geekbench is always nice to see for a baseline comparison, but the nuance of Apple Silicon and how it responds differently in variety of 3rd party apps, these types of real-world tests become highly relevant.
Fr, I've been using the MacBook Pro M1, my first Mac ever, and it still runs as smoothly as it did on day one, from designing to rendering, no hiccups. Honestly, unless you're in that top 5% pushing crazy performance limits, this laptop has more than enough power.
@@ArthropodSpidey depends on the use cases of the users. Have you ever tried Apple Silicon? Ever pushed it beyond its limits, where you thought to yourself "hmm, this machine is too slow for me, I need an upgrade"??
@@SahandRahmdel Yes, because I'm a developer and photographer who actually uses my Macs to their full potential. It depends on the use cases of *ALL* users. That's why when an idiot says "absolutely no reason to upgrade", they're not speaking on behalf of all users. It's coping.
Great summary! I think I'll be sticking with my M1 Max for another year or two as I've yet to find a task it struggles with. Maybe if they do some big macbook pro refresh in the future I'll consider it, but for now it blows my mind how close a baseline M4 is to my M1 Max. So much better than the Macbooks of the 2010's
OH YES... My 2011 just died.... I loved it... but now I need a New one. I do not need FAST... I'm a writer... and am just now getting into filmmaking and screenplays... I do not think I need the New M4... I would love to have the 16" since I have always had a 17" But the New 16 M4 is around $4000. too rich for my blood. What do you recommend? Is there a 16" M1 Max?? I need a workhorse.
@@JudiChristopher If you want to save some bucks, there is always the M3/M2 15" Macbook Air. Large screen (not as big as 16" Macbook Pros but still big nonetheless), good battery life and ultra portable because of the weight, and it's more than powerful for most people.
Yeah I'm still sticking with M1 Pro. I don't put out enough jobs on a daily basis for the extra speed to be worth it. 5 or 10 minutes longer isn't going to change the rate at which I get through jobs plus the machine still runs quiet and smooth.
Yeah in a lot of cases I feel like these small time improvements aren't all that important. But for me it's not about the 10 min export improvements but the actual working speed improvements, specifically with Lightroom at least. If I can flick through hundreds of event photos without any slow downs, that significantly increases my "flow state" while working and means I can get through everything with less stress. But I'm on an original M1 MBP (Not Pro or Max) so I guess it's running a lot slower for me anyway. Shaving a few minutes off the export time is also great for me because I always double check the photos and end up having to reexport a bunch of things over and over until I'm pleased.
It’s a shame that you haven’t done basic tests in Lightroom as in jumping from image to image, move to next image, apply preset, do some ai generative remove, apply brushes to lower exposure locally, etc. move to the next image, etc
Finally, a video that actually put it to the test! I just got the M4 Max 14-inch fully spec'd with 64GB RAM, and I'm pumped to try out the new noise reduction on DaVinci. Can’t wait to see how much faster I can edit now.
I just got the 16" M1 Max with 64gb and I feel the same way! It's no M4, but it has to be an improvement on my 2014 15" Macbook Pro with a Blackmagic eGPU. Took 4-5 Days at 24 hours a day to render a 90mins 4K film with colour correction, plenty of nodes, and noise reduction WITH the eGPU. Without the eGPU, the best calculation was weeks and weeks... and weeks ;-0) I think an important lesson I learned was: You can only work within your budget, but don't let that stop you!
@@DiegoJoseSJaime I went to the apple store about 2 hours ago to look at the new M4 chips and I'd have to say that the M4 Pro 24gb ran 4k stacked timelines very well (in FinalCut Pro). It surprised me with how well it ran and that was just the Pro not even the Max chip, so if you're looking to buy something, I would recommend probably the M4 Pro Max chip for all out efficiency.
My m2 pro max MacBook runs great with 4k even when color graded. It only chokes up when I run noise reduction and the plugin Dehancer on it since there’s so many effects and generative grain. For cortex my Mac has 2tb and 64gb ram/memory. It’s the 14inch model But yeah I’m curious to see how m4 would handle it. I’ll still wait to upgrade though because I’m happy with the performance I get. The battery life could be better though.
I have been on a base model M1 Pro 16” and love it. Mostly a photographer and freelance software engineer, but do some 4k videos on the side, nothing super intense. Performance is great and basically never gets in the way of my workflow. So really the question for 98% of people is what form factor do I like, and get the cheapest, oldest processor that will do all you want it to.
It was not only comparative, it was really an instructional video. I love it, I learned a few very useful tricks and ways to do things in a different way. Thanks!
I just got a M4 MacBook Pro with 48gb of ram, I can’t wait to see how much faster I’m gonna be able to edit. I use a lot of noise reduction for real estate videos so I’m interested to see how’s it gonna handle it
@@fujicinema I've had it for about a week now and I have zero complaints. I haven't gotten to edit a huge project on it yet but I edited a podcast in 4k 24p with fx3, fx30, and A7IV footage. It could play it all back in 4x speed with no stutter at all. Im playing around with speed ramps in fusion right now and it's been able to play back fusion clips with no stutter which is insane to me comingg from my last computer lol. I'm gonna be filming a documentary next week so I might make a video on the performance of the M4 while editing the doc. I'll let you guys know if I end up making that video so you can get a more in depth analysis
Thanks for taking the time to do these tests, the relevancy of of real-world tests is extremely usable info for folks like my considering upgrading M1 Max, thanks Tyler. Kinda understand why, but bummed to not see a glance at Final Cut tests. Hoping to see M4 excel, for the M3 vs M1 FCP tests were certainly underwhelming (which was very surprising!)
i've got the M1 Max 16 macbook top spec with 4tb drive (purchased at launch) - I love it, its going strong without fault... I like new stuff, but my M1 is still solid 😢
I love this actually using these laptops in real life editing rather than just rendering tests!!!! Honestly best video review of these laptops out here 🔥
Thanks for not simply regurgitating specs and generic benchmarks. Using real apps doing real things is refreshing. I am also blown away by the fact that the M4 was running on battery too. I wonder if the M1 would have fared better plugged in? Thanks for this review, this was super helpful and relevant.
