At Apple’s first-ever special event on October 30, dubbed “Scary Fast,” the company proudly announced its new M3 chips. For the first time ever, an entire generation of Apple silicon for Macs was announced at once: the base M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. We expect there to be an M3 Ultra in a Mac Studio update in 2024, but the “Ultra” chip is literally two “Max” chips put together in a multi-die package, so there won’t be any. not many surprises.
Here are the critical details about the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max announced by Apple. All performance claims are solely Apple’s and should be verified through independent testing, which we will do soon.
M3 processors compared
Want to know the main differences between these chips at a glance? This is the painting you need!
| Processor | CPU cores | GPU cores | Neural Motor Cores | Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M3 | 8 (4P + 4E) | 8 or 10 | 16 | 8-24 GB |
| M3 Pro | 11 (5P + 6E) or 12 (6P + 6E) | 14 or 18 | 16 | 18-36 GB |
| M3 Max | 14 (10P or 4E) or 16 (12P + 4E) | 30 or 40 | 16 | 36-128 GB |
CPU and GPU improvements across the entire M3 lineup
The entire M3 processor family is built on a 3nm manufacturing process and appears to be built on the same architecture as the A17 Pro (at least for the GPU and media engine).
In the processor, the high-performance cores are around 15% faster than those in the M2 and 30% faster than those in the M1. The efficiency cores have been improved even more and are 30% faster than the M2’s efficiency cores and 50% faster than the M1’s.
Apple
Apple
The GPU gets a bigger boost than the CPU, with an architecture similar to the A17 Pro found in the iPhone 15 Pro. New industry-first “dynamic caching” technology allows hardware to continuously manage the amount of RAM reserved for the GPU, instead of applications determining the amount when they compile. The GPU also supports mesh shaders and hardware acceleration of ray tracing. Apple claims it’s up to 2.5x faster than the M1 in professional rendering applications.
The media engine supports the same codecs as the A17, including H.264, HEVC, ProRes ProRAW, and AV1 decoding.
The Neural Engine, which is dedicated hardware for accelerating AI and machine learning tasks, gets a small boost in the M3 generation. There was a huge jump in performance between M1 and M2, but a smaller jump between M2 and the new M3 chips. Apple claims it’s 15% faster than the M2’s Neural Engine, but 60% faster than the M1’s.
Apple
M3 specifications
The M3 will have an 8-core CPU, with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, and an “up to” 10-core GPU (the base iMac comes with an 8-core GPU, but all models of MacBook Pro M3 have 10-core GPU). M3 systems will also now be available with up to 24 GB of RAM.
Apple
M3 Pro specifications
The M3 Pro boosts the processor with two additional efficiency cores but removes two performance cores compared to the M2 Pro, giving it a 6+6 configuration. This is an interesting change from the M2 Pro, which had 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores.
The GPU will feature up to 18 cores, a less than the M2 Pro, although Apple says you can expect it to be 10% faster than the M2 Pro’s GPU and 40% faster than the M1 Pro’s GPU.
The M3 Pro chips will support up to 36GB of RAM, a small increase from the M2 Pro’s maximum 32GB.
Apple
M3 Max Specifications
The big chip is the M3 Max. It includes 16 processor cores: 4 efficiency cores and 12 performance cores.
The GPU has up to 40 cores, two more than the M2 Max.
The M3 Max chips support up to 128GB of RAM, a huge step up from the M2 Max’s maximum 96GB.
Available on several Macs this fall
The M3 lineup will debut in a number of new Mac updates shipping in November. New 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are available for pre-order now and shipping starting November 7. For the first time, you’ll be able to get a base M3 in a MacBook Pro (but only the 14-inch model).
Apple is also updating the 24-inch iMac with the M3 processor, which is also available to order now and will ship starting November 7.