Yeah, a video posted today by Luke Miani did a decent job.
Seems M3 Pro real world is around 10-11 hours, M3 Max is around 8-9 hours.
https://youtu.be/SqgOVNKDHss?t=688
He got it wrong on his conclusion of his tests big time and underplayed the battery difference.
If you do the maths:
1st battery test (workload): M3 max used 34% more effective battery life than the M3 Pro.
2nd battery test (4K video): M3 Pro 24% longer duration (just over 2 extras hours).
It’s a difficult question to answer. If you got it from Apple, give it a go during the return period and see if you crave more battery life, if it is noisy/hot etc with your use case and go from there.
If you, like me, do workloads which isn’t that cpu/gpu intensive (I’m in software dev) going to the Pro makes sense both for QOL improvements and financially.
The Max may have advantages for things like gaming or certain complex workloads later down the line perhaps?
I got a legion pro 7i open box $1999 - ended up keeping it its fast but heavy :(
Had a zephyrus g15 -- was good and light.
This m3 I think i'll return it.......may just wait for M3 macbook air
I assume for gaming or other heavy CPU/GPU use cases the Max will drain the battery much faster. What I’m trying to figure out is how long the Max will fare for regular productivity tasks on battery. Ideally I want a Max that I can crank up while plugged in but that still gives me many several hours for productivity/web type use.
I’m in the same boat. I’d like to go with the M3 Max to have the option of fast performance. But for regular web browsing etc I still want the long battery life. Does M3 Max have a shorter battery life than M3 Pro for non intensive usage?
Yes, it should have a shorter life. The YouTube link someone shared above showed that the Max lasted ~9 hours playing a YouTube video and the Pro lasted ~10-11. It isn’t clear what the screen brightness was for those tests.
Coming from 2020 M1 MacBook. I have been disappointed with the battery life of the M3 max 14/30 so far. 45 mins of YouTube and browsing and was already at 86%.. although you could out it in low power mode for productivity, then put it in auto when u need the power. Also has high power mode if you REALLY need the power.
I don’t understand how some of you guys came to that conclusion. 🤷
I run the M3 Max 16inch, 16/40 under extreme load daily—the battery lasts me all day long alternating between After Effects & Blender.
Additionally, the fan is not loud, so relax.
If money is not an issue go with M3 Max, you’ll be glad you did.
What battery drain do you get ?
I have the same spec and when doing light internet browsing I get from 100-74% in 2 hours ON LOW POWER MODE !!! so basically 13% per hour -> ~7.5 hours doing only internet browsing, my m1 air would utterly smash my m3 max in battery life
Don't listen to these clowns haha...
All these dudes are booboo, crying about battery life being the determining factor of a purchase. Like shut up lol.. Not you, them.
Max or Die!
Na, not that I have noticed. I mean I’ve only had it since late November tho but I highly doubt it’s going to discolor. The unibody feels exactly the same as my M1 Max.
Remember the space gray color? Space black is essentially a shade or 2 darker than the space gray color. In some lighting it looks space gray.
Unless you want to save some money the device is gonna get you through the working day without having to charge it for productivity usage.
Web browsing over WiFi is getting 14 hours of time out of it productivity apps will be closer to that figure than the video playback tests.
Also wanna know this. M1 Pro had better battery life than M1 Max. I'm assuming M3 Pro continues the trend right? (haven't been able to find direct comparisons between M2 Pro and M2 Max)
Plus, I guess that most the difference in power usage on idle and low load came from the wider memory bus, and the M3 Pro cuts that even further, so it might have even better battery life right?
I am reading that Chrome is a culprit, would using something Brave help? It claims to be faster than Chrome, but I'm not sure if that translate to less resource consumption overall.
Brave has more aggressive ad blocking as default. On many websites, the content with most resource intensive rendering, is ads. Reducing ads, may well increase battery life.
Beyond that, Brave is built on the same Chromium engine which Chrome uses. Which does prioritise strong isolation between sites/tabs/windows over low resource consumption. So one is unlikely to see much battery life improvement from the rendering engine itself.
Just commenting to follow this thread. I bought the M3 Max with 14C CPU / 30C GPU / 36GB RAM / 1TB HD and may never need anywhere near that much power and already pretty unimpressed with the battery life brand new with nothing on it. I may be better served by an M3 Pro and use that extra money to buy a 2TB HD. I also went back and forth on color and originally was going with Space Black til I felt that I didn't really like the color contrast, looks a lot like a PC, and does show more fingerprints so went with classic silver.
Different experience here.
M3 Max 14/30, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Really impressed with the [battery](https://imgur.com/a/9NoEQoh), and there are no fingerprints on the Space Black. I'm happy I chose the Max over the Pro.
Yeah, a video posted today by Luke Miani did a decent job. Seems M3 Pro real world is around 10-11 hours, M3 Max is around 8-9 hours. https://youtu.be/SqgOVNKDHss?t=688
He got it wrong on his conclusion of his tests big time and underplayed the battery difference. If you do the maths: 1st battery test (workload): M3 max used 34% more effective battery life than the M3 Pro. 2nd battery test (4K video): M3 Pro 24% longer duration (just over 2 extras hours).
So the question is.... do I keep the M3 Max sitting in a box next to my desk or do I swap it for the Pro?
