Going to college in the spring to get my bachelor’s in computer science. Obviously need a laptop. So this is obviously my best choice. I was thinking about a 14” M2 max pro. But it’s pretty pricey and I don’t know if it’s worth it. It also apparently throttles. Any suggestions? I like gaming too so it’s be nice if I could do that well.
A M2 Air would probably be sufficient, just get at least 16GB of RAM. Gaming is not great on Macs, even high end ones, use the money saved from buying a Pro Max and use it for Geforce Now, or an Xbox + Gamepass.
15 Air. The screen estate. GeForce now.
At the very minimum please get the 14” M3 pro. The one with 18gb of ram. It will last you for so many years, great machine.
Long time software engineer here - the 15” Air is perfect for you. 16GB RAM will get you through your degree, but you’d benefit from 24GB if you started tinkering on your own.
For the laptop to throttle it would have to be under constant load, which as a computer science major, you will not be doing to it.
What you are looking for is probably not a Macbook.
You may have to use stuff during uni that’s hard or impossible to set up on an ARM device. Also if you want to play games Mac is just a terrible option.
Buy something in the same price range with an x86 CPU and a dedicated GPU.