Macbook pro 2020 vs. Macbook Air 2024 - which one is best for graphics?

I am a bit confused by these recommendations and replies - I bring this up because I'm considering a similar transition.

firstly OP is asking about specific comparison, so a capacity comment about a MacBook he is not asking about is not helpful..

Specifically the comparison ask is between a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro and a 2024 M3 MacBook Air. The air can be configured as 16/1tb - so apples and apples. And specifically he's looking for a weight Reduction with no performance loss.
Software is specified as well.

asking if his "needs are serious enough" is a somewhat belittling statement: clearly the guy is A professional If he's asking this in the Adobe forum. It seems like he's been able to produce professional work with a four-year-old computer. Can he continue to produce that professional work more efficiently or at the same level while dropping the weight of his computer? This is the question that needs to be answered. Everything else is bloviation (no disrespect)

some thoughts:

 M3 is more efficient processor – it produces MORE for LESS energy - from what I read sometimes half as much . That energy consumption is what leads to heat. So a helpful comparison would be knowing What happens to an M3 processor when loaded with the same thing he's loading on an M1 processor. OP is not making any mention of moving into any high computing task, such as 3-D rendering - And even if he was, again, the M3 is more energy efficient... so how does that translate?

if there's anybody out there, that has actually made this transition and can actually give real world answers - it would be helpful. Comment is not meant as disrespect to anybody, but despite OP's gracious thanks to everyone, I feel like no real answer was given in any if these comments.

In addition to what Warren stated, there is a 13-inch M3 MacBook Air.

Neither of the MacBook Airs have any system cooling at all whatsoever, so the CPU in both Airs will throttle down significantly in the middle of a rendering job, such that the performance might fall below that of your current M1 MacBook Pro.

Unfortunately, the only sigificant hardware upgrade at this current time would actually be larger and heavier than your current MacBook. The direct replacement for that MacBook Air with Touch Bar is actually the base M3 (non-Pro) version of the 14" MacBook Pro, with fewer USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports than the M3 Pro version of that same MacBook Pro.

For Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and moderate video editing, the current M3 MacBook Air should be no worse than your 13" M1 MacBook Pro, and the M3 Air will probably be a step up. You might not need to get a MacBook Pro. You will probably be OK with an M3 MacBook Air with 16GB of unified memory, but I would go for the 24GB.

Your M1 MacBook Pro and the M3 MacBook Air both have 8 CPU cores and 8 GPU cores. But the M3 cores are measurably faster, and somewhat more efficient.

The current M3 MacBook Pro has at least three advantages over the M3 Air, which may or may not matter to you:

• More ports and more kinds of ports, and an SD card slot. 
• Better display (HDR capable, 120Hz refresh). But for most Adobe applications, those things don’t matter. The new HDR editing in Adobe Camera Raw does take advantage of the additional brightness in the MacBook Pro XDR display, but this is not a common workflow yet.
• Cooling fans. (The Air has no fan, so it is always silent.) But on the MacBook Pro, the cooling fans might not even come on for Photoshop or Illustrator, maybe only if you are doing very intensive video or 3D editing. On the M3 Air, heat buildup is probably not going to be a problem unless you are doing extended heavy batch processing in Photoshop.

The way Apple has rearranged the product line for the M3, if your needs are serious enough that you actually do need a MacBook Pro instead of the Air, you should skip over the MacBook Pro with the M3 processor and go straight to the M3 Pro or M3 Max processor. But that makes it a lot more expensive than an Air.

The Apple MacBook Air 15-Inch is 3.3 pounds while the MacBook Pro 13-inch with TouchBar and Touch ID is 3.0 pounds.

Rather than weight, the larger screen and being able to have more RAM (24GB max. instead of 16GB) would be the things to be considering between an M1 MacBook Pro and an M3 MacBook Air.

ArtIsRight has some great YouTube videos about what to be thinking about when upgrading Apple Silicon.  "Apple M3 Gen Pro Photography Buyers Guide / All M3 Chip Compare!" was published before the M3 MacBook Air, but it dives into what to be considering.

I'm thinking stick with the 13-inch M1 MacBook Air for a few more years unless you'd really like the larger screen right now.  Of course, the trade-in value drops the longer you wait.  Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign should run faster on the M3 - even in a MacBook Air, but I'd keep a close eye on what the return window is (I think Apple offers 14-days while Costco offers 90-days) in case you find the performace increase isn't worth the cost.