Trade-ins are handled by a 3rd party company. That company sets its rates so that it can be profitable, which is why they are lower than private sales.
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M2 vs. M3 Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M3?
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Yeah. Either is fine for my purposes. I'm assuming a (hypothetical) base M3 mini will be cheaper than the current M2 Pro version. 16 Gb/1 Tb is sufficient for me.
Just curious, but how do you know that was the reason? SSD's can fail prematurely, well before their write limit is reached, for any number of reasons.
Futher, it seems unlikely you would reach that limit even with heavy swap. Folks on this site have done calculations. and concluded reaching that limit would take many years.
The only way to know it was specifically because of writes would be if you'd run a SMART anaysis (easy enough to do from the terminal, or using an app like DriveDx), and found the number of writes was approaching the max. Did you or someone at the Apple store do that and, if so, what was the number?
Or, better still, you could run a SMART analysis on your wife's repaired computer (just wait until she's used it for, say, a month—long enough to get a good average usage figure—and download a trial version of DriveDx). Based on the number of days your wife has been using it, and the total number of writes, we can determine the average writes/day based on her actual use, and calculate how long it would take for her to reach the drive's write limit.
Here is what the report looks like when run from the Terminal:
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Long story short, the average consumer just looking for a new Mac won’t notice any difference besides price.
I think the one thing that would get me to hesitate from going M1 or M2 now is that they seem to have fundamentally changed their GPU with the M3, as mentioned in the article. Meaning, going by Apple's history, we have gotten the first excuse for them to eventually discontinue support for the previous generations.
Of course this is mostly "future proofing paranoia", but if you want to buy and keep for a long long time, it might turn out to be worth bumping up to M3.
Of course this is mostly "future proofing paranoia", but if you want to buy and keep for a long long time, it might turn out to be worth bumping up to M3.
With the exception of Fusion (which I haven't used), my lat 2012 iMac does all of that just fine.
That said, the M1 MacBook Air will be one of the longest supported Macs of all time (up there with the 2012 non-retina MacBook Pro with SuperDrive). It’s possible that Apple drops the M2 Air and leaves the M1 Air as the base when it updates the Air next year to the M3 or M4.
I like to know how does the M3 Max compare to the Nvidia 4090 or 4080 in terms of performance?![]()
Apple's latest series of custom silicon chips designed for the Mac come just over a year after the introduction of the M2 chip in 2022, so how much better really is M3?
![Apple-M3-chip-series.jpg]()
With the introduction of the M3 series, encompassing the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, Apple once again set new benchmarks in performance, efficiency, and capabilities for the Mac. The transition from M2 to M3 is marked by significant enhancements, primarily thanks to Apple's move to a 3nm process, among other key architectural improvements such as a completely redesigned GPU.
When unveiling the M3 chips, Apple mainly focused on how they compare to the M1 series of chips, rather than their direct predecessors from the M2 series. As the third major iteration of Apple silicon, it may not be clear how significant of an improvement the M3 chips are over the M2. Apple offers a range of devices with the M2 and M3 chips, so the extent to which the M2 is better than its predecessor could also be an important consideration when purchasing a new Mac. Read on to learn about all of the differences between the two series of chips.
M2 vs. M3
The Apple M3 chip represents a significant advancement over its predecessor, with the headline upgrade being the transition to a more advanced fabrication process that is just 3nm in size, down from 5nm on the M2 series of chips. This is evident in the M3's increased transistor count, jumping from 20 billion in the M2 to 25 billion, a 25% increase that contributes to its enhanced capabilities.
![M3-Chip-Apple-Event-Slide.jpg]()
Benchmark tests underscore this progression, with the M3 outperforming the M2 by about 17% in single-core tasks and approximately 21% in multi-core tasks. In GPU performance measured by Metal benchmarks, the M3 exhibits a notable improvement of around 15% over the M2.
The M3 chip introduces an all-new GPU architecture. This architecture includes Dynamic Caching, a breakthrough feature that optimizes GPU memory allocation and utilization, adapting in real-time to varying task demands. This enhancement not only boosts graphics performance for intensive applications but also bolsters the chip's overall energy efficiency. This is particularly beneficial for graphics-heavy tasks like advanced video editing, 3D rendering, and gaming. It also features support for AV1 video decode.
Despite similarities in the 16-core Neural Engine between the M2 and M3, the M3's adoption of a 3nm process leads to more efficient execution of machine learning and AI tasks. Additionally, the M3 maintains up to 24GB of unified memory, just like the M2, but leverages the new process for more efficient memory bandwidth utilization.
One other notable difference between the M2 and M3 chips is their energy efficiency. The 3nm fabrication process enables the M3 to achieve higher performance without a proportional increase in power consumption, making the chip particularly appealing for laptop users who value a balance between power and battery life.
Overall, the M3 chip is a considerable upgrade from the M2, distinguished by its higher transistor count, improved performance in CPU and GPU tasks, and superior energy efficiency. While the M3 offers clear advancements, the extent of its superiority does not necessitate an immediate upgrade for current M2 users, especially if their existing workflows are still completed comfortably. For new buyers or those upgrading from older models, the M3's improvements in performance and efficiency will be much more pronounced.
M2 Pro vs. M3 Pro
The M3 Pro presents something of a mixed picture. Despite having fewer transistors than its predecessor (37 billion compared to the M2 Pro's 40 billion), the M3 Pro leverages its 3nm technology to achieve moderate performance improvements, but in some ways the chip is a step back.