Awesome set of tests and I although they weren’t my questions, I appreciated how you gave thoughtful answers to others in the comment section. Thanks for all the awesome vids!
Great review Tyler! The big takeaway for me was how capable the M1 Max still is (in many applications, if not all). I’m feeling vindicated for maxing out my M1 Max 4 years ago! 😊
Tyler I wish you would have matched it up with the M3 chip as well it’s great to see real life difference from all the series - thank you for the video, very insightful as always 😊
Mac mini m1 here and going strong 💪 NR and all the heavy fancy stuff can be applied in the end once the timeline is completed. I doubt any of us would be bothered waiting a few more minutes..
I love love love my 16” MacBook Pro M1 Max. I bought it second hand a year ago for $3000 aud so I’m going to run with it for a little while longer before upgrading but thank you for showing the difference
We would love to be able to afford the fully expanded M4 Max MacBook Pro but, the M4 Pro seems to be the sweet spot for performance versus value and its been an absolute beast for us so far.
great to see finally significant improvements from m1max to the latest m4 generation. They are all relevant when buying a new machine or you are editing on a daily basis. But for everyone else, stick with the m1pro/max or any later gen unless you really feel your workload gets stuck. Timelines should run smoothly, pictures should open instantly/apply changes almost immediately... no one cares if denoise takes 2 min or 3 min to render as you would be doing a different task in the meantime anyway.
Well Tyler, you convinced me to upgrade... from my 2015 iMac! I have a habit of maxing out my gear and making it last as long as I possibly can. I was due for a new machine. Thanks for the practical comparisons! The M4 Max will be a nice change of pace. 😜
This was a PHENOMENAL video! Would love to see a bigger batch of denoise. Often times I’m denoising 200-250 photos at a time. This will be the make or break for me if it’s worth the upgrade from the M1 Max!
Thank you for the real world tests. I’m bored about benchmarks. The real time saving is what matters the most, especially the smoothness while working 👍🏻
Great review - thanks for running through all of these scenarios to give us a realistic take on what to expect (especially with LR and Topaz, for me personally). And I love the Mark Maggiori in the background - I've got the same one myself 🤘
Superb video! the volume of the music at the beginning of the video was way too high though, I had to pause the video for a second to check if I had something else playing in the background.
Love your content! Great video and very helpful. Could run a test with object removal in LR on all three machines? I know it’s cloud based but it would very interesting to see if there is any difference. Like two different examples with only one object to be removed and another with 5 or 6 smaller ones? That would be amazing! Thanks!
Thank you very much for these tests. They helped me make some decisions and confirmed what I suspected and experienced running Davinci Resolve. I also do a lot of Photo work using Affinity Photo and the rest of their suite. I just upgraded my base M1 Pro MacBook:Pro to the M4 Pro MacBook Pro and then went for the unbinned version which gave me two more performance cores and GPU cores with the 48G memory option - AI is a memory Hog. More cost effective than going for the M4 Max configuration in the MacBook. Now waiting to upgrade my base M1 Max Studio to the M4 Ultra Studio now based upon your tests. They showed the power of the Ultra chip - more about future proofing while the AI functions in both video and photo get all the more powerful. Great video and very useful to me.
Great video I'm still enjoying my m2 max I feel like a forgotten m chip line but it's great. I'm doing about 3 projects a week on 4k and with the new update to Adobe it's rendering is alot faster in the app and handles the ai enhancements. Great products. M4 max already looking so powerful
@@stalman True I think my upgrade will come in 4 to 5 years if ai keeps advancing like I think and the apps need more memory to run the new features. We are at the beginning but I know these features will change the way we create. Its a blessing to have a device like this cause I see if you want to be a content creator in modern age you got to have powerful devices to run the programs so it won't hinder your work flow. Love the video and the tracking you did on that scene with the words was crazy.
Thanks for the video! What size hard drive did you go with on your M4 max? Also if possible can you list full specs of the M1 Max and M2 Ultra you are comparing? Curious how much ram they had because I see you went all out maxing out ram on your new laptop 😊
As much as you can afford, the biggest benefits of working on a local drive are workflow benifits not managing external drives. I try to keep my most recent 3 projects local at a time
This is encouraging to see. I edit using Davinci Studio on an older but high end 16c Threadripper PC that has a Radeon 24GB 7900xtx graphics card. I’m looking to upgrade and did a few tests with my M3 MacBook Air, unfortunately the M3 ground to a halt with a Node Structure using hallation, diffraction, film grain, blur and vignette. The GPU maxed out at 100%, barely playing 3fps of H264 10 bit 4.2.2 vision. My PC played the timeline in real time. Watching this video makes me believe that the M4 Pro might be able to do the job. Any thoughts please? I’d prefer to work on a Mac than a PC.
Ah! Thanks for including Denoise AI. I'm not the target for these $$$ Macs, but Denoise is a (lovely) issue. I'm the content manager for a K8 school. I took a science fair photo that included a 3rd grader with freckles, and Adobe Denoise AI removed the ISO 20,000 noise WITHOUT touching the freckles. That is insane and wonderful. I now trust Denoise for batch processing.