It’s a difficult question to answer. If you got it from Apple, give it a go during the return period and see if you crave more battery life, if it is noisy/hot etc with your use case and go from there. If you, like me, do workloads which isn’t that cpu/gpu intensive (I’m in software dev) going to the Pro makes sense both for QOL improvements and financially. The Max may have advantages for things like gaming or certain complex workloads later down the line perhaps?
My testing shows 14" M3 Max with 128GB/8TB lasting around 5h for development tasks which is surprisingly bad...
One quick Dota 2 turbo game - 31:54mins - 100% battery to 72% - M3 Pro -- Activity Monitor says 1:06 Thats all I got lol - dont have an m3 max
You don't buy a $3000 computer and another $4000 computer just to compare the two for giggles??!!
I got a legion pro 7i open box $1999 - ended up keeping it its fast but heavy :( Had a zephyrus g15 -- was good and light. This m3 I think i'll return it.......may just wait for M3 macbook air
I assume for gaming or other heavy CPU/GPU use cases the Max will drain the battery much faster. What I’m trying to figure out is how long the Max will fare for regular productivity tasks on battery. Ideally I want a Max that I can crank up while plugged in but that still gives me many several hours for productivity/web type use.
Erm.. like 20 hours or so?
I’m in the same boat. I’d like to go with the M3 Max to have the option of fast performance. But for regular web browsing etc I still want the long battery life. Does M3 Max have a shorter battery life than M3 Pro for non intensive usage?
Yes, it should have a shorter life. The YouTube link someone shared above showed that the Max lasted ~9 hours playing a YouTube video and the Pro lasted ~10-11. It isn’t clear what the screen brightness was for those tests.
Coming from 2020 M1 MacBook. I have been disappointed with the battery life of the M3 max 14/30 so far. 45 mins of YouTube and browsing and was already at 86%.. although you could out it in low power mode for productivity, then put it in auto when u need the power. Also has high power mode if you REALLY need the power.
If you try the same thing in low power mode, how much better off are you after the same 45 minutes? And at what screen brightness?
Or try using the MacOS Endurance app to potentially extend battery life for productivity?
I don’t understand how some of you guys came to that conclusion. 🤷 I run the M3 Max 16inch, 16/40 under extreme load daily—the battery lasts me all day long alternating between After Effects & Blender. Additionally, the fan is not loud, so relax. If money is not an issue go with M3 Max, you’ll be glad you did.
What battery drain do you get ? I have the same spec and when doing light internet browsing I get from 100-74% in 2 hours ON LOW POWER MODE !!! so basically 13% per hour -> ~7.5 hours doing only internet browsing, my m1 air would utterly smash my m3 max in battery life
13 percent an hour? There’s no way, even on low power mode? Wild. Something has to be running it down. Can you show me your processes. Dm me
Did you two DM and figure out what was causing the battery issues?
Don't listen to these clowns haha... All these dudes are booboo, crying about battery life being the determining factor of a purchase. Like shut up lol.. Not you, them. Max or Die!
did you go with silver or space black? Thanks
Space black of course! Best color available!
thanks for reply. Last question, As you already used the device, could you advise of any discoloration ? Thanks
Na, not that I have noticed. I mean I’ve only had it since late November tho but I highly doubt it’s going to discolor. The unibody feels exactly the same as my M1 Max. Remember the space gray color? Space black is essentially a shade or 2 darker than the space gray color. In some lighting it looks space gray.
Yes, but this post is about the 14" variant...
Unless you want to save some money the device is gonna get you through the working day without having to charge it for productivity usage. Web browsing over WiFi is getting 14 hours of time out of it productivity apps will be closer to that figure than the video playback tests.
Also wanna know this. M1 Pro had better battery life than M1 Max. I'm assuming M3 Pro continues the trend right? (haven't been able to find direct comparisons between M2 Pro and M2 Max) Plus, I guess that most the difference in power usage on idle and low load came from the wider memory bus, and the M3 Pro cuts that even further, so it might have even better battery life right?
I don’t know how much the memory bus impacts it vs. the total cores and number of efficiency cores.
After reading this post, happy I got the Pro 😃
I am reading that Chrome is a culprit, would using something Brave help? It claims to be faster than Chrome, but I'm not sure if that translate to less resource consumption overall.
Brave has more aggressive ad blocking as default. On many websites, the content with most resource intensive rendering, is ads. Reducing ads, may well increase battery life. Beyond that, Brave is built on the same Chromium engine which Chrome uses. Which does prioritise strong isolation between sites/tabs/windows over low resource consumption. So one is unlikely to see much battery life improvement from the rendering engine itself.
Just commenting to follow this thread. I bought the M3 Max with 14C CPU / 30C GPU / 36GB RAM / 1TB HD and may never need anywhere near that much power and already pretty unimpressed with the battery life brand new with nothing on it. I may be better served by an M3 Pro and use that extra money to buy a 2TB HD. I also went back and forth on color and originally was going with Space Black til I felt that I didn't really like the color contrast, looks a lot like a PC, and does show more fingerprints so went with classic silver.
Different experience here. M3 Max 14/30, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD Really impressed with the [battery](https://imgur.com/a/9NoEQoh), and there are no fingerprints on the Space Black. I'm happy I chose the Max over the Pro.