Looking at it. Hard pass. 45 to 53 dB of fan noise. That thing maybe a laptop but it is probably useless without being plugged in. and the noise… I have a windows gamer laptop ( I do not game), so I know how it is. A silent but powerful machine is a dream to me.
Here is how it performs against the M3 Max and the M2 Max
How big are your projects in Ableton, in rough figures of tracks and VSTs in each track? Any VST you use that demands a lot from the processor?
Dude you are awesome, this is exactly the kind of feedback I’m needing at the moment. Making a purchase of this size for something that all of my future music projects is going to rely on is tough.
Paying more for a MacBook and getting less has been something I’ve been used to since switching to Mac way back in 07 but since my current MacBook just dropped dead with no discernible cause has shaken my faith in them. Made me think…well if I’m willing to spend like $2500 what would I get in the PC world and then I went down a rabbit hole and now my head is spinning. It would be a plus to have a gaming PC as I do play (some) video games…but I have a PS5 and Switch and I have an old throw away PC I use for emulation and that’s all been sufficient for me. It would be cool if I could play new games on Steam or whatever that aren’t available on PS5 but absolutely not a deal breaker (or maker) just a cool plus. However more processing power, RAM and storage for a slightly cheaper price (about $500-$600 less) is appealing.
As far as fan noise I don’t really care that much I know it drives some people crazy but I’m not terribly bothered by that kind of stuff.
I’m on the same boat in terms of planning a long time purchase and I’ve been down this rabbit hole for quite some time now (since the m1 release). It is tough. I’m glad i can help somehow 
Good questions. It’s hard to say exactly since I’ve done not much more than just jam for the last couple years. However generally if I were to record and finish some tracks as I very much plan to do, I would say I’m not super duper plug in heavy as I have a lot of hardware, usually I’d record whatever I got going on in hardware into Ableton with very minimal plugins running, then I would arrange and mix and in that stage I’d have a fair amount of EQ, compressors, delays, reverbs, limiters etc….nothing massive I mean I make UK garage, Jungle and DnB mostly so it’s not like I’m multitracking an orchestra. But a major factor of this purchase is an attempt at “future proofing” ideal it would last me something like 7-10 years as that’s my usual computer cycle so I’m trying to stretch this as far as possible for that reason more than for needing a ton of plugins all active at the same time. Though I would like not to ever have to worry about CPU and RAM usage while I’m working
I don‘t know about technical details but I got a MacBook Pro M3 Pro and this thing is a beast. It’s like itje CPU doesn’t even register Ableton running. It’s actually the first computer for me that’s able to run Ableton Live with 32 samples latency, no dropouts, everything is working so smoothly and snappy.
If feels very counter productive to drop this kind of money and choose the “older” processor, I get it that Ableton utilizes more cores on the M2 Max but it still feels weird
To your original question, I just looked it up, seems like Live can use up to 64 cores. M3 Ultra with 32 cores? Yes please. 
God damn! lol I can’t even imagine a session that would require that much power. I’m pretty sure if I go with either of the options I posted above (M2 max macbook or gigabyte gaming PC) that I would pretty much never have to worry about maxing out CPU or RAM with a normal session. PCs freak me out now though lol. I actually used to repair PCs for a living in 2004-2008 which is one of the main reasons I switched to Mac I was so sick of dealing with PCs but now that it’s been so long it’s like they don’t even make sense to me anymore, everything is so different from the XP and Vista days. Macs I understand how to maintain them and everything (which really isn’t much more than running Onyx every once in a while) but man the difference in what I’d get is really bugging me.
M3 Max has the most performance cores. Atm.
Only problem with the M3 max is that it’s just slightly out of my price range ($2500ish)
M1 pro with 10 core chip has 8 performance cores. Im thinking about getting this configuration as one can find it second hand/refurbished for a reasonable price.
Does it have to be a laptop though?
Sort of, I mean yes when I’m recording hardware it’s going to me stationary but I also often take my laptop to other parts of the house or in bed or whatever and work on stuff there just in software so having the ability to both it a major plus
Just saw this for those interested
Get a decent gaming pc. Macs are nice but for ableton a mid level gaming pc will be an audio processing monster.
Those new Intel chips often look faster but the TDP is at least double the top end M3. It’s a common thing now to measure against Apple Silicon but not say that the power comes with increase TDP.
Shame, cause the stationary macs do give the biggest bang per buck.
…afaik, ableton is pretty fresh to the game when comes to utilizing multicore setup flawlessly…
they had quite some mindboggeling to master to set up their once revolutionizing concept spreading out over various cores at once…but they did it…
all efficiency cores on all m gen chips do background housekeeping work and no daws really utilize them for real…they will come way more into play, once apple raises their internal ai game, end of this year…
if u got native instruments plugins and such in use, the need for a little more ram is still valid…
they still not really utilize that silicon power of unified ram and crossreferencing with hyperfast ssd logics…but 16 gigs of ram will do totally fine…and no matter what macbook, to go at least for 512gb in size for the ssd is essential…
so a 16gb of ram and a 1tb ssd, no matter which macbook u chose will serve u well for a decade to come…no worries…
but even 8 gigs of ram will serve u pretty flawlessly if u don’t have endless browser tabs and other programs open while ur doing daw work…if u do daw work, just do daw work only…everything alse really shut off and ur always good to go…
biggest bang for the buck remains the mac mini…but when it comes to laptops, no matter what intel pc super trooper gaming pc u might choose, u must be also into constant ventilation noise, short power cylces on battery and u gotto make sure upfront, that particular laptop model even will provide all the promised benchmarks once not attached to a cable…since i just recently learned with wonder, many just drop all their cpu power automatically, whenever they have to rely on battery power only…still can’t believe that, seriously…
with my already a little outdated again m1 mbp, 16gigs of ram, 1tb ssd, i still enjoy full fledged power daw work for at least 6 hours straight on battery…even with an buspowered only mobile audiointerface attached…plus a little buspowered controler…still ten hours of writing or surfing or movie binging, if i want…and no other windows laptop can compete here… those who really try, cost pretty much the same, while getting hot and loud along the way, right from the start, get outdated and wear out within two years, while my laptop remains silent and just a little warm, will slim down in batterpower to 3 hours over the next 3 years of heavy use but still do all fine for another 7 years to come with no need for any repairs as long i handle it properly…
This. I just ordered the new M3 MacBook Air. It “only” has 4 performance cores, but what I’ve heard from people with M1 MBA the processor still blows the old Intel chips out of the water, so expect the M3 to be better than the M1 at least.
I am not sure this will last me 10 years, but I feel confident I won’t need and upgrade in the next 3, possibly 5 years.
Mind you, my ableton use is not super plug-in heavy, and use it most to record hardware jams and then do some post processing, and mixing.
The major advantage of the MBA for me is it being fanless while still being more than powerful enough. Can’t wait to have a silent studio! 
Edit: forgot to mention that I’m currently on a 2018 MBP with 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD. It is still perfectly fine for the work I do in Ableton. It’s based on this that I expect the new unit will last me up to 5 years also.