Great video. I'd be interested to see how the M4 MAX handles image exports compared to the others. I briefly tried an M1 MAX Studio when my Intel i5 laptop was in the shop. It was simply mind-blowing. The Studio shaved about 80% of my workflow time. I think an M4 MAX would shave a good chunk of time off the M1 MAX. But it wouldn't be as dramatic. I think I would go with an M4 Pro for a portable workstation. It's a $800 upgrade to M4 MAX and just don't think the improvements would be worth it. The differences are a bit more dramatic on the tougher end of things. Which I won't be doing often. Then, I'll get an M4 MAX with the Studio when that's available. I forgot how gorgeous that Apple XDR display is. It's the first time in a video where, even it's not the topic, does justice to it. In person, it's absolutely stunning.
I've never been this early to a video. great comparison! Glad the 3nm IS making a difference.Loved the examples of resolve as I shoot 6.5k BRAW and instead of upgrading I may have to choose a tower to render as I edit on the go, on my laptop.
Such a helpful video! I'm going to be upgrading from an Intel 2020 iMac 27" before the end of the year, I'm pretty sure I'm going with the base m4 max 16" mbp with the glass upgrade.
I decided to upgrade from M1 Pro to M4 Pro. Not any problem with M1, just time for an upgrade. I use it most for Final Cut pro, Lightroom and Photoshop. Have a great day.
“I see no reason to upgrade from my 2017 Intel MacBook Pro! No reason at all, absolutely no reason! Maybe I’ll upgrade for the M9 or M10. Now, seriously, I’m getting my $4000 M4 Max next week. Can’t wait to see the difference in performance 😅.
I don’t know isn’t it nice to have a standalone machine so you can walk away and come back rather than doing everything on a laptop of course the M4 can do everything that we want right now
Great review and tests! I have been using my M1 Max MacBook Pro since launch and really loved the boost I got with my video-edit work. I do lots of lowlight work which also involves using the NeatVideo denoise plugin. Love it’s wide range of use/tweaking capabilities over any internal Denoise options in like DaVinci Resolve, but with its great capabilities comes quite some intense use of CPU/GPU. With the release of the M2 Max and M3 Max i’ve seem some improvements, but not enough for me to move on from my M1 Max.. I haven’t seen any tests from NeatVideo yet with the M4 Max. Would love to see if/how much improved it is now with the 4rd iteration of the M Max…
That was interesting, thanks! I’m more interested in the difference between the M4 Pro and Max because I’m thinking about upgrading from my M1 Pro and want to know if saving longer and getting the Max is necessary or not. Also, your intro and exit music is too loud for talking over.
Bro all the youtubers are coping. I upgraded from a ryzen 3 based Pc to a M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14 (unbinned 10 core) last week (got it for 1000 dollars) and it is way powerful than my windows machine. No problems editing 4k videos with extreme colour grading/effects/motion graphics, you name it. Battery life is stellar (I'm in shock, it works for more than a heavy day for me on average). I am planning to keep this for as long as it stays, 4~5 years, maybe more. All the youtubers are trying to create a hype about why you should switch from M1 Max to M4 max but let me tell you, if you have M1 max, eve if you're a heavy creator, you're sorted for at least 5 more years easily. No need to upgrade and invest your earnings somewhere else, your laptop is absolutely perfect.
@@stalman there are still people rocking 2015 Macbooks to this day LOL, the M1 was a massive leap from Intel, and there will defo be people rocking 2021 M1 chips for a decade or more. Great video though dude!
Helloooooo!!! I charge by the hour so I'm losing $$$ if I upgrade from my full spec M1 Max 😄. Seriously though thanks for a REAL real world experience with the M4 Max Tyler. The benchmark comparisons just don't provide the actual info I really need for what I do.
M1 Max was the best machine I ever bought and year after year that decision is further cemented. It's a testament to that generational bump. I'm delighted that Apple iterate on incremental improvement to performance for the top 1% of users, but my Macbook has made me tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and it perfect for what I use it for today.
would love to see a similar test to this, but with the M4 Pro chip. It seems like a really good value this year and I feel like for the most part, it would be a really solid option for people who dont need the extra GPU horsepower.
Phenomenal video! FINALLY useful examples and tests that reflect daily workflows 👍 My M1 Ultra is still doing pretty amazing work. It lags the M2 Ultra, but not by a huge margin. I think I'm going to hold onto my M1 Max MBP but upgrade my Mac Studio to the next Ultra when it comes out because the Ultra SoC is an absolute beast. ....or I'll just cave and buy an M4 Max MBP right away and then ALSO buy the M4 Ultra 🤣
Regarding optimizations, the softwares you're using seem to be more optimized to take advantage of higher GPU core counts instead of maximum core usage which is why the ultra is pulling ahead in many tests. Everything that is also pushing the GPU for the maximum power per core is likely why the M4 Max beats out the Ultra in other tests. When your software becomes more efficient the M4 max should beat out the ultra in many of your previous tests.
00:02 M4 Max MacBook Pro shows significant performance gains over M1. 02:05 M4 Max excels in video editing without slowing down. 04:06 M4 Max outperforms M1 in real-time video playback with heavy effects. 06:05 M4 Max shows significant performance improvements over M1 Max for video playback. 08:13 M4 Max MacBook Pro offers improved brightness and connectivity features. 10:12 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max and M2 Ultra in real-world tasks. 12:12 Performance comparisons of AI features in photo editing across MacBook models. 14:18 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max in video export times. 16:36 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max in performance tests.
depends a lot on your usage. I have the mac mini m2 pro and for my workflow (I'm a professional colorist working on DR), GPU cores has the greatest impact on performance. I'm planning on grabbing the mac studio m4 max, it should be at least twice as fast on playback and rendering, so for me, it's definitely worth the wait, since i don't have a use for a notebook
@ will you go with the base or upgraded Max chip? I’m editing in Resolve with mirrorless footage and using minimal effects. Text, speed ramps, motion blur. And doing all my color grading in Resolve.
