?
1 Like
This site is excellent for this kind of information: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
M3 Pro and Max are equivalent to mid-range PC laptop graphics (e.g. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU), while the normal M3 is like a low-midrange PC laptop graphics card. Don’t even try comparing them to desktop PC graphics, as M-series unfortunately cannot compete with high end graphics cards.
5 Likes
That gives the current Mac Pro less reason to exist, considering the price and the kind of users likely to buy it.
I have an M1 Ultra at work, and it really is 2X the performance to the Max, especially for machine learning. So, it’s possible to push this architecture and it is an amazing chipset.
The graphics performance is great on the Ultra, but at one heck of a cost. The price is not accessible to most people. Nevertheless, it performs admirably and it doesn’t sound like a jet engine in my office!
I agree as I have the Studio; the Mac Pro only offers better cooling and expandability. I’d say there are edge cases that need expandability, but my university isn’t buying any more Mac Pros as there’s no advantage right now. We have lots of the old Intel ones in various labs because they could be expanded to build scientific workstations (we have one with crazy amounts of RAM and SLI graphics cards for our physics lab). These days, for scientific applications, a maxed out Studio makes much more sense. I hope they eventually support graphics cards, it would change the game (especially SLI), and I believe it would save the Mac Pro.
As an example, my university has gone from buying 2-3 Mac Pros a year to all Studios (at least in my school), and I imagine a lot of others will also follow suit.
1 Like
Last year David Gewirtz had some interesting ideas about what the Mac Pro could become, if Apple had the will:
1 Like
For graphics (framerate, essentially) the Apple Pro/Max SoC are in that middle range, but the amount of VRAM way outclasses discrete GPUs in most desktops or laptops. So it just depends on what you’re doing.
The current Mac Pro is for people who need the card slots; whether they also need the Ultra SoC specs is incidental. I’d likewise love for the Mac Pro to get more interesting…
So, it makes sense to go with a used M1 Pro, and get the most value from my money
Yes, the Pro is a nice performer and all most people will ever need.
I have an MacBook M1 Pro and Max and the Max is only noticeably better for gaming and video editing - probably due the fact my Pro has 16GB and Max 64GB. Everything else like web browsing, word processing etc. feels exactly the same.
The only game I play is World of Warcraft (which is Apple Silicon native), and the difference is that on the Pro I have to use Medium settings at 1080p while the Max can handle 1440p or 1600p at High settings.
As a reference, the base M3 chip can barely play the game at 1080p on Low. I tried on my wife’s M3 Air as an experiment, and the frame-rates make it impossible to enjoy when there’s a lot going like in a raid, busy city or dungeon. This is expected as there’s no cooling on the Air and the Pro and Max are like jet engines while playing!
Didn’t expect this for M3, but no fan, and the screen probably do this with the chip
How much RAM is in your wife’s M3 Air? If 8gb, that’s probably the biggest reason, followed by lack of a fan, and then the chip.
It’s 16GB. It runs well when there’s not much going on, i.e. just walking around the open land.
However, as soon as there is a busy city or lots of people in a raid or dungeon it becomes unplayable. This is the point where the Pro or Max fans are blasting so it is likely the lack of cooling.
1 Like