Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023 M3 Pro review - Efficiency before performance

[A]

Touch*

[Alexander_]

Sounds like a nice tough for people always working on the roof with the Sun behind them

Yes.
A laptop is not only a PC for use in the office without windows behind the back. It is also a travel tool. You won't close the curtains in the entire compartment of the car if you need to do some work!?

And if you came to another city/country and you need to work a little in a cafe, but there are sun glares here!?
It is not for nothing that all professional monitors for designers are matte. Because nobody wants to "break his eyes" once again.

Therefore, yes, a matte screen (high-quality!) is always an advantage over a glossy one.

[A]

Therefore, yes, a matte screen (high-quality!) is always an advantage over a glossy one.

I agree with you on everything except I'm just a glossy screen person ) Can crank brightness up and forget the reflections. Usually if cranking up brightness doesn't help matte screen also wouldn't help.

[Jorge Gonzalez]

I got my M3 max fully loaded a couple of weeks ago. it's so nice and fast. I have a 57 Samsung monitor connected to it and the picture is beautiful and the laptop handles it well. The machine even turns off fast.

[Yeshy]

Could you test games with Low Power mode for performance and how much battery you would get? (or just what the total system draw is, you can kinda extrapolate from that)

Alternatively, you could run games at maybe Medium ~800p with a frame cap of 60 (or Vsync, but it would go to 120Hz unless you adjust it down)?



Just wondering how good gaming on battery is, wondering if Macbooks can do a better job than handhelds / APU laptops (if you get good battery you could increase the brightness to make it somewhat usable outdoors, certainly with forced HDR brightness, at the cost of battery and a few $100 more)?

[A]

Just wondering how good gaming on battery is

Just a note that iOS games can _natively_ run on M macs via e.g. PlayCover (competitive ones like CoD will ban you though) on big screen with keyboard and mouse bindings (WASD+mouse etc.)

[Neenyah]

Just wondering how good gaming on battery is, wondering if Macbooks can do a better job than handhelds / APU laptops (if you get good battery you could increase the brightness to make it somewhat usable outdoors, certainly with forced HDR brightness, at the cost of battery and a few $100 more)?

No real dedicated test yet on YT for that specific scenario but this, so about up to 2 hours of gaming - M3 Pro -63% in 1 hour, M3 -47% in 1 hour.

[A]

so about up to 2 hours of gaming

There's Witcher 3 Ultra power consumption in the review, 56W, 105Wh battery capacity / 56W = a bit less than two hours. Lower settings + FPS limit = less power draw.

Low Power mode will limit fps to 60 instead of 120, so CPU and GPU will not be fully loaded by a mile.

When I first bought into M Max I've played Dying Light in Low Power mode... I actually remember my personal findings were around 6hrs _for that particular game_ =BUT= I'm not standing behind these words as it was 2yrs ago.

[Yeshy]

To be honest I'd like to see that gaming on battery (with Low Power mode/Medium+FPS limit) test done on the 14", so ~70Whr instead of ~100Whr, but I thought I'd comment here since there's less comments lol

A comparison between the Pro and the Max would be interesting too, since you'll likely be much more efficient on the Max chips when under less load?

2hrs is kinda nothing, I want to see with lower settings / not maxed out. I was able to get ~3hrs on a 2014 MBP 13" (much older games though, Skyrim LE with some mods lol), CPU is 28W max to begin with and you can get it a lot lower (this was on Windows) so assuming 28W total system draw, ~70Whr/28 is 2.5hrs easily

AMD 680M/780M devices can probably do much better at <20W CPU/APU only plus maybe 5W for screen etc hopefully. And RDNA 2/3 is nowhere near as efficient as Nvidia, and Apple is probably better?

And seemingly every laptop with an OLED/miniLED panel that is reasonably bright gets very poor battery except for the Macbooks

[Alexander_]

Usually if cranking up brightness doesn't help matte screen also wouldn't help.

It does not. And NB's tests prove it.

crank brightness up and forget the reflections

No, by increasing the brightness, you will not remove the glare of the glossy screen.
You just don't travel much and you don't have a window with good sunlight behind you. Well, of course, we are not talking about all matte screens, but about high-quality ones.

[A]

and you don't have a window with good sunlight behind you

Turn away

[RobertJasiek]

A place with a window behind may be the best for one's seat, as for mine in the dining room.

[A]

A place with a window behind may be the best for one's seat, as for mine in the dining room.

Looks like a solution in search of a problem. Ever-complicating task of finding max. inconvenient place in the world just to prove some point.
If you see a reflection of window and can't turn away, you still can turn the laptop. If it's just too bright and screen looks dim - it's not about glossy/matte at all, your screen isn't bright enough. Also, switch off the dark mode when cranking brightness up.

[RobertJasiek]

It is 80% about glossy / matte, 10% about brightness and 10% contrast.

Steve Jobs: You are holding it wrong!

A: You are sitting wrongly!

I: I want to use a mobile device in every position at every place.

[A]

10% about brightness

You are arguing with physics.
Actually it's 90% about brightness (and 1% about not using dark mode). There is always a point - if your brightness is high enough - when you will not be able to see reflections. Glossy/matte will not matter at all. Your glossy phone will do better in direct sunlight that your matte 400cd/m2 panel just because of higher brightness. And if your brightness isn't enough - it will not be enough for both.