I stopped going to nearly all movies at the cinema. I have a good-enough 5.2.1 sound system and large television with appropriate cinema seating distance, so why should I go out if all I need to do is wait 8-12 weeks and see it on a streaming subscription? For me, the movie would need to be compelling enough to warrant a drive of about 120 miles to see it in a Dolby Cinema theater, of which only Oppenheimer met in the past year.

In a relatively small US city, 600/600 mbps fiber and I actually get it 24/7. I could get 1200, 2400 or even 5000 but I don’t see any point. Heck I can get 700/35 on my iPhone (overnight).

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t use the max to the full potential. Look at some bg3 performance charts for the m3 family to see how much it might matter. For rendering, they will both be great, but it may just take a bit longer on the pro vs the max.

I don’t believe heat to be a significant issue with the 14 inch device. I am a fan of the smaller form factor and were I to buy one today, I would select the m3 max chip with the 14 inch form factor, but I am selecting it for the gpu cores. If you don’t plan on needing those, the m3 pro is a good chip.