@@JoshBirman I'm not sure what is your current setup, but from your use case, the m4 pro might be enough for most of the situations. My workflow consists of 20+ nodes with NR, Grain, vfx on a lot of projects so having a smoother playback (at least half resolution) it's super important for me. Since I live in Brasil, things are super expensive here (at least 8x more of the US prices) so the base m4 max studio should be enough regarding price and performance. Hopefully they release it Q1/2 next year, so it would be a nice time for me to upgrade.
@@JoshBirman My use case is pretty specific, that's why i'll be waiting for the mac studio. I also don't do any edit, only color grading, so i have some idea on the limitations of this computers, specially for the GPU part (which it's still the weakest point on this chips) But for the majority of the people, the m4 pro should be a pretty awesome machine, especially with this new mac mini redesign, even though i hate that they removed the usb-a ports :(
I think if you are doing (or have been attempting to do) tasks which cannot be done by the M1 Max then it is worth upgrading but where something is just going to take you a bit longer and you are not pushed for time then probably not. If you do upgrade just for speed you will be in the same boat a few years down the line as the applications become increasingly sophisticated. I tend to upgrade only when things become a pain.
I love this computer. I have a 2015 MBP and I don’t do any power-house work that would require it. But I want it! I have an M2 mini which handles Logic Pro great. I should probably just get an air!
I use the AI masking tool in davinci resolve all the time for my car color grading work, it's always super slow. Maybe you can add that to the test next time. Great work on the review!
This is what we are missing. a real world test without all the benchmark, thx :) For now, me and the person I brain storm with are hesitating between the pro and max for photo and video editing. Not the speed (because we can wait few more minutes for exports), but for the smoothness. For example, the responsiveness of Lightroom or capture one when moving a slider. I know that you don't own a pro version (only max), but do you notice more responsiveness between M1 and M4 max ?
Just got my MacBook Pro 14” Nano 48 gig ram 2tb and it is so so nice…. There were a couple of micro chips on some sharp edges 😂out of the box but what ever
would love a recommendations on what external drive to get with my new M4 Max. I tend to use my MBP mostly on desk, plugged in so i'd like to have all my after effect projects on an external ssd. what are the best options for this laptop, to take advantage of the speed of TB5. no budget limit
I would like to see Topaz Photo AI. Since ArtIsRight has shown consistently that RAM is very significant, the Macbook has to be the one with 48GB RAM, compared maybe to a M3 with at least 48 or 64 GB RAM. I don’t do video, and I don’t use Lightroom(I use Affinity), but for my needs as a macro photographer, a significant increase in upscale, denoise, and sharpen in Topaz Photo AI is the marker that tells me whether an upgrade is warranted. Art’s testing so far has show that an M2Max with 128 GB of ram wins in photo applications at least some of the time.
Can someone please list all of the plugins/programs used in this video? they all seem like marvelous tools for content creators! please :,)
RotoAI from motionvfx mvfx.co/Tyler_mRotoAI
Stalman LUTs stalman.com/shop
Reblum retouch (20% off) reblum.app/p/VXP.6532
Topaz Lab video topazlabs.com
@@stalman would love to see a video on your top 10 most used plug-ins across video and photo applications.
@@KyleBevis-u7j that will be great.
Nice to see someone actually use apps and test these machines properly rather than just constant benchmark scores!
geekbench is always nice to see for a baseline comparison, but the nuance of Apple Silicon and how it responds differently in variety of 3rd party apps, these types of real-world tests become highly relevant.
@ exactly that
Still absolutely no real reason to upgrade from my m1 pro. and the m1 pro i have is without a doubt my favorite computer of all time
Are you coping? 🤣
What specs do you have on the M1 Pro?
Fr, I've been using the MacBook Pro M1, my first Mac ever, and it still runs as smoothly as it did on day one, from designing to rendering, no hiccups. Honestly, unless you're in that top 5% pushing crazy performance limits, this laptop has more than enough power.
@@ArthropodSpidey depends on the use cases of the users. Have you ever tried Apple Silicon? Ever pushed it beyond its limits, where you thought to yourself "hmm, this machine is too slow for me, I need an upgrade"??
@@SahandRahmdel Yes, because I'm a developer and photographer who actually uses my Macs to their full potential.
It depends on the use cases of *ALL* users. That's why when an idiot says "absolutely no reason to upgrade", they're not speaking on behalf of all users. It's coping.
Great summary! I think I'll be sticking with my M1 Max for another year or two as I've yet to find a task it struggles with. Maybe if they do some big macbook pro refresh in the future I'll consider it, but for now it blows my mind how close a baseline M4 is to my M1 Max. So much better than the Macbooks of the 2010's
OH YES... My 2011 just died.... I loved it... but now I need a New one.
I do not need FAST... I'm a writer... and am just now getting into filmmaking and screenplays...
I do not think I need the New M4...
I would love to have the 16" since I have always had a 17"
But the New 16 M4 is around $4000. too rich for my blood.
What do you recommend? Is there a 16" M1 Max??
I need a workhorse.
@@JudiChristopheryes there is a 16 inch M1 Max…
@@JudiChristopher If you want to save some bucks, there is always the M3/M2 15" Macbook Air. Large screen (not as big as 16" Macbook Pros but still big nonetheless), good battery life and ultra portable because of the weight, and it's more than powerful for most people.
I’m in the same boat. The only reason I’d upgrade is if I need to when they release 120 Hz displays.
Try running ollama on it 😅
Yeah I'm still sticking with M1 Pro. I don't put out enough jobs on a daily basis for the extra speed to be worth it. 5 or 10 minutes longer isn't going to change the rate at which I get through jobs plus the machine still runs quiet and smooth.
Exactly. Once they do the redesign in 2025 or 2026 then I'll definitely upgrade. No point in upgrading now when my M1 Pro works 100% fine.
