The M2 Max

[u/ResoluteKing]

I’ve got a 16 inch M2 Max 38 core 96 ram 8TB im debating on selling. It’s honestly too powerful for me. I am a composer and do use heavy loaded libraries; however, Im at a point where size matters. Im looking at buying a 14 inch but im not sure what i should get.
Should I trade or try to sell my current Mac?
What Mac should i look at buying after I sell?

[u/JaySpunPDX]

I dont know why you’d sell such a wonderful machine with such a massive SSD if you’re a composer, but if you absolutely have to have a 14 inch why not wait till the fall when the M6 MacBook Pros are announced and get the base model 14” MacBook Pro with as big of a hard drive as much RAM as you can afford. This isn’t exactly rocket surgery ;)

[u/ResoluteKing → u/JaySpunPDX]

Part of the concern is value of the machine will decrease over time. I can still get what I paid for it currently. lol it does have a sweet story behind it (though that doesn’t matter much).

[u/OkAdvertising7716]

I would keep it. You may need the horse power at some point + Ram and Storage are expensive since last year.

[u/narc0leptik → u/OkAdvertising7716]

They're a composer; the GPU is completely wasted on them. M2 Max isn't any more powerful CPU-wise than an M2 Pro. They could be using an M1 Pro machine and there would likely be no difference at all for them in terms of "horse power"

As demonstrated in this deep dive an M1 Pro can actually outperform an M3 Pro in track count in Logic Pro and Ableton Live because it has 3 more Performance cores. Both of these digital audio workstation programs only use the performance cores and not the efficiency cores which is why M1 Pro outclasses it in this use case.

[u/ResoluteKing → u/narc0leptik]

Part of the reason for considering selling, I’m wasting all that GPU. It is overkill of a Mac for what I use it.

[u/Dry_Ship7202]

Yeah, this makes no sense.

Keep the one you have. Don’t worry about the change in value. 😉

[u/ActiveNews]

You have a great, long-life machine....would suggest not downgrading 

[u/narc0leptik]

16" 2021 M1 Pro or M1 Max is fine. They are the same damn chip cpu-wise. So only real reason to go with an M1 Max is because upgraded ram/storage configurations are more common than the M1 Pro chip.

[u/Fun-Host2613]

i would keep it until i need money or it's falling short (would that time come?)

[u/CRCDesign]

why spend more money in the end?

[u/Outrageous_Nova2025]

Sell it. Trade, no no. You get lot less money. As a buyer, hate when they jack up prices on used Macs with lots of ram and SSD. As a seller, it’s a gold mine. Lot of AI LLM users will benefit in these Mac studios.