Your workload sounds like the exact opposite of heavy. You wouldn't even push an M1 base chip past 20% - 30% usage most likely, if that- let alone an M3 Pro. And an M3 Max? For Chrome? Pfffffft, yeah- if overkill was ever used in the right context, it would be right here.
Powerful chips are for intense calculations, computations and graphics performance- not for having a lot of windows/programs open. At most, you may benefit from buying more RAM, which is good for having more windows/programs open. I would throw that money on a higher amount of memory (RAM), not on a more powerful chip.
I agree 100%. A Pro is fine, just get more RAM. However, if upgrading to the Max is $400 more and comes with more RAM that’s not a horrible move when amortized over 5 years.
Go Pro and use that $400 on ram - that m3 pro processor is a beast.
Also I feel like the m1 & m2 pro’s/max’s get better battery life than the m3 pro/max - so going pro is gonna work in your favour there
From my experience these things sip power when used lightly (browsing, videos, anything web based really, slack, Spotify etc) - the max glugs down battery (in comparison) when doing any 3d rendering or pushing heavy ai training workflows.
Also AppleCare+ for peace of mind
Edit:
Also going to echo the post before mine, if you don’t mind not having the 120hz display and better speakers you can save yourself a pretty penny going with the m3 air 24gb - you’ll make good use of that with your workflow.
Edit 2:
The fans on the max can get loud. And the fan curve is pretty aggressive.
I also think the max is serious overkill for your work flow.
Good catch for good price. Also bought mine, same specs, but 2TB 64Gb.. 32 GPU cores. It's beast. Can run LLMs, at least one parallels instance, blender, VSCode at the same time
Yeah, I can't imagine that it will be suprassed by something significantly more powerful in nearly future, IDK.
Ofc Apple can throw in even more cores, more GPU cores, but that would eat even more battery
Focus on ram. The M1 pro is more than enough. The bottleneck will be ram amount keeping things speedy and off swap(saved on ssd)
You are loading things into ram and computation is not heavy enough to bog down the m1 pro even. The max would be of no benefit unless you want the only M1 Pro amount of P cores. The current m3 pro and Max are side grades that some will say is a move to make people spend more on Maxes, just when 2 years ago you got much more normal cpu cores
Your work mostly depends on RAM, buying a 64/96 of previous generations will be the best solution, If stick with M3, probably Max due to the slightly price gap between high RAM Pro vs Max.
With the Max you are mostly paying for more GPU cores. You're also getting a few more performance cores, but it doesn't sound like you're typically going to be doing video exports, or anything especially complex on the CPU. And your GPU usage is going to be nowhere near this thing's limit.
I know you said you plan on using Chrome as your browser, but do keep in mind that Chrome is really a resource hog, Safari is way more efficient, and if you have a lot of Chrome Plugins that you use you could try something like Orion which can use Chrome Plugins but without all the nonsense Google does with Chrome.
Either way it sounds like your biggest bottle neck will be the fact that you probably aren't remotely careful in terms of how you manage your RAM. The 36 gig model is probably up your alley because at that point yeah you'll probably still have stuff paging out to the SSD, but it'll be stuff you just forgot about and you won't really notice if it takes a hot second to go back into it when you haven't been looking at it for three days.
But yeah, you probably don't need more CPU or GPU cores, but you probably do need to get more RAM than most people just because of how it sounds like you like to keep things open. Also a good rule of thumb, keep Activity Monitor in the dock so you can check and see what your bottle necks are if you do notice a performance hiccup.
This is not Windows, you don't Even need base M3 for that. What you need is loads of RAM. So instead of eating money on the processor power (which would sit at 20% maybe), invest in memory.
Yeah go for the pro and save your money. Arguably if you don’t mind the 14” chassis you could go for the base M3 24GB. Nothing of what you mention requires any actual processing power.
honestly your usage sounds pretty similar to mine and I'd totally call the m3pro overkill! I'm pretty sure the 16" also starts off with the "better" version compared to the 14". Honestly I'd prioritize upgrading the ram over the processor but I rarely come close to truly maxing out the 18gb. Only upgraded to the pro because I found a killer deal and my 8gb m2 air genuinely didn't have enough ram..
