14-inch M3 Professional MacBook Professional assessment: The candy spot for worth and efficiency

At a look

Professional’s Ranking

Professionals

18GB unified reminiscence normal
Quiet
Good efficiency

Cons

Low efficiency benefit over M2 Professional

Our Verdict

The $1,999 normal configuration of the 14-inch MacBook Professional with the M3 Professional affords a balanced set of processor, reminiscence, and SSD at a worth that’s not a lot increased than that of the bottom M3 MacBook Professional. The M3 Professional mannequin is a a lot better efficiency worth than the M3 mannequin.

Value When Reviewed

$1,999

Finest Costs Right now: Apple 14-inch MacBook Professional (M3 Professional, 2023)

$1999

The $1,999 14-inch MacBook Professional with an M3 Professional System on a Chip is $400 greater than the bottom 14-inch MacBook Professional with an M3 SoC. Whereas that increased price ticket appears like rather a lot, the $1,999 laptop computer finally ends up being a greater worth. You get a sooner CPU and GPU, extra reminiscence to work with, and extra versatile connectivity choices.

This assessment appears at how the $1,999 MacBook Professional compares to the $1,599 mannequin. A full assessment of the $1,599 MacBook Professional M3 is out there for a extra in-depth evaluation of that laptop computer.

MacBook Professional M3 Professional: Specs

Apple affords two normal configurations of the 14-inch MacBook Professional with a M3 Professional chip. The mannequin on this assessment is the $1,999/£2,099 model. Our information to the M3 chips explains the variations in higher element.

All of Apple’s laptops can personalized with extra reminiscence and a bigger SSD, which is able to increase the worth. Our assessment unit has the next specs:

CPU: M3 Professional with a 11-core CPU (5 efficiency cores, 6 effectivity cores), 16-core Neural Engine
GPU: 14-core GPU
Reminiscence: 18GB unified reminiscence (150GBps reminiscence bandwidth)
Storage: 512GB SSD
Show: 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR show; 3024-by-1964 native decision at 254 pixels per inch; 1,000,000:1 distinction ratio; 1,000 nits sustained full-screen XDR brightness, 1,600 nits peak HDR content material solely, 600 nits SDR brightness; P3 colour; True Tone; ProMotion
Ports: 3 Thunderbolt 4/USB-C; SDXC card slot; HDMI 2.1; MagSafe 3; 3.5mm audio
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax); Bluetooth 5.3
Weight: 3.5 kilos (1.61 kg)
Dimensions: 0.66 x 14.01 x 9.77 inches (1.68 x 35.57 x 24.81 centimeters)
Battery capability: 72.4Wh
Value: $1,999/£2,099

MacBook Professional M3 Professional vs M3: Similarities and variations

The M3 Professional MacBook Professional has the identical design and measurement because the M3 MacBook Professional, however with three main variations. The primary distinction is that the M3 Professional has three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, whereas the M3 has two. The second distinction is that the M3 Professional is out there in House Black, whereas the M3 isn’t.

The third distinction is the exterior show help, which is extra strong with the M3 Professional. Right here’s what every laptop computer can do:

M3 Professional:
- Two exterior shows with as much as 6K decision at 60Hz over Thunderbolt
- One exterior show with as much as 6K decision at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one exterior show with as much as 4K decision at 144Hz over HDMI
- One exterior show over HDMI at 8K decision at 60Hz, or one show at 4K decision at 240Hz
M3:
- One exterior show with as much as 6K decision at 60Hz

Every thing else concerning the two laptops is similar. There’s no distinction with the show, webcam, audio system, keyboard, and trackpad.

MacBook ProM3 Professional vs. M3: CPU efficiency

The SoC inside our assessment unit is the slimmed-down model of the M3 Professional, which has 11 CPU cores (5 efficiency cores, six effectivity cores). The bottom M3 has eight CPU cores (4 efficiency and 4 effectivity cores).

The M3 Professional that we examined additionally has extra reminiscence: 18GB, in comparison with 8GB within the M3. The M3 might be upgraded to 16GB, however not 18GB, and that improve will value an additional $200, half of the worth distinction between the M3 and M3 Professional laptops.

Each the M3 Professional and M3 laptops embody a 512GB SSD. The M3 Professional has improve choices for 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, whereas the M3 choices are just for 1TB or 2TB.

For the check of the CPU, we use Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024. The scores from every laptop computer are in comparison with gauge the efficiency of every and to notice the variations.

Geekbench 6 benchmarks

Within the benchmark outcomes involving single-core efficiency, there are hardly any variations between the completely different M3 variants in Geekbench or Cinebench. That’s to be anticipated since all chips use the identical core know-how.

