2023-10-31 13:26:32
The same day that an ARM chip from Qualcomm came to tickle Apple Silicon systems on a chip a little too closely, Apple immediately regained a good lead with its famous M3 chips. Tim Cook’s firm doesn’t seem to want to slow down. Remember that the first M2 chips were presented only a little over a year ago.
The difference compared to previous launches is that Apple has decided to change approach by presenting three new chips on the same day: M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. Instead of starting with the M3 only.
By the admission of Johny Srouji, who made his comeback during a keynote, Apple has focused its efforts on the GPU part. Apple’s systems-on-chip manager emphasized Dynamic Caching technology, which allows GPU memory to be allocated dynamically in real time. This technology allows for more efficient use of the GPU. Among the improvements made to this part, we will especially note the support for Mesh Shading and Ray Tracing.
As is often the case, during Johny Srouji’s presentations, the new chips are detailed through a succession of graphs which describe them as more efficient, without sacrificing the performance per watt ratio so dear to Apple.
The announced gains compared to their M1 equivalent are often between 50 and 80%. Thus, the efficient CPU cores display performance up 50% compared to the equivalent on M1. Of course, the M3 family is engraved in 3 nm. The Neural Engine displays performance up 60% compared to what the M1 chip offered. Finally, the Media Engine offers support for AV1.
So, which machines were the first to benefit from these new generation chips? As rumors had suggested, the first to be served are the 14 and 16” MacBook Pros as well as the 4.5K iMacs.
The new MacBook Pros take the splits
The MacBook Pro M3 range is getting thicker. Now when configuring their laptop, the user has the choice between an M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max system-on-chip. By doing this, Apple is making its 14” more affordable, since it starts at €1,999. This is undoubtedly also a way for Apple to put an end to the torture of the 13” Touch Bar model.
Conversely, the price of the first configuration equipped with an Mx Pro SoC increases. You have to pay €2,499 to get a MacBook Pro 14” M3 Pro with 18 GB (this is not a typo) of unified memory and 512 GB of SSD.
Apple is already presenting the MacBook Pro late 2023 with M3, M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max chips
In addition to improved performance, the MacBook M3 Pro and Pro Max are offered for sale in a space black color which, at first glance, seems very successful. Note that for €460 more, you can obtain a configuration with 36 GB of RAM.
Finally, note that by adopting the most powerful M3 Max processor (16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores and 16 Neural engine cores), it is possible for the first time to equip your MacBook Pro with 128 GB of RAM.
As always, prices skyrocket very quickly in these cases. A full-featured 16” MacBook Pro with 128 GB of RAM and 8 TB of SSD costs €8,529.
The many comparisons made with the M1 suggest that Apple hopes that many users will upgrade. There were also numerous comparisons with Intel machines, a sign that there are still people to switch to Apple Silicon.
The iMac is moving to M3 while waiting for a Pro version?
If Apple took the time to explain how great its new generation of MacBook Pro was, it moved full speed ahead on the iMac. In terms of performance, this new model is presented as 2x faster than its predecessor in M1.
In addition to the arrival of the M3, the 24” iMac supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. In terms of memory, we can now go up to 24 GB of RAM. The range itself has not changed and still includes three basic configurations. Apple just took the opportunity to increase the price of its machines by €50.
iMac M3: same chassis, new engine and increased price
This is probably the shortest keynote in history (and filmed on the iPhone, as the last image indicates). Apple’s video is just 33 minutes long. This is a format she might be tempted to use more frequently when she has “smaller” announcements to make. Regardless, this keynote concludes a remarkable 2023 for the Mac, which will be able to celebrate its fortieth anniversary in great shape next January.
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