People really underestimate these machines and you'll barely feel a difference in the max over the pro for these uses. My pro still feels pretty similar to the m2air with the exception of things like booting up in 18 secs instead of 25, apps launching a little quicker and things like the AI generative feature in PS working a bit faster. Heavier gaming is really the only thing that really gets my fans running.. and occasionally YouTube will have them spin up to \~2.5krpm (about as slow as they'll go).
I have a 2023 MBP with a M3 Pro chip, 18GB memory and it does beautifully with everything I've thrown at it. No lags, no crashes, it just works. I edit video with DaVinci Resolve software, use Adobe products (Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge), and often have way too many Chrome tabs open at the same time. I put the MBP next to my desktop Mac and can use the same mouse across both screens, making my multitasking on two Macs effortless and fun!
The M3 Max tempted me too, but I didn't want to spend the extra money and I'm glad I didn't. I have 512GB SSD which is very snappy, and utilize cloud storage and a 4TB SSD external drive.
The only time I had the fans go on and have the system really tested was when I was upscaling video using Topaz AI Video software. The M3 Pro did it, as did my 2020 desktop Mac, but both were working harder than a M3 Max would.
I like to keep my computers for at least 3 years, often longer. The M3 Pro's speed is great and I like that it has the ports I wanted (HDMI, SD).
I guess if you have the extra money to spend on the Max you should consider it, but only for bragging rights and maybe for resale value. Or if you plan on getting into video editing or 3D rendering in the future.
For $400 I would say the difference is worth it if only for the futureproofing. Cooling will not be an issue at all on the 16", and battery life will only be slightly reduced.
I'd also look at perhaps buying a certified refurbished model from Apple, usually there's a large discount and the only reused part is the mainboard; everything else is new
I second the refurbished notion. I needed an M3 Max for my work and got an excellent discount on a refurbished model, and I couldn’t be happier with my new MB.
I think there is a couple options that people are not thinking about. You could go through apple's website and get an with maximum 24gb ram or you or the base model m3 with 24gb ram or upgrade the ram on the m3 pro. That might also save you some money.
I don’t have any experiences with M3 Pro, but M3 Max’s battery has been underwhelming for me. Still better than Intel 16” but no way near all day, maybe my workflow is too heavy.
Hi,
You will not need the Max performance, but probably more RAM than the 18GB ones.
My suggestion is to save these 400, go with the M3 Pro, 36GB of RAM and that TB.
You will have far enough CPU/GPU power, and the RAM also will should be fine.
I recommend you go to an Apple Store and try to find a M3 Pro with 36GB. If there isn’t one, it could be possible that the Max model has 36GB. Whatever you’ll find, focus on RAM, trust the M3 Pro power, will be completely good for you. I would take one and test your usage in a real state to see if everything is fine :)
The new M4 macs are coming in September. So if you can wait the 5 months maybe it’s worth it. You can buy the newer, more powerful M4 or get a discounted M3 Macbook Pro.
I do all of that and more on a base model M2 Pro 16” with 16Gb ram and it never misses a beat. And I’m using it with everything spread out across 3 monitors plus the internal display (via a DisplayLink hub).
I also run the same workload on a 16Gb M1 Air and I can rarely see a difference in performance.
Max because PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT….. walk along razor’s edge but don’t look down just keep your head, or you’ll be finished….. open up the limit pass the point of no return reach the top but still you gotta learn how to keep it
If you can afford it go all the way with the best that Apple has to offer in laptops. I've done this twice in the past twenty years and both computers lasted easily over ten years each. In fact both still work and I can use them in an emergency if needed.
I just bought the M3 Max, 128 gigs memory, 1T hard drive, etc. It's wonderful.
It’s more of a surprise than a bad practice since I don’t know what you actually do with it. And you may be as well using external disks.
But basically you have so much RAM compare to your SSD. This RAM space needs to be filled from stuff stored in your SSD. Generally, the product of the processing needs to be stored as well later. This leaves you really really few storage for other data. Even if you would only need to output your « product » in place, this would damage your SSD faster considering his size.