Yeah in a lot of cases I feel like these small time improvements aren't all that important. But for me it's not about the 10 min export improvements but the actual working speed improvements, specifically with Lightroom at least. If I can flick through hundreds of event photos without any slow downs, that significantly increases my "flow state" while working and means I can get through everything with less stress. But I'm on an original M1 MBP (Not Pro or Max) so I guess it's running a lot slower for me anyway.
Shaving a few minutes off the export time is also great for me because I always double check the photos and end up having to reexport a bunch of things over and over until I'm pleased.
It’s a shame that you haven’t done basic tests in Lightroom as in jumping from image to image, move to next image, apply preset, do some ai generative remove, apply brushes to lower exposure locally, etc. move to the next image, etc
Finally, a video that actually put it to the test! I just got the M4 Max 14-inch fully spec'd with 64GB RAM, and I'm pumped to try out the new noise reduction on DaVinci. Can’t wait to see how much faster I can edit now.
Let me know, I struggle with complex video editing with my M1 Pro 16GB MBP. I wanna see if it's worth the upgrade finally.
I just got the 16" M1 Max with 64gb and I feel the same way! It's no M4, but it has to be an improvement on my 2014 15" Macbook Pro with a Blackmagic eGPU. Took 4-5 Days at 24 hours a day to render a 90mins 4K film with colour correction, plenty of nodes, and noise reduction WITH the eGPU. Without the eGPU, the best calculation was weeks and weeks... and weeks ;-0) I think an important lesson I learned was: You can only work within your budget, but don't let that stop you!
@@DiegoJoseSJaime I went to the apple store about 2 hours ago to look at the new M4 chips and I'd have to say that the M4 Pro 24gb ran 4k stacked timelines very well (in FinalCut Pro). It surprised me with how well it ran and that was just the Pro not even the Max chip, so if you're looking to buy something, I would recommend probably the M4 Pro Max chip for all out efficiency.
My m2 pro max MacBook runs great with 4k even when color graded. It only chokes up when I run noise reduction and the plugin Dehancer on it since there’s so many effects and generative grain.
For cortex my Mac has 2tb and 64gb ram/memory. It’s the 14inch model
But yeah I’m curious to see how m4 would handle it. I’ll still wait to upgrade though because I’m happy with the performance I get. The battery life could be better though.
@AlexRistow Did you get the Nano Texture Display? I got the same MBP but 16 inch model instead
I have been on a base model M1 Pro 16” and love it. Mostly a photographer and freelance software engineer, but do some 4k videos on the side, nothing super intense. Performance is great and basically never gets in the way of my workflow. So really the question for 98% of people is what form factor do I like, and get the cheapest, oldest processor that will do all you want it to.
But yeah if you are making awesome videos with tracking etc go big 😂
Love the review. You actually ran several tests and side by side comparisons in real time. Very different from all the other reviews.
Thank you.
It was not only comparative, it was really an instructional video. I love it, I learned a few very useful tricks and ways to do things in a different way. Thanks!
I just got a M4 MacBook Pro with 48gb of ram, I can’t wait to see how much faster I’m gonna be able to edit. I use a lot of noise reduction for real estate videos so I’m interested to see how’s it gonna handle it
Let us know! I have an m2 with 64gb of ram and it struggles. I’m interested what the m4 is like
Any updates?
@@fujicinema I've had it for about a week now and I have zero complaints. I haven't gotten to edit a huge project on it yet but I edited a podcast in 4k 24p with fx3, fx30, and A7IV footage. It could play it all back in 4x speed with no stutter at all. Im playing around with speed ramps in fusion right now and it's been able to play back fusion clips with no stutter which is insane to me comingg from my last computer lol. I'm gonna be filming a documentary next week so I might make a video on the performance of the M4 while editing the doc. I'll let you guys know if I end up making that video so you can get a more in depth analysis
Thanks for taking the time to do these tests, the relevancy of of real-world tests is extremely usable info for folks like my considering upgrading M1 Max, thanks Tyler. Kinda understand why, but bummed to not see a glance at Final Cut tests. Hoping to see M4 excel, for the M3 vs M1 FCP tests were certainly underwhelming (which was very surprising!)
i've got the M1 Max 16 macbook top spec with 4tb drive (purchased at launch) - I love it, its going strong without fault... I like new stuff, but my M1 is still solid 😢
This video is way more useful than any other bench mark video that I’ve seen. Thank you.
I love this actually using these laptops in real life editing rather than just rendering tests!!!! Honestly best video review of these laptops out here 🔥
Great video Tyler! I need to start using that AI masking option in DaVinci Resolve more often now
Thanks for the fantastic comparative review Tyler! The only thing that I would like to see additionally is a LRC export test. Thanks again!
Thanks for not simply regurgitating specs and generic benchmarks. Using real apps doing real things is refreshing. I am also blown away by the fact that the M4 was running on battery too. I wonder if the M1 would have fared better plugged in? Thanks for this review, this was super helpful and relevant.
You know a product is phenomenal when it’s still being compared to the latest and greatest
Awesome set of tests and I although they weren’t my questions, I appreciated how you gave thoughtful answers to others in the comment section. Thanks for all the awesome vids!
It’s really incredible how good Apple’s silicon team has been. It’s just so damn impressive
I really hope someone does this kinda testing with the base m4 Mini, I just want to see how it stacks up
There are already benchmarks out there. It destroys every other Mac in single core performance.
@@ArthropodSpideyI have only seen the synthetic stuff, Id like to see real usage and timeline/export times like Stalman has
Great review Tyler! The big takeaway for me was how capable the M1 Max still is (in many applications, if not all). I’m feeling vindicated for maxing out my M1 Max 4 years ago! 😊
It can still handle all these workflows, which is impressive remembering that the Intels could not.
