By Kent Yang | Staff Writer
After boasting that hard work isn’t hard at all when you’re on a Mac, Apple introduced their new lineup of ARM based processors: the M3 Family. Ever since switching from Intel Processors to ARM Processors a few years ago, Apple’s aim has been to have a long battery life while keeping performance quality consistent while both plugged in and unplugged. Not only have they succeeded in this endeavor, they’ve also become an industry leader when it comes to power efficiency. Notably, the M3 family is also the first chip to use a 3-nanometer lithography. The M3 Family are listed below:
- M3 – 8 Core CPU (4P Cores, 4 E4 Cores), up to 24GB of Unified Memory, 10 Core GPU (25 Billion Transistors)
- M3 Pro – 12 Core CPU (6P Cores, 6E Cores), up 36GB of Unified Memory, 18 Core GPU (37 Billion Transistors)
- M3 Max 16 CPU (12P Cores, 4E Cores), up to 128GB of Unified Memory, 40 Core GPU (92 Billion Transistors)
This year, the M3 has a faster neural engine which is comprised of 16 Cores dedicated to process AI functions with great efficiency. The media engine for hardware acceleration supports H.264, HEVC ProRes, Pro ResRAW, and AV1. Next-Generation integrated graphics supports Dynamic Caching, Mesh Shading, and Ray Tracing. Traditionally, it’s the software that determines and allocates GPU memory based on the most demanding tasks which means the GPU can be underutilized. With Dynamic Caching, local memory gets dynamically allocated in hardware in real-time, increasing the utilization of the GPU. As a result, each task executed will only get the right amount of memory needed.
Apple claims the M3 Family renders up to 1.8x faster than the M2 family and 2.5X faster than the M1 family. Apple also said the M3 can deliver the same performance as the M1 using half the power of the M1 which is an impressive feat on its own.
The MacBook Pro with the M3 will start at a whopping $1599 for the 14”, $2499 for the 16” with an M3 Pro, and $3499 for the 16” M3 Max. These MacBook Pros claim a battery life of up to 22 hours, have a 1080P FaceTime HD camera, Six Speaker Sound System with Spatial Audio, Magic Keyboard, “Advanced Connectivity” such as HDMI, Thunderbolt 4, SDXC, and MagSafe 4. The display is a Liquid Retina XDR of 1000 Nits of Brightness, 1600 Nits in HDR Mode, 600 Nits for SDR Content. The new color this year is space black, and it’s fingerprint resistant as well. The chassis is crafted from 100% recycled aluminum, designed for durability. Running on the recently released MacOS Sonoma, the MacBook Pro introduces a Game Mode that optimizes and prioritizes CPU and GPU resources for gaming.
The Apple Event concluded with the release of the 24” iMac M3 which will have a 24” display, 4.5K Retina Display, 1080P FaceTime HD Camera, Six Speaker Sound System, Studio Quality Mics, Touch ID, support for high impedance headphones starting at $1299. It’s been over 30 months since Apple’s last iMac release. Overall, any M3 Mac will be a solid upgrade over any Mac devices that are still using an Intel CPU.
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