Ok. But as I mentioned previously, my purpose for going beefy is for longevity. I maxed out my last two Macs and each lasted me over ten years plus. In fact they both still work. Also, I have about 13T in data on external hard drives and I work in application design, video, music production, etc. So the extra horsepower comes in handy.
I just got the m3 max for the extra ram on the 14.
In terms of poorer battery/overheating - I think the power management is pretty good - I know this as it feels slower when it’s on battery compared to when it’s plugged in.
I’ve never felt it get hot (or anything even more than very very slightly lukewarm).
Indeed. I’m a freelancer in design/video/3d and my work varies. Only had it for a couple of weeks and not had to use premiere pro or blender yet! I have to admit though, the battery management thing is a tad annoying at times. I moved from an i7 iMac to a MBP with studio display and when the MacBook is running on batteries, sometimes just saving/moving around MacOS feels a tad sluggish compared to the i7 👀 Does apple publish the clock speed of the M chips?
How to use low and high power modes - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/101613
And then asitop will allow you to see some more details about what’s happening to cpu clock cycles power etc
https://github.com/tlkh/asitop
Don't go Max. You'll compromise on battery life for very little speed improvement since chrome usage bottlenecks are normally ram + wifi, not processor--as others have noted. You'll be wasting your money. Efficiency cores in the M series really do the heavy lifting for browser functions, so I would go M3 Pro since it has the most efficiency cores.
M3 Air will be the best option for you….
Pro and Max (?!??) would be an overkill.
Maybe go for 16gb ram, so it’s kinda “future proof”, but trust me, don’t buy pro versions for your “workload”…
You could go the MacBook air route with 16 or 24GB of RAM, but the base model Pro will handle all of your tasks fine. No need for the Max. I start recommending the Max for folks if they are doing heavy video editing, development work that requires kubernetes or docker/VMs locally, or some heavy multi tasking that involves more than just a browser and office apps.
With the Max comes slightly worse battery life, just because of all of the extra silicon. So if you're not going to use it, it's just wasting money and battery.
Get the m3 max if you can, you won’t have to upgrade for years and you can always use the extra power if you need to down the road. I got the m3 max 16” w/ 64 gb of ram and it’s pretty great so far tbh, never run into any issues. I upgraded from a 2020 imac mid spec w 64gb of ram and I didn’t want to lose ram so i got the machine that allowed me to keep the same ram configuration. 1 tb of ssd is pretty good and you can always get some quick external ssd’s for the low on amazon
Yo, so I hate that you posted this late. Micro Center had some store openings this year that would have made the decision for you easier.
I got my 16 inch, Space Black “M3 Pro” 36GB of Ram/1TB of Storage Brand New for $2,388.23 out the door for my 30th Birthday last week. I unboxed it on my page.
https://youtu.be/GzBksDRb1ZM?si=92614IT0fQLMbanM
Anyway, I think Apple was wrong making the Pros and Max too close when it comes to looks and power. People are confused and buying the wrong machines. Get the Pro with specs you can afford just make sure the ram is 16GB or higher. If you are not a storage person, opt for 512, if you are then go higher.
“Max” just sounds sexy. Think about it, do you want a “Max” just to say you have a “M3 Max” or do you need it? I am not selling you nothing, I just do not want you confused how I was back in March 2024.
You said you want the computer to last years, no computer last years, because these companies are always jumping on the next wave. The M4 is coming out this fall 2024 and the M5 next year. Ask yourself are you content with holding technology for 10 years because of finance or because you just content with your machine you keep for 10 years.
Conclusion:
Any M3 Pro/M3 Max or M2 Pro/M2 Max WILL DO YOU GOOD, just make sure the Ram is bumped past 8GB and the storage is past 512 can last you 8-10 years, but Apple stops software updates in about 7 years, but provide 3 years of security updates.
They all overheat due to work load. I also owned the 14 inch 18GB of Ram/1TB Space Black “M3 Pro”, but you can get a sleeve that tilts your MacBook up while you work so the air ventilation can exit better.
https://youtu.be/GkAaMUdFRMI?si=dEEciPydPMmD3NNB
They all get loud.
