M2 vs. M3 Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M3?

[Fuzzball84]

I'm not talking about entry level models, I am talking about deals like BH Photos 64 GB/4TB M1 Max 16 inch. That laptop is not gonna go obsolete anytime soon. That's a better bargain for many than the M3 if all they want is a bigger screen. By the time Apple starts phasing support, you probably could score a second hand M7 or M8.

Apple Silicon Macs are likely to be supported for years and years.. the fact they are still releasing new models with 8 GB base RAM means even the first M1 Macs with 8 GB should do fine for years and years to come. Apple have created themselves a huge number of customers on new hardware with 8 GB RAM... who will be expecting at least 4 or 5 years run with what they just bought.

Irrespective of what they are actually running on it, in terms of third party software.

 

[Fuzzball84]

You can do photo and video on an iPhone and on a iPad. There is no “chip” for photo editing.

Besides, a M3 Max is better at everything than a M3 Pro, so there is no reason to pic a M3 Pro over a M3 Max at all.

Coding is just creating text files, you can do this on a toaster even. There is no dedicated M3 Pro chip for coding.

There are specific use cases that will use different aspects of the processor. This is undeniable.. and the extreme high end want systems optimised for a particular task.

Maybe Apple will consider more modularisation with the very high end Mac Pro... to optimise for different scenarios. Just like what people used to do when buying an external GPU for the Intel Macs etc.

 

[topmounter]

The M procs have definitely muddied the line between 'need' and 'want' from one generation to the next. Clearly there are people out there whose Macs are doing work where the benefit of upgrading is clear and quantifiable (or not). While my employer supplied 2019 MacBook Pro is justifiably worthy of an upgrade (and gets replaced as a matter of course in January), my personal M1 Mac Mini (base config even) is still chugging away without providing a hint of a reason to replace it. Even after replacing my personal 2017 MacBook i7 Air with a 2023 MacBook Pro M3 Pro... the M1 Mini still feels as lively and fresh and suited to purpose now as the day it first graced my desktop.

 

[Torty]

I'm not talking about entry level models, I am talking about deals like BH Photos 64 GB/4TB M1 Max 16 inch. That laptop is not gonna go obsolete anytime soon. That's a better bargain for many than the M3 if all they want is a bigger screen. By the time Apple starts phasing support, you probably could score a second hand M7 or M8.

Hoe many years of support? 5 big Updates? With the M7 the M1 would be obsolete.

 

[Piggie]

Given the perhaps les than AMAZING jump from M1 to M3.
After all, if you imagine back when the M1 launched, what you might have expected the leap to have been b y the time M3 had launched.
Yet in reality M1 is still amazing, even when M3 is launched.
What we are to expect when we look at M4, M5 and M6

I feel we need to accept that there will be no major leaps in performance, instead perhaps more additional aspects to the chips.
As with other makers, more AI specific areas built into the chips will probably be added.

I can only hope, at this same time Apple stop deliberately crippling the base models with 8GB Ram as it's now obvious this is hurting what the chips can do. 16 GB should be the new base going forward.
Sadly as Tim is all about trying to upsell people and maximum profit over all costs that 8GB will be in place for at least another 1 or even 2 generations.

 

[Chuckeee]

Still waiting to see someone compare the size of the physical die, comparing M3 chips to M2 chips. I would also like to see power consumption, under load, comparison of the M2 and M3 chips themselves.

Also wish they could do something about how fast I and type, read and watch video. Those are the bottlenecks that REALLY limit my performance!

 

[seek3r]

All I know is older Apple Silicon MacBook Pro’s are gonna be a steal in the future.

Especially running linux on them as they drop out of MacOS support. Maybe eventually we’ll have bootcamp again with win11 ARM (qualcomm exclusivity expires next year, so it’d be a cool thing for Apple to bring back for the M4 or M5), maybe eventually something like OCLP for AS will let use run newer MacOS releases on old hardware, but for now at least I’m happy knowing the hardware has a nice future option already. My base model M1 Mini is a beast with Asahi now, I’ve actually been daily driving it that way for some personal ARM64 projects recently and I’m seriously impressed

 

[seek3r]

Coding is just creating text files, you can do this on a toaster even. There is no dedicated M3 Pro chip for coding.

Depends on the kind of dev environment you need, VMs, IDEs, local running versions of apps being developed against, code profiling tools, etc can be pretty hungry for compute and especially for RAM, and if you’re working on anything large that needs compiling and needs that done locally the more grunt you’ve got the better.

 

[3xBoom]

I have a 14” m3 max with 128gb ram arriving next week. I expect it will be a massive improvement over my 2019 I9 in premiere pro.

Mine (36 gb, 2 TB) shipped today to relegate my 2017 iMac 27" to better pastures.

 

[Joshuaorange]

Mine (36 gb, 2 TB) shipped today to relegate my 2017 iMac 27" to better pastures.

My 2017 iMac is a better runner than my MBP. But I’m planning to replace both with this new machine.

 

[StoneJack]

Reminds me of Intel’s i3, i5, i7 and i9, clever classification.
ultra is i9, pro and max are i5 and 7.
Currently on 3rd generation.
Anyway, basic chips are excellent enough. Pro chips are very powerful.
Good line.

 

[Zest28]

Depends on the kind of dev environment you need, VMs, IDEs, local running versions of apps being developed against, code profiling tools, etc can be pretty hungry for compute and especially for RAM, and if you’re working on anything large that needs compiling and needs that done locally the more grunt you’ve got the better.

If you know what you are doing, you really don't need an IDE at all. If a change to the code needs to be made and you know what you are doing, you can just edit the code and commit and deploy it in a test environment and it works.

