MOST POWERFUL MacBook vs PC Laptop (RIP Windows?)

Summary

In this in-depth comparison, the MacBook Pro M3 Max and Lenovo Legion 9i are evaluated on performance, power efficiency, creative workflows, gaming, and more. The M3 Max outperforms the Intel i9 in both single-core and multi-core performance while using significantly less power, making it more efficient. The MacBook shines in creative tasks like video editing, 3D rendering, and Adobe Suite apps, though the Legion is superior for traditional gaming. Despite limitations, Apple's M3 Max shows impressive strides in catching up with Windows laptops in performance, especially in 3D tasks and gaming, making the next few years in tech highly promising.

Takeaways

• 😀 The MacBook Pro with M3 Max and the Lenovo Legion 9i are two of the most powerful laptops on the market, each excelling in different areas.
• 💡 The MacBook is powered by Apple’s ARM-based M3 Max chip, while the Lenovo Legion 9i uses an Intel i9-13980HX chip, making them different in architecture (ARM vs. x86).
• 📊 The MacBook’s unified memory architecture gives the M3 Max's GPU access to more RAM, which is more efficient than the Legion’s separate system RAM and GPU memory.
• ⚡ The M3 Max consumes significantly less power than the Legion 9i while delivering similar or better performance in tasks like video editing and creative workflows.
• 🎨 The MacBook outperforms the Legion in creative workflows like Adobe software due to its superior memory management and faster GPU, particularly in programs like After Effects.
• 🎮 While gaming performance is generally better on the Legion (due to Windows optimization), the MacBook holds its ground in optimized games like Resident Evil Village.
• 🏆 The M3 Max’s GPU has seen significant improvements in 3D rendering tasks, with Apple's hardware-accelerated ray tracing (Metal RT) closing the performance gap against NVIDIA GPUs.
• 💼 The Lenovo Legion 9i is more flexible, offering features like upgradable RAM and storage, which the MacBook lacks due to its more rigid design.
• 🌡️ The MacBook runs much cooler and quieter than the Legion, even when under load, thanks to its efficient power usage and thermal management.
• 🔋 The MacBook’s battery life and performance efficiency are superior, as it can run demanding tasks at full speed even while on battery power, unlike the Legion which drops performance significantly when unplugged.

Q & A

What are the two laptops being compared in the video?

The video compares the Apple M3 Max MacBook Pro and the Lenovo Legion 9i Windows laptop.

How do the architectures of the MacBook and Lenovo laptops differ?

The MacBook uses Apple Silicon based on ARM architecture with unified memory, while the Lenovo Legion 9i uses x86 architecture with separate system RAM and GPU RAM.

How does the CPU performance of the M3 Max compare to the Intel i9-13980HX?

The M3 Max slightly outperforms the Intel i9-13980HX in both multi-core and single-core Cinebench 2024 benchmarks by about 10%, while consuming significantly less power (52W vs 125W).

Why does Apple’s unified memory give the M3 Max an advantage in creative workflows?

Unified memory allows both the CPU and GPU to access the full 48GB of RAM, which improves performance in RAM and GPU-intensive applications like After Effects compared to the Lenovo's separate 32GB system RAM and 16GB GPU RAM.

How do the laptops perform in video editing tasks such as timeline scrubbing and rendering?

Both laptops perform similarly in real-time timeline scrubbing, playback, and rendering. However, the MacBook has an advantage in rendering tasks that use Mac-specific codecs like DNX HR.

What is the performance gap in 3D workflows between the MacBook M3 Max and the Lenovo Legion 9i?

In Blender and Cinema 4D, the Lenovo RTX 490 still outperforms the M3 Max, but the gap has narrowed from about 5x slower on the M1 Max to roughly 2x slower on the M3 Max, thanks to hardware-accelerated ray tracing support on Apple Silicon.

How does gaming performance differ between the MacBook and the Lenovo laptop?

The Lenovo laptop performs better in most AAA titles due to wider support for DirectX and Windows optimization. However, in Apple-optimized games using Metal API, the MacBook performs comparably when platform-specific enhancements are enabled.

What are the efficiency and thermal differences between the two laptops?

The MacBook runs cooler and quieter, with fans rarely activating until necessary. It also consumes roughly 3.5 times less power than the Lenovo for similar workloads, resulting in better battery life and energy efficiency.

Why does the MacBook maintain performance on battery better than the Lenovo laptop?

The M3 Max is highly efficient and requires less power, allowing it to run at full performance even on battery, whereas the Lenovo laptop experiences significant performance drops when disconnected from its charger in high-performance mode.

What are the major disadvantages of the MacBook compared to the Lenovo Legion 9i?

The MacBook is more expensive, has limited upgrade options for RAM and storage, and MacOS is more restricted compared to Windows. Gaming support and some 3D applications are still better optimized on Windows.

What overall trend does the video suggest about Apple laptops in comparison to Windows laptops?

Apple laptops, especially with the M3 Max, are rapidly closing the performance gap in creative, 3D, and gaming workflows, while offering superior efficiency, quieter operation, and better thermal management. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years.