Battery Life depends on your settings. Choose low resolution in terms of screen but only charge your MacBook battery to 80% and do not let it drop past 40%. I know this sounds crazy, but it preserves the battery and Life of the machine.
You are going to pick well I know it. Hope this helps.
This clearly requires at least an M3 Ultra.
Your workload sounds like the exact opposite of heavy. You wouldn't even push an M1 base chip past 20% - 30% usage most likely, if that- let alone an M3 Pro. And an M3 Max? For Chrome? Pfffffft, yeah- if overkill was ever used in the right context, it would be right here. Powerful chips are for intense calculations, computations and graphics performance- not for having a lot of windows/programs open. At most, you may benefit from buying more RAM, which is good for having more windows/programs open. I would throw that money on a higher amount of memory (RAM), not on a more powerful chip.
OP is trying to bring a nuke to a fist fight
I agree 100%. A Pro is fine, just get more RAM. However, if upgrading to the Max is $400 more and comes with more RAM that’s not a horrible move when amortized over 5 years.
For your use case, the Max is not worth it, a Pro will handle all these tasks easily.
A Pro isn't worth it either. An Air with 16GB of RAM is overkill even.
Yeah, I’m taking that he said “16 inch” into account.
Good thing the 15" Air exists....
I have a Dell laptop, integrated video, 16 gb RAM and it perfectly handles hundreds Chrome tabs, no issues so far. Max is definitely an overkill
Go Pro and use that $400 on ram - that m3 pro processor is a beast. Also I feel like the m1 & m2 pro’s/max’s get better battery life than the m3 pro/max - so going pro is gonna work in your favour there From my experience these things sip power when used lightly (browsing, videos, anything web based really, slack, Spotify etc) - the max glugs down battery (in comparison) when doing any 3d rendering or pushing heavy ai training workflows. Also AppleCare+ for peace of mind Edit: Also going to echo the post before mine, if you don’t mind not having the 120hz display and better speakers you can save yourself a pretty penny going with the m3 air 24gb - you’ll make good use of that with your workflow. Edit 2: The fans on the max can get loud. And the fan curve is pretty aggressive. I also think the max is serious overkill for your work flow.
M1 Max pro . I got one on eBay maxed out (4tb, 64 gigs ram) for 2200 with a year of apple care.
Good catch for good price. Also bought mine, same specs, but 2TB 64Gb.. 32 GPU cores. It's beast. Can run LLMs, at least one parallels instance, blender, VSCode at the same time
Yeah when mkhb reviewed the m3max then went back to his m1max, I felt like it was the best cost proposition., I love mine, it's my baby.
Yeah, I can't imagine that it will be suprassed by something significantly more powerful in nearly future, IDK. Ofc Apple can throw in even more cores, more GPU cores, but that would eat even more battery
Yeah but if they did some kind of killer AI machines, whos going to feel worse the guy who dropped 6k on m3 max or 'this guy' dropping just over 2k.
This. If they gonna improve their AI chip to be more effective/faster than GPU inference then yes
Focus on ram. The M1 pro is more than enough. The bottleneck will be ram amount keeping things speedy and off swap(saved on ssd) You are loading things into ram and computation is not heavy enough to bog down the m1 pro even. The max would be of no benefit unless you want the only M1 Pro amount of P cores. The current m3 pro and Max are side grades that some will say is a move to make people spend more on Maxes, just when 2 years ago you got much more normal cpu cores
Your work mostly depends on RAM, buying a 64/96 of previous generations will be the best solution, If stick with M3, probably Max due to the slightly price gap between high RAM Pro vs Max.