And no need for a VM when you got Docker and the software is run on a server somewhere.

 

[Donoban]

Another generic click bait article. Nice work macrumors.

 

[Crom!]

I will wait for the M4

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

I wonder what M3 vs M1 Pro is

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Not that much faster than M1
At this point 😅 the only thing that will make a huge difference is RAM.

The statement "Not that much faster than M1" is pretty meaningless, if not wrong. It depends on what configurations and activities. E.g. I don't use Maya, but if I did I would probably run to upgrade my less-than-a-year-old M2 MBP to M3.

This is so true... I think they should concentrate on supplying two or three bespoke solutions targeting particular workflows for their 'higher end' devices. And then I think the huge costs of those tiers would warrant the such high prices.

The more is better situation is only better for the jack of all trades lower tiers... were the consumer might try a bit of this, and a bit of that.

Now that they design and contract out the manufacturing of their own silicon.. this should be feasible.

I agree that testing of what you call bespoke (perfect verbiage) usages is a very good idea. But I don't think Apple needs to change anything in the hardware sales spec. Rather, we need tests of multiple workflows (e.g. Maya, After Effects, Affinity, Safari, Office) on different already-available configurations. The hard part is that only Apple has the hardware variety handy (M1 & M2 & M3, each with varied RAM to 128 GB) for such testing.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Apple Silicon Macs are likely to be supported for years and years.. the fact they are still releasing new models with 8 GB base RAM means even the first M1 Macs with 8 GB should do fine for years and years to come. Apple have created themselves a huge number of customers on new hardware with 8 GB RAM... who will be expecting at least 4 or 5 years run with what they just bought.

Irrespective of what they are actually running on it, in terms of third party software.

No. "the fact they are still releasing new models with 8 GB base RAM" does not mean "even the first M1 Macs with 8 GB should do fine for years and years to come."

Apple offers RAM up to 128 GB right now for a reason. The suggestion that "8 GB should do fine for years and years to come" for anything but lowest-end workflows is inappropriate.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

M3 offers an excellent CPU increase but the GPU can't still convince me. I regret there is not a significant increase in the number of GPU cores. I am waiting for the M4 too.

 

[Fitzman]

M3 offers an excellent CPU increase but the GPU can't still convince me. I regret there is not a significant increase in the number of GPU cores. I am waiting for the M4 too.

I'm personally waiting for the M4 as well. Once they use the refined 3nm process (either N3E or N3P) for the M4 lineup of chips I agree that there should be a little bump in the GPU cores but also in the cpu cores as well across the board if possible. I could go into greater detail but I'll keep it somewhat short.

Speaking now of the unified memory (ram), for the M4, it would be nice to see it at 12 or 16 gigs at the base. M4 pro 24 at the base and the M4 max should stay at 36 for binned 48 for unbinned chip with the option to go higher, of course.

We will of course see what happens when the M4 does come out but I think it's plausible since we did have rumors of a unified memory jump earlier this summer so maybe it was meant for the M4 lineup.

 

[DownUnderDan]

It would be wise for Apple to differentiate their chips based on intended use. I do photo editing and videography so having a chip with better raw performance is important. My M1M Studio is perfect for this. But someone that does coding may benefit more from a different chip arrangement. It’s not just “more better faster” anymore. Chips are becoming more use-case specific (AI, graphics, ray tracing, etc) and I’d like to see that reflected in Apple SOCs.

I get what you are saying, but introducing that into Apples already tiered chip releases would be a logistical and marketing nightmare.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Still waiting to see someone compare the size of the physical die, comparing M3 chips to M2 chips. I would also like to see power consumption, under load, comparison of the M2 and M3 chips themselves.

Also wish they could do something about how fast I and type, read and watch video. Those are the bottlenecks that REALLY limit my performance!

Chip sizes at https://www.tomshardware.com/news/annotated-apple-m3-processor-die-shots-bring-chip-designs-to-life

 

[DownUnderDan]

Apple Silicon Macs are likely to be supported for years and years.. the fact they are still releasing new models with 8 GB base RAM means even the first M1 Macs with 8 GB should do fine for years and years to come. Apple have created themselves a huge number of customers on new hardware with 8 GB RAM... who will be expecting at least 4 or 5 years run with what they just bought.

Irrespective of what they are actually running on it, in terms of third party software.

The cynic in me says because the Apple silicon Macs could have a longer usable life, Apple will look to shorten the supported life for them, to force upgrades.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

The cynic in me says because the Apple silicon Macs could have a longer usable life, Apple will look to shorten the supported life for them, to force upgrades.

IMO fortunately Apple does not think that way. Apple is not wasting time worrying about how to get their pricey computers to EOL faster. Apple is spending its time figuring out how to make a newer spiffier box for folks to drool over. Those folks who eke marginal performance out of year 7+ old Macs are pretty much irrelevant.

 

[Chuckeee]

Chip sizes at https://www.tomshardware.com/news/annotated-apple-m3-processor-die-shots-bring-chip-designs-to-life

No it does not.

It is just the same rehashing of data from the Apple presentation.

It just compares the different M3 chips with other M3 chips and core counts. Still NO physical comparison (physical size) to previous M chips nor a direct measure of the actual physical size (mm or mils) of the M3 chips.

 

[randian]

The M3 Pro sure looks like a laptop-optimized chip, totally unsuitable for a Mini or iMac, though I bet Apple still sells those desktops with an M3 Pro. The 6-9 month delay I'm expecting before desktop M3s are released is rather annoying though, none of the M3 laptops appear to be suitable for monitors like the 57" Samsung G9 Odyssey.