Tyler I wish you would have matched it up with the M3 chip as well it’s great to see real life difference from all the series - thank you for the video, very insightful as always 😊
Great video! Finally some real world tests! Also good to see great footage of my home country :) Subscribed!
From mkbhd
Mac mini m1 here and going strong 💪
NR and all the heavy fancy stuff can be applied in the end once the timeline is completed. I doubt any of us would be bothered waiting a few more minutes..
I love love love my 16” MacBook Pro M1 Max. I bought it second hand a year ago for $3000 aud so I’m going to run with it for a little while longer before upgrading but thank you for showing the difference
The Only Review I was waiting, Thanks Tyler!
We would love to be able to afford the fully expanded M4 Max MacBook Pro but, the M4 Pro seems to be the sweet spot for performance versus value and its been an absolute beast for us so far.
Thank you for doing a video export review. it's greatly appreciated.
great to see finally significant improvements from m1max to the latest m4 generation. They are all relevant when buying a new machine or you are editing on a daily basis. But for everyone else, stick with the m1pro/max or any later gen unless you really feel your workload gets stuck. Timelines should run smoothly, pictures should open instantly/apply changes almost immediately... no one cares if denoise takes 2 min or 3 min to render as you would be doing a different task in the meantime anyway.
Well Tyler, you convinced me to upgrade... from my 2015 iMac! I have a habit of maxing out my gear and making it last as long as I possibly can. I was due for a new machine. Thanks for the practical comparisons! The M4 Max will be a nice change of pace. 😜
This was a PHENOMENAL video! Would love to see a bigger batch of denoise. Often times I’m denoising 200-250 photos at a time. This will be the make or break for me if it’s worth the upgrade from the M1 Max!
Really helpful video Tyler, also really want to see exactly the same testing in M4 and M4 Pro.
love the tests! that last one was particularly mind blowing haha!
Thank you for the real world tests. I’m bored about benchmarks. The real time saving is what matters the most, especially the smoothness while working 👍🏻
Great video! Nice to see real results without the typical geekbench scores which means nothing to us creators!
I am still on M1 Max works magically
The best review so far! Thank you so much!
Great review - thanks for running through all of these scenarios to give us a realistic take on what to expect (especially with LR and Topaz, for me personally). And I love the Mark Maggiori in the background - I've got the same one myself 🤘
That background in the first shot looks sick!!!!!!!
Superb video! the volume of the music at the beginning of the video was way too high though, I had to pause the video for a second to check if I had something else playing in the background.
I love the blue phone case, where can I find it or what brand is it? Thanks and great video btw 👊
Time for an upgrade, thanks ty
Lol the guitar coming from the left in the intro sounded crazyyy
Best review by far.
cool vid! my m1max w/64g ram is still OP with 5/6k raw video, so i'll wait until it finally struggles.
Love your content! Great video and very helpful. Could run a test with object removal in LR on all three machines? I know it’s cloud based but it would very interesting to see if there is any difference. Like two different examples with only one object to be removed and another with 5 or 6 smaller ones? That would be amazing! Thanks!
Thank you very much for these tests. They helped me make some decisions and confirmed what I suspected and experienced running Davinci Resolve. I also do a lot of Photo work using Affinity Photo and the rest of their suite. I just upgraded my base M1 Pro MacBook:Pro to the M4 Pro MacBook Pro and then went for the unbinned version which gave me two more performance cores and GPU cores with the 48G memory option - AI is a memory Hog. More cost effective than going for the M4 Max configuration in the MacBook. Now waiting to upgrade my base M1 Max Studio to the M4 Ultra Studio now based upon your tests. They showed the power of the Ultra chip - more about future proofing while the AI functions in both video and photo get all the more powerful. Great video and very useful to me.
Could you test in Topaz VEAI a simple 2X upscale from 1080P to 4K on the M1 Max, M4 Max and M2 Ultra?
Watching this on the m4 pro max ;)
Great video I'm still enjoying my m2 max I feel like a forgotten m chip line but it's great. I'm doing about 3 projects a week on 4k and with the new update to Adobe it's rendering is alot faster in the app and handles the ai enhancements. Great products. M4 max already looking so powerful
M2 Max is probably all you need
@@stalman True I think my upgrade will come in 4 to 5 years if ai keeps advancing like I think and the apps need more memory to run the new features. We are at the beginning but I know these features will change the way we create. Its a blessing to have a device like this cause I see if you want to be a content creator in modern age you got to have powerful devices to run the programs so it won't hinder your work flow. Love the video and the tracking you did on that scene with the words was crazy.
@@stalmancan u put details on wich PC setup Windows u was not able to render 5k video with strong noise reduction
wasn't watching your UA-cam some time , and you did quite a good job nice video
Would love to see some Lightroom classic tests using two monitors in Grid, Loupe and Develop mode.
Thanks for the video! What size hard drive did you go with on your M4 max? Also if possible can you list full specs of the M1 Max and M2 Ultra you are comparing? Curious how much ram they had because I see you went all out maxing out ram on your new laptop 😊
As much as you can afford, the biggest benefits of working on a local drive are workflow benifits not managing external drives. I try to keep my most recent 3 projects local at a time
Awesome video! Found your channel from MKBHD's video.
Waiting for my m4 max to get in… however now I am second guessing whether I should have gotten the matte screen
Hmm….
This is encouraging to see. I edit using Davinci Studio on an older but high end 16c Threadripper PC that has a Radeon 24GB 7900xtx graphics card. I’m looking to upgrade and did a few tests with my M3 MacBook Air, unfortunately the M3 ground to a halt with a Node Structure using hallation, diffraction, film grain, blur and vignette. The GPU maxed out at 100%, barely playing 3fps of H264 10 bit 4.2.2 vision. My PC played the timeline in real time. Watching this video makes me believe that the M4 Pro might be able to do the job. Any thoughts please? I’d prefer to work on a Mac than a PC.
