First off, if it''s low poly game asset modeling your mostly doing, don''t worry too much about the renderer, they''re all pretty good these days, and you probably won''t be using it that much.
IMO Maya is way better and faster than Max for modeling (although you can script tasks in both).
To sum it up quickly... tools that are often a single mouse click away in Maya are often several mouse clicks or menu''s away in Max, and Maya just makes more sense to my way of doing the simple little things that take up 90% of your time.

I use Cinema, the latest Version is really awesome. Especially if you combine it with Bodypaint.

Maya has a very slow Renderer in comparison to Cinema.