M4 Pro vs M4 Max

Off-Topic Games, Gaming and Hardware
1

Hey guys! I have a question here and was hoping some can help. So as it stands, I’m switching my entire setup over from a Windows desktop + Apple laptop to just a singular Apple laptop for better ease of use. My use case scenario is as follows: browsing internet, light tinkering with VMs, learning Swift and Xcode, and playing World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14. I have a docking station set up at my desk with a 34" widescreen 1440p 240hz monitor.

I also tend to take my laptop from there to my bed when I’m having a painful IBS flare-up for the day(s). I then take it with me when I take care of my parents dogs for a week while they’re gone. However, I don’t mind the screen size too much and I’m always near an outlet charger, so mobility is preferred but not at the top.

That’s pretty much it. I realize that I don’t need something ridiculous, but at least enough graphic performance to play those two games (which run well natively) at 1440p as close to my monitor refresh rate as possible (but not too concerned with matching it).

Here’s my issue. Given what you all know above, should I go for the:

  • 14" MacBook Pro - M4 Max 14c cpu / 32c gpu / 36gb memory

  • 14" MacBook Pro - M4 Pro 14c cpu / 20c gpu / 24gb memory

The 14" Max is slightly more expensive but of course has better graphical performance in gpu core count and memory bandwidth.

What are your thoughts on this? Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

2

hard to say anything about either without independent reviews and knowing Apple that may be a while

that said laptops are hard to upgrade once you purchase them and Apples are even worse so if you plan to hold onto this for as long as you can than “14” Max is slightly more expensive but of course has better graphical performance in gpu core count and memory" makes it a no brainer. If you plan to upgrade in three to four years you can make a case for the cheaper one.

3

I would wait to see some hands-on benchmarking once reviewers get their hands on the machines before putting a Max chip in a 14" chassis based on the heat-gen of prior Max chips not playing so well with the 14" and throttling performance. The Max lineup is powerful but in prior generations the 14" fan setup sometimes couldn’t keep up if you really push the chip and ended up throttling performance, which would undermine the performance bump you spent extra money to get. It may turn out that you could just save several hundred dollars and get similar performance in the 14" form factor by getting the Pro chip.

Looking over recently leaked Metal benchmarks the M4 Pro 20-core yields about the same GPU performance as an M1 Max 32-core, and as someone with an M1 Max I can confidently say that’s plenty to play WoW - Classic or Retail - on higher settings with 60-90+ FPS all day long. That GPU performance with the massive CPU performance gain on the M4 pro sounds like a solid option.