Ah! Thanks for including Denoise AI. I'm not the target for these $$$ Macs, but Denoise is a (lovely) issue. I'm the content manager for a K8 school. I took a science fair photo that included a 3rd grader with freckles, and Adobe Denoise AI removed the ISO 20,000 noise WITHOUT touching the freckles. That is insane and wonderful. I now trust Denoise for batch processing.
I have the M1 Pro and really wanted to upgrade but I think I can hold off one more year for the M5 (hopefully different design)
Great video. I'd be interested to see how the M4 MAX handles image exports compared to the others. I briefly tried an M1 MAX Studio when my Intel i5 laptop was in the shop. It was simply mind-blowing. The Studio shaved about 80% of my workflow time. I think an M4 MAX would shave a good chunk of time off the M1 MAX. But it wouldn't be as dramatic. I think I would go with an M4 Pro for a portable workstation. It's a $800 upgrade to M4 MAX and just don't think the improvements would be worth it. The differences are a bit more dramatic on the tougher end of things. Which I won't be doing often. Then, I'll get an M4 MAX with the Studio when that's available.
I forgot how gorgeous that Apple XDR display is. It's the first time in a video where, even it's not the topic, does justice to it. In person, it's absolutely stunning.
I've never been this early to a video. great comparison! Glad the 3nm IS making a difference.Loved the examples of resolve as I shoot 6.5k BRAW and instead of upgrading I may have to choose a tower to render as I edit on the go, on my laptop.
Such a helpful video! I'm going to be upgrading from an Intel 2020 iMac 27" before the end of the year, I'm pretty sure I'm going with the base m4 max 16" mbp with the glass upgrade.
I decided to upgrade from M1 Pro to M4 Pro. Not any problem with M1, just time for an upgrade. I use it most for Final Cut pro, Lightroom and Photoshop. Have a great day.
8:43 I have to point out that it's not really 1000 nit. That difference can be acheived with just 100 nit more. Apple does trick your some info.
“I see no reason to upgrade from my 2017 Intel MacBook Pro! No reason at all, absolutely no reason! Maybe I’ll upgrade for the M9 or M10.
Now, seriously, I’m getting my $4000 M4 Max next week. Can’t wait to see the difference in performance 😅.
I’m finally upgrading from my 2018 mbp🙏🏼
Same. I’ve got a quote for an M4 MAX. Just waiting on a few more of these reviews
I have the M1 Pro and I think I’m considering it. Especially with video editing.
I don’t know isn’t it nice to have a standalone machine so you can walk away and come back rather than doing everything on a laptop of course the M4 can do everything that we want right now
Great review and tests!
I have been using my M1 Max MacBook Pro since launch and really loved the boost I got with my video-edit work.
I do lots of lowlight work which also involves using the NeatVideo denoise plugin.
Love it’s wide range of use/tweaking capabilities over any internal Denoise options in like DaVinci Resolve, but with its great capabilities comes quite some intense use of CPU/GPU.
With the release of the M2 Max and M3 Max i’ve seem some improvements, but not enough for me to move on from my M1 Max..
I haven’t seen any tests from NeatVideo yet with the M4 Max.
Would love to see if/how much improved it is now with the 4rd iteration of the M Max…
An impressive showing for the M4 Max. For me, I don't NEED the portability of a laptop, so my takeaway is: the M4 Ultra is going to be killer.
Im also excited to hear what you have to say on the GH7, saw and heard brief mention of it in the Peru iPhone video.
Oh man I wish I had already released that video but I never got around to editing it. Love the camera though, most every ever used m43
@ I’m renting one and I’m just blown away it’s just fun.
@ favorite lenses? I forgot how small they are, wow.
Thanks for the tests !
That was interesting, thanks! I’m more interested in the difference between the M4 Pro and Max because I’m thinking about upgrading from my M1 Pro and want to know if saving longer and getting the Max is necessary or not. Also, your intro and exit music is too loud for talking over.
Bro all the youtubers are coping. I upgraded from a ryzen 3 based Pc to a M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14 (unbinned 10 core) last week (got it for 1000 dollars) and it is way powerful than my windows machine. No problems editing 4k videos with extreme colour grading/effects/motion graphics, you name it. Battery life is stellar (I'm in shock, it works for more than a heavy day for me on average). I am planning to keep this for as long as it stays, 4~5 years, maybe more. All the youtubers are trying to create a hype about why you should switch from M1 Max to M4 max but let me tell you, if you have M1 max, eve if you're a heavy creator, you're sorted for at least 5 more years easily. No need to upgrade and invest your earnings somewhere else, your laptop is absolutely perfect.
9 years? The M1 is great but that might be a stretch
Sure you did. Windows is for old men.
All M1 machines are fantastic it's true. But M4 is a sizable upgrade from an M1... finally. M3 wasn't cutting it for me but M4 tips the scale.
@@stalman there are still people rocking 2015 Macbooks to this day LOL, the M1 was a massive leap from Intel, and there will defo be people rocking 2021 M1 chips for a decade or more. Great video though dude!
@@ScottThePisces The only people rocking m1 for a decade are senior citizen people whose entire online existence is banking and weather
A video i was looking for, thanks!
Helloooooo!!! I charge by the hour so I'm losing $$$ if I upgrade from my full spec M1 Max 😄. Seriously though thanks for a REAL real world experience with the M4 Max Tyler. The benchmark comparisons just don't provide the actual info I really need for what I do.
M1 Max was the best machine I ever bought and year after year that decision is further cemented. It's a testament to that generational bump. I'm delighted that Apple iterate on incremental improvement to performance for the top 1% of users, but my Macbook has made me tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and it perfect for what I use it for today.