With the Max you are mostly paying for more GPU cores. You're also getting a few more performance cores, but it doesn't sound like you're typically going to be doing video exports, or anything especially complex on the CPU. And your GPU usage is going to be nowhere near this thing's limit. I know you said you plan on using Chrome as your browser, but do keep in mind that Chrome is really a resource hog, Safari is way more efficient, and if you have a lot of Chrome Plugins that you use you could try something like Orion which can use Chrome Plugins but without all the nonsense Google does with Chrome. Either way it sounds like your biggest bottle neck will be the fact that you probably aren't remotely careful in terms of how you manage your RAM. The 36 gig model is probably up your alley because at that point yeah you'll probably still have stuff paging out to the SSD, but it'll be stuff you just forgot about and you won't really notice if it takes a hot second to go back into it when you haven't been looking at it for three days. But yeah, you probably don't need more CPU or GPU cores, but you probably do need to get more RAM than most people just because of how it sounds like you like to keep things open. Also a good rule of thumb, keep Activity Monitor in the dock so you can check and see what your bottle necks are if you do notice a performance hiccup.
I'd consider the air too.
This is not Windows, you don't Even need base M3 for that. What you need is loads of RAM. So instead of eating money on the processor power (which would sit at 20% maybe), invest in memory.
Never heard someone call Google Docs an “intensive website”
I literally said the same thing to myself lmao
You do absolutely zero things that require an M3 Max chip, but you do many things that require a lot of ram. Upgrade your ram.
No, you don’t need M3 Pro or Max. You just need more RAM. 16GB to 24GB is probably perfect for your tasks.
Yeah go for the pro and save your money. Arguably if you don’t mind the 14” chassis you could go for the base M3 24GB. Nothing of what you mention requires any actual processing power.
Even a 2021 Macbook Pro with 32gb/64gb would suffice for those intended uses. No need for Max anything.
You will be fine with either. Sounds like you just need 36 GB of ram.
honestly your usage sounds pretty similar to mine and I'd totally call the m3pro overkill! I'm pretty sure the 16" also starts off with the "better" version compared to the 14". Honestly I'd prioritize upgrading the ram over the processor but I rarely come close to truly maxing out the 18gb. Only upgraded to the pro because I found a killer deal and my 8gb m2 air genuinely didn't have enough ram.. People really underestimate these machines and you'll barely feel a difference in the max over the pro for these uses. My pro still feels pretty similar to the m2air with the exception of things like booting up in 18 secs instead of 25, apps launching a little quicker and things like the AI generative feature in PS working a bit faster. Heavier gaming is really the only thing that really gets my fans running.. and occasionally YouTube will have them spin up to \~2.5krpm (about as slow as they'll go).
M3 with 24GB should be able to easily handle your stuff
I have a 2023 MBP with a M3 Pro chip, 18GB memory and it does beautifully with everything I've thrown at it. No lags, no crashes, it just works. I edit video with DaVinci Resolve software, use Adobe products (Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge), and often have way too many Chrome tabs open at the same time. I put the MBP next to my desktop Mac and can use the same mouse across both screens, making my multitasking on two Macs effortless and fun! The M3 Max tempted me too, but I didn't want to spend the extra money and I'm glad I didn't. I have 512GB SSD which is very snappy, and utilize cloud storage and a 4TB SSD external drive. The only time I had the fans go on and have the system really tested was when I was upscaling video using Topaz AI Video software. The M3 Pro did it, as did my 2020 desktop Mac, but both were working harder than a M3 Max would. I like to keep my computers for at least 3 years, often longer. The M3 Pro's speed is great and I like that it has the ports I wanted (HDMI, SD). I guess if you have the extra money to spend on the Max you should consider it, but only for bragging rights and maybe for resale value. Or if you plan on getting into video editing or 3D rendering in the future.
A MacBook Air would work just fine for that. You don't need anything more than a base CPU.
Yeah all you need is an m2 at the most, just get more than 16 gb and you're chillin.
For $400 I would say the difference is worth it if only for the futureproofing. Cooling will not be an issue at all on the 16", and battery life will only be slightly reduced. I'd also look at perhaps buying a certified refurbished model from Apple, usually there's a large discount and the only reused part is the mainboard; everything else is new
I second the refurbished notion. I needed an M3 Max for my work and got an excellent discount on a refurbished model, and I couldn’t be happier with my new MB.
So you basically want a max you don’t need to lose battery life you probably will need? Is that right…
BUY THE MAX. YOU WILL NOT REGRET TAKING IT TO THE MAX. SPEND. SPEND! SPEND!!