The variations stand out with the multi-core check outcomes. In Geekbench, the M3 Professional had a 44 % increase over the M3. Within the Cinebench check, the M3 Professional will increase was 31 % in comparison with the M3.

We additionally included Geekbench outcomes for the M2 Professional with a 12-core CPU. That M2 Professional truly carried out higher than the 11-core M3 Professional, as a result of it has eight efficiency cores–two greater than the M3 Professional.

Cinebench 2024 benchmarks

Throughout the check with Cinebench 2024, we used the powermetrics Terminal utility to show the core frequencies and energy consumption of the CPU. The M3 Professional clocks each the effectivity cores and the ability cores barely decrease in comparison with the M3. When it comes to energy consumption, we see a rise from the M3 with round 20 watts to the M3 Professional with round 23 watts. That is about 13 % extra, with a efficiency improve of 31 %.

The MacBook Professional M3 Professional has two followers to take care of a correct working temperature. These labored properly and have been very quiet even when all of the CPU cores have been working at most pace. With the MacBook Professional M3, its one fan had extra and was louder.

Blackmagic Disk Take a look at

Though the M3 Professional and M3 in our testing have the identical sized SSD at 512GB, the M3 Professional’s drive was sooner, particularly when studying. Basically use, nonetheless, that is most likely solely noticeable in the event you should write or learn bigger quantities of information.

When engaged on 362 pictures within the Photographs app, we didn’t discover any hitches in efficiency on the M3 Professional, however we did see that the 18GB of reminiscence was not sufficient for the app and several other gigabytes of the SSD have been used as digital reminiscence.

iMovie benchmarks

In iMovie, there aren’t any disagreeable surprises when enhancing and exporting tasks with the M3 Professional and its 18GB of reminiscence–we had points with the MacBook Professional M3 and its 8GB of reminiscence. As well as, the M3 Professional handles enhancing of 4K video from an iPhone 14 a lot sooner than the M3.

HandBrake 6.1 benchmarks

When changing a 6.7GB 4K film with Handbrake, the M3 Professional can be completed sooner than the M3, however solely takes about so long as the M2 Professional.

MacBook Professional M3 Professional vs. M3: GPU efficiency

The M3 Professional in our check has a 14-core GPU, which is 4 greater than the M3’s 10-core GPU. In Geekbench’s Compute Metallic check, the M3 Professional has a big efficiency improve of 44 % in comparison with the M3. In comparison with the 16-core GPU within the M2 Professional, nonetheless, the M3 Professional is slower.

Geekbench 6 Compute benchmarks

The Cinebench 2024 GPU check offers one other image. The M3 Professional surpasses the M3 by a whopping 65 %, and the M2 Professional with 19-core GPU by 58 %.

3D Wildlife Excessive benchmarks

When testing with 3D Wildlife Excessive the M3 Professional was 47 % sooner than the M3. The M3 Professional and the M2 Professional virtually had the identical outcomes. We additionally observed that the M3 Professional clocks the GPU minimally increased than the M3 and requires round 6 watts, which is round 35 % extra energy than the M3.

MacBook Professional M3 Professional vs. M3: Battery life

After about ten hours of use, the MacBook Professional M3 Professional’s reached 19 %, which continues to be sufficient for a two-hour film in Amazon Prime. After watching the film, the battery reached 10 %. You may simply recover from a working day with this laptop computer.

In a battery check with the Endurance: CPU Stress Take a look at, the M3 Professional lasted about 2.5 hours earlier than reaching the 4 % mark at which the efficiency COU cores swap off. The M3 lasted two hours. Utilizing solely the clocked down effectivity cores, each laptops continued to work for half-hour.

Absolutely charging the laptop computer battery took about 90 minutes utilizing the 70-watt energy adapter.

Do you have to purchase the MacBook Professional M3 Professional?

The MacBook Professional M3 Professional proves to be a very good work software for on a regular basis duties. It’s noticeably sooner than the MacBook Professional M3–the additional cash you could pay to improve from the M3 to the M3 Professional is properly spent cash. The MacBook Professional M3 isn’t a nasty laptop computer–it’s Apple’s pricing that’s out whack.

As a alternative for a MacBook Professional from the Intel period, or a M1 MacBook Air or a 13-inch MacBook Professional, the lower-end M3 Professional it’s a nice step ahead. Nonetheless, when you’ve got an M2 Professional MacBook Professional, the lower-end M3 Professional doesn’t supply any added worth that makes a swap appear smart–the lower-end M3 Professional simply doesn’t present sufficient of a lift over the M2 Professional.

This text initially appeared on Macwelt and was translated by Roman Loyola.