What do you do for work?
would love to see a similar test to this, but with the M4 Pro chip. It seems like a really good value this year and I feel like for the most part, it would be a really solid option for people who dont need the extra GPU horsepower.
Wow, that is nuts 3:53
really curious about the painting to the left of you! looks cool, who did it?
Phenomenal video! FINALLY useful examples and tests that reflect daily workflows 👍 My M1 Ultra is still doing pretty amazing work. It lags the M2 Ultra, but not by a huge margin. I think I'm going to hold onto my M1 Max MBP but upgrade my Mac Studio to the next Ultra when it comes out because the Ultra SoC is an absolute beast. ....or I'll just cave and buy an M4 Max MBP right away and then ALSO buy the M4 Ultra 🤣
I upgraded. Waiting on my new Mac. 😅
Regarding optimizations, the softwares you're using seem to be more optimized to take advantage of higher GPU core counts instead of maximum core usage which is why the ultra is pulling ahead in many tests. Everything that is also pushing the GPU for the maximum power per core is likely why the M4 Max beats out the Ultra in other tests. When your software becomes more efficient the M4 max should beat out the ultra in many of your previous tests.
Waiting for the M4 Ultra Mac Studio... 🙂
00:02 M4 Max MacBook Pro shows significant performance gains over M1.
02:05 M4 Max excels in video editing without slowing down.
04:06 M4 Max outperforms M1 in real-time video playback with heavy effects.
06:05 M4 Max shows significant performance improvements over M1 Max for video playback.
08:13 M4 Max MacBook Pro offers improved brightness and connectivity features.
10:12 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max and M2 Ultra in real-world tasks.
12:12 Performance comparisons of AI features in photo editing across MacBook models.
14:18 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max in video export times.
16:36 M4 Max significantly outperforms M1 Max in performance tests.
I’d be curious to see how much faster is final cut at exporting 1 hour 4K 60fps project.
Great video!! Do you think the upgraded M4 Pro chip is enough for video editing or is the Max chip necessary?
depends a lot on your usage. I have the mac mini m2 pro and for my workflow (I'm a professional colorist working on DR), GPU cores has the greatest impact on performance. I'm planning on grabbing the mac studio m4 max, it should be at least twice as fast on playback and rendering, so for me, it's definitely worth the wait, since i don't have a use for a notebook
@ will you go with the base or upgraded Max chip? I’m editing in Resolve with mirrorless footage and using minimal effects. Text, speed ramps, motion blur. And doing all my color grading in Resolve.
@@JoshBirman I'm not sure what is your current setup, but from your use case, the m4 pro might be enough for most of the situations. My workflow consists of 20+ nodes with NR, Grain, vfx on a lot of projects so having a smoother playback (at least half resolution) it's super important for me.
Since I live in Brasil, things are super expensive here (at least 8x more of the US prices) so the base m4 max studio should be enough regarding price and performance. Hopefully they release it Q1/2 next year, so it would be a nice time for me to upgrade.
@ Oh dang! Yeah, I don’t do anything close to that kind of node tree 😄
@@JoshBirman My use case is pretty specific, that's why i'll be waiting for the mac studio.
I also don't do any edit, only color grading, so i have some idea on the limitations of this computers, specially for the GPU part (which it's still the weakest point on this chips)
But for the majority of the people, the m4 pro should be a pretty awesome machine, especially with this new mac mini redesign, even though i hate that they removed the usb-a ports :(
It looks like the black color definitely catches more of the oils from the fingers, especially on the track pad, compared to starlight color
I think if you are doing (or have been attempting to do) tasks which cannot be done by the M1 Max then it is worth upgrading but where something is just going to take you a bit longer and you are not pushed for time then probably not. If you do upgrade just for speed you will be in the same boat a few years down the line as the applications become increasingly sophisticated. I tend to upgrade only when things become a pain.
I love this computer. I have a 2015 MBP and I don’t do any power-house work that would require it. But I want it!
I have an M2 mini which handles Logic Pro great.
I should probably just get an air!
Best video I found thank you so much you got a new subscriber!
Dumb question, but I assume upgrading from an intel i9 MacBook Pro would be worthwhile? Programming and light photo editing
I use the AI masking tool in davinci resolve all the time for my car color grading work, it's always super slow. Maybe you can add that to the test next time. Great work on the review!
Yes I basically did the FCP instead, but results are comparable in Resolve
I would be super happy to get that M1 Max.
This is what we are missing. a real world test without all the benchmark, thx :) For now, me and the person I brain storm with are hesitating between the pro and max for photo and video editing. Not the speed (because we can wait few more minutes for exports), but for the smoothness. For example, the responsiveness of Lightroom or capture one when moving a slider. I know that you don't own a pro version (only max), but do you notice more responsiveness between M1 and M4 max ?
Just got my MacBook Pro 14” Nano 48 gig ram 2tb and it is so so nice…. There were a couple of micro chips on some sharp edges 😂out of the box but what ever
would love a recommendations on what external drive to get with my new M4 Max. I tend to use my MBP mostly on desk, plugged in so i'd like to have all my after effect projects on an external ssd. what are the best options for this laptop, to take advantage of the speed of TB5. no budget limit
I would like to see Topaz Photo AI. Since ArtIsRight has shown consistently that RAM is very significant, the Macbook has to be the one with 48GB RAM, compared maybe to a M3 with at least 48 or 64 GB RAM. I don’t do video, and I don’t use Lightroom(I use Affinity), but for my needs as a macro photographer, a significant increase in upscale, denoise, and sharpen in Topaz Photo AI is the marker that tells me whether an upgrade is warranted. Art’s testing so far has show that an M2Max with 128 GB of ram wins in photo applications at least some of the time.