M2 air 15-inch 16gb+512 SSD or M3 pro base(14 inch 8gb ram+512 ssd) for cs student. Will the 8gb enough for 4 yrs of b.tech? these prices were almost so there’s no price point of view. I didn’t see much difference(by reviews) and this is also the first time buying mac. is macbook air being without the fan going to be an issue? Overall for cs student I want to last long(not battery I know both were great so, I meant it’s usability in upcoming future yrs). Is there big gap btw air and pro? Is there’s some issues for cs student or general usability case? Thanks in advance for spending time :)
You must log in or register to comment.
M2 and M3 is almost the same performance wise with around the same bandwidth limits 100gb/s vs 200gb/s. The M3 Pro is a different beats with 400gb/s and that’s where you see the big improvements especially having more performance cpu cores and gpu cores. If you have the money to spend the best investment for 5 years is the M3 Pro but if price is a concern than M2 Air should suffice for 3 years until the M5
Just 3 yrs? Why do you think so in that way ig mac machine will run least for 5 yrs but yea I’m new to mac so idk if that’s correct Can you be more specific pls And also for clarification m2 16gb 512 ssd is pricer than m3 pro Being that as the things which one is better for my case do u think?
Going into the next few years, I think locally run LLMs, especially as a new developer are going to be a big thing; in which case the RAM is going to be the driving factor. But if you are doing any sort of heavy computing, the lack of fan is going to hurt. Personally, I would say if there is any way to muster up another few hundred dollars, I would look at the 14in M3 Pro 18gb. It covers the weaknesses of both the other models, and should have no problem lasting you through school and a couple years into your first job
Sadly extra money is not my option becoz I’m just a ug student and don’t want to spend that much of my parent’s money.So, in this two what will be better and also thanks for ur opinion so far :)
In that case, if you are dead set on Apple (this is a case where looking at a windows laptop might make sense), I would go with the Pro 8. The Air seems to be for someone who is using it to scroll TikTok and browse the web. It’s not built for long working sessions and can overheat with the lack of fans with heavy use.
This is just my limited opinion though. I’m relatively new to the MacBook world, having spend 20 years with windows machines. Someone with more knowledge than I may be able to offer up a different view.
Both models you listed will support multitasking general tasks with no issues at all, like doing all this at once: music app, YouTube, an IDE for coding, dozens and dozens of browser tabs open, mail app, calendar, messages, note taking app like Obsidian, and other things that are not especially CPU or RAM intensive.
You may run up against 8GB being a limitation if you are running virtual machines, doing any kind of machine learning, editing large resolution videos, running multiple docker containers if they are resource hogs, and other things like that.
This latest 14” MacBook Pro has one HUGE difference from the M1 and M2 MBPs, which is that the base model does NOT have a “Pro” CPU. For the first time, the 14” now has a “base level” CPU option.
So the articles and info online that says that 14” models support multiple external displays is only correct for the M1 and M2 revisions as well as the M3 Pro and M3 Max.
So if you want more than one external display, you can’t use an “M3” CPU. You have to get the M3 Pro or M3 Max. I know, it is very confusing.
Compared to the 15” M2 MBA, the 14” M3 MBP will have a 120hz screen compared to 60hz and it can get brighter too, like 1000 nits compared to the MBA 500 nits. When the MBP uses HDR, it can get up to 1600 nits.
Also, the 14” MBP won’t always be at 120hz - it dynamically adjusts to save battery power.
Either laptop is going to be extremely performant for 4 years with all the basic tasks I mentioned up front.
That’s great info but can u say which would be better?
Go with the 16GB RAM 15” M2 MBA. I don’t think you will be disappointed. If you get a couple years in and decide you want more power, the resale value on MacBooks is great. Can easily offload on FB Marketplace.
If you have a Microcenter near you, consider the 14” M1 Pro MBP w/ 16GB RAM 1TB for $1349. Hell of a deal and YES that laptop will still be great in 4 years.
I won’t be using an external monitor that’s why I went with 15 inch on air XD. And as for as display yes pro is better(except air being slight extra inch) but I’m prioritising the performance and use case in future. is being with 8gb or laptop without fan is bad? And what is better in ur opinion? Thank u for ur suggestion so far :)