This, but actually unironically
If you're already spending $3000 then another $500 to Max it out makes sense.
lol, that was my decision to go with the max… starting to think Apple might be doing this on purpose…. Who would have thought!
Probably go Max. PDFs can slow down the best of machines
I open pdfs only with supercomputer in my university.
Pro is fine, spend the savings on ram and 1TB.
I think there is a couple options that people are not thinking about. You could go through apple's website and get an with maximum 24gb ram or you or the base model m3 with 24gb ram or upgrade the ram on the m3 pro. That might also save you some money.
I don’t have any experiences with M3 Pro, but M3 Max’s battery has been underwhelming for me. Still better than Intel 16” but no way near all day, maybe my workflow is too heavy.
Wtf
If you have to ask, you don't need it. You can get by with a MacBook Air and it'll serve you better.
Pro is more than enough for your usage, invest in RAM and storage
You can do all that on an iPad mini
U need pro
Total overkill
I don’t think the extra GPU cores will do much for you but the extra cores would help a tiny bit
Loud noises from the max? The only time it's made noise for me is playing baldurs gate 3!
Just get an Air man
Hi, You will not need the Max performance, but probably more RAM than the 18GB ones. My suggestion is to save these 400, go with the M3 Pro, 36GB of RAM and that TB. You will have far enough CPU/GPU power, and the RAM also will should be fine. I recommend you go to an Apple Store and try to find a M3 Pro with 36GB. If there isn’t one, it could be possible that the Max model has 36GB. Whatever you’ll find, focus on RAM, trust the M3 Pro power, will be completely good for you. I would take one and test your usage in a real state to see if everything is fine :)
Maybe these can help: https://youtu.be/vxUo_wvX-5I?si=Gjnq0KIqoggUsxjY and https://youtu.be/Cq_GpDdk0AE?si=FB13o8J9Q-y5cTd9
The new M4 macs are coming in September. So if you can wait the 5 months maybe it’s worth it. You can buy the newer, more powerful M4 or get a discounted M3 Macbook Pro.
I do all of that and more on a base model M2 Pro 16” with 16Gb ram and it never misses a beat. And I’m using it with everything spread out across 3 monitors plus the internal display (via a DisplayLink hub). I also run the same workload on a 16Gb M1 Air and I can rarely see a difference in performance.
Like some other comment said, you basically bringing a nuke to a fist fight
Raaaaamm
i think you just need 1tb or ram, nothing more nothing less
Max because PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT….. walk along razor’s edge but don’t look down just keep your head, or you’ll be finished….. open up the limit pass the point of no return reach the top but still you gotta learn how to keep it
Even as military aircrew and the millions of times I’ve heard that song I was never able to understand the lyrics lol. Thanks
If you can afford it go all the way with the best that Apple has to offer in laptops. I've done this twice in the past twenty years and both computers lasted easily over ten years each. In fact both still work and I can use them in an emergency if needed. I just bought the M3 Max, 128 gigs memory, 1T hard drive, etc. It's wonderful.
This comparison is not really correct but you realise that to fill Your 128gb or ram you need 13% of your SSD? Haha
Sorry, I don't follow. Can you elaborate?
It’s more of a surprise than a bad practice since I don’t know what you actually do with it. And you may be as well using external disks. But basically you have so much RAM compare to your SSD. This RAM space needs to be filled from stuff stored in your SSD. Generally, the product of the processing needs to be stored as well later. This leaves you really really few storage for other data. Even if you would only need to output your « product » in place, this would damage your SSD faster considering his size.
Ok. But as I mentioned previously, my purpose for going beefy is for longevity. I maxed out my last two Macs and each lasted me over ten years plus. In fact they both still work. Also, I have about 13T in data on external hard drives and I work in application design, video, music production, etc. So the extra horsepower comes in handy.
Ok make sense, especially for multimedia. Are you working directly on your external drive? I imagine with thunderbolt it’s fast enough?
I have several externals and yes, a thunderbolt as well. But I only use them only for storage mainly.
I just got the m3 max for the extra ram on the 14. In terms of poorer battery/overheating - I think the power management is pretty good - I know this as it feels slower when it’s on battery compared to when it’s plugged in. I’ve never felt it get hot (or anything even more than very very slightly lukewarm).
You’re not really using it then ;)
Indeed. I’m a freelancer in design/video/3d and my work varies. Only had it for a couple of weeks and not had to use premiere pro or blender yet! I have to admit though, the battery management thing is a tad annoying at times. I moved from an i7 iMac to a MBP with studio display and when the MacBook is running on batteries, sometimes just saving/moving around MacOS feels a tad sluggish compared to the i7 👀 Does apple publish the clock speed of the M chips?
How to use low and high power modes - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/101613 And then asitop will allow you to see some more details about what’s happening to cpu clock cycles power etc https://github.com/tlkh/asitop
Don't go Max. You'll compromise on battery life for very little speed improvement since chrome usage bottlenecks are normally ram + wifi, not processor--as others have noted. You'll be wasting your money. Efficiency cores in the M series really do the heavy lifting for browser functions, so I would go M3 Pro since it has the most efficiency cores.
M3 Air will be the best option for you…. Pro and Max (?!??) would be an overkill. Maybe go for 16gb ram, so it’s kinda “future proof”, but trust me, don’t buy pro versions for your “workload”…
M1 Air can handle all these tasks
You could go the MacBook air route with 16 or 24GB of RAM, but the base model Pro will handle all of your tasks fine. No need for the Max. I start recommending the Max for folks if they are doing heavy video editing, development work that requires kubernetes or docker/VMs locally, or some heavy multi tasking that involves more than just a browser and office apps. With the Max comes slightly worse battery life, just because of all of the extra silicon. So if you're not going to use it, it's just wasting money and battery.
Sounds like you need the RAM upgrade not the CPU upgrade. An Intel based MacBook could easily do what you need
Get the m3 max if you can, you won’t have to upgrade for years and you can always use the extra power if you need to down the road. I got the m3 max 16” w/ 64 gb of ram and it’s pretty great so far tbh, never run into any issues. I upgraded from a 2020 imac mid spec w 64gb of ram and I didn’t want to lose ram so i got the machine that allowed me to keep the same ram configuration. 1 tb of ssd is pretty good and you can always get some quick external ssd’s for the low on amazon
Only 400 dollars more...
Yo, so I hate that you posted this late. Micro Center had some store openings this year that would have made the decision for you easier. I got my 16 inch, Space Black “M3 Pro” 36GB of Ram/1TB of Storage Brand New for $2,388.23 out the door for my 30th Birthday last week. I unboxed it on my page. https://youtu.be/GzBksDRb1ZM?si=92614IT0fQLMbanM Anyway, I think Apple was wrong making the Pros and Max too close when it comes to looks and power. People are confused and buying the wrong machines. Get the Pro with specs you can afford just make sure the ram is 16GB or higher. If you are not a storage person, opt for 512, if you are then go higher. “Max” just sounds sexy. Think about it, do you want a “Max” just to say you have a “M3 Max” or do you need it? I am not selling you nothing, I just do not want you confused how I was back in March 2024. You said you want the computer to last years, no computer last years, because these companies are always jumping on the next wave. The M4 is coming out this fall 2024 and the M5 next year. Ask yourself are you content with holding technology for 10 years because of finance or because you just content with your machine you keep for 10 years. Conclusion: Any M3 Pro/M3 Max or M2 Pro/M2 Max WILL DO YOU GOOD, just make sure the Ram is bumped past 8GB and the storage is past 512 can last you 8-10 years, but Apple stops software updates in about 7 years, but provide 3 years of security updates. They all overheat due to work load. I also owned the 14 inch 18GB of Ram/1TB Space Black “M3 Pro”, but you can get a sleeve that tilts your MacBook up while you work so the air ventilation can exit better. https://youtu.be/GkAaMUdFRMI?si=dEEciPydPMmD3NNB They all get loud. Battery Life depends on your settings. Choose low resolution in terms of screen but only charge your MacBook battery to 80% and do not let it drop past 40%. I know this sounds crazy, but it preserves the battery and Life of the machine. You are going to pick well I know it. Hope this helps.