![M3-Pro-Chip-Feature.jpg]()
In single-core tasks, the M3 Pro shows a 18% improvement over the M2 Pro, much like the M3 compared to the M2. In multi-core tasks, the M3 Pro shows a modest improvement of approximately 8%. The M2 Pro offers either six or eight high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores. In contrast, the M3 Pro comes with either five or six high-performance cores and six energy-efficient cores. The increase in energy-efficient cores in the M3 Pro suggests a focus on maintaining high performance while optimizing for power efficiency, which could be particularly advantageous in battery-dependent or thermally constrained environments compared to its predecessor.
The M2 Pro is equipped with either 16 or 19 GPU cores, while the M3 Pro scales back to 14 or 18 GPU cores. In GPU performance, there is a decrease of about 5% compared to the M2 Pro due to its reduced number of cores. Despite this, the new GPU architecture, inclusive of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shading, and Dynamic Caching, could still yield notable performance improvements in specific real-world workflows, especially those that leverage these new technologies.
The M3 Pro's unified memory bandwidth of 150GB/s, compared to the M2 Pro's 200GB/s, might impact tasks heavily reliant on rapid memory access, although the overall efficiency gains from the 3nm process could balance out some of these constraints.
Overall, the M3 Pro presents a complex predicament: It offers a clear advantage in single-core CPU performance and a slight edge in multi-core performance, but a step back in GPU performance and core counts. The M3 Pro is a potentially suitable choice for users who prioritize CPU performance and can benefit from the specific advancements in its new GPU architecture. For many current M2 Pro users, especially those whose workflows are heavily GPU- and memory bandwidth-centric, the M3 Pro does not constitute a worthwhile upgrade at all.
M2 Max vs. M3 Max
The M3 Max comes with an impressive 92 billion transistors, a significant increase from the M2 Max's 67 billion, allowing for more complex and efficient processing capabilities. The M2 Max features eight high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores, while the M3 Max adds an extra two or four high-performance cores. This increase in the number of high-performance cores in the M3 Max indicates a shift towards providing better raw processing power compared to previous generations that had the same number of CPU cores as the M1 Pro and M2 Pro chips.
... Click here to read rest of article![M3-Max-Chip.jpg]()
Article Link: M2 vs. M3 Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M3?
I sense traces of ChatGPT in this article and I’m bothered by it.
Coding may be creating text files, but Software Development/Engineering is also compile/link/run, having 1+ local VMs for deployment test environments/DevOps, running several tools at once and much more...
For some of these use cases more CPU cores is a big win... for others more RAM is a big win (or a combo of both)... increases in GPU cores/performance will have little impact... for other developers it will.
For many Pros having the same sorts of ranges in CPU cores as you see in GPU cores on the MBP would be nice (though indeed confusing and likely too complex from process standpoint to implement).
For my class of Pro development use cases I'd gladly cut my GPU cores to a M1 Air if I could get 2+ CPU cores...
Then again, from a product planning standpoint if I were Apple I wouldn't do it.
The M3 upgrade is much better than M2 from M1.![]()
Apple's latest series of custom silicon chips designed for the Mac come just over a year after the introduction of the M2 chip in 2022, so how much better really is M3?
![Apple-M3-chip-series.jpg]()
With the introduction of the M3 series, encompassing the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, Apple once again set new benchmarks in performance, efficiency, and capabilities for the Mac. The transition from M2 to M3 is marked by significant enhancements, primarily thanks to Apple's move to a 3nm process, among other key architectural improvements such as a completely redesigned GPU.
When unveiling the M3 chips, Apple mainly focused on how they compare to the M1 series of chips, rather than their direct predecessors from the M2 series. As the third major iteration of Apple silicon, it may not be clear how significant of an improvement the M3 chips are over the M2. Apple offers a range of devices with the M2 and M3 chips, so the extent to which the M2 is better than its predecessor could also be an important consideration when purchasing a new Mac. Read on to learn about all of the differences between the two series of chips.
M2 vs. M3
The Apple M3 chip represents a significant advancement over its predecessor, with the headline upgrade being the transition to a more advanced fabrication process that is just 3nm in size, down from 5nm on the M2 series of chips. This is evident in the M3's increased transistor count, jumping from 20 billion in the M2 to 25 billion, a 25% increase that contributes to its enhanced capabilities.
![M3-Chip-Apple-Event-Slide.jpg]()
Benchmark tests underscore this progression, with the M3 outperforming the M2 by about 17% in single-core tasks and approximately 21% in multi-core tasks. In GPU performance measured by Metal benchmarks, the M3 exhibits a notable improvement of around 15% over the M2.
The M3 chip introduces an all-new GPU architecture. This architecture includes Dynamic Caching, a breakthrough feature that optimizes GPU memory allocation and utilization, adapting in real-time to varying task demands. This enhancement not only boosts graphics performance for intensive applications but also bolsters the chip's overall energy efficiency. This is particularly beneficial for graphics-heavy tasks like advanced video editing, 3D rendering, and gaming. It also features support for AV1 video decode.
Despite similarities in the 16-core Neural Engine between the M2 and M3, the M3's adoption of a 3nm process leads to more efficient execution of machine learning and AI tasks. Additionally, the M3 maintains up to 24GB of unified memory, just like the M2, but leverages the new process for more efficient memory bandwidth utilization.
One other notable difference between the M2 and M3 chips is their energy efficiency. The 3nm fabrication process enables the M3 to achieve higher performance without a proportional increase in power consumption, making the chip particularly appealing for laptop users who value a balance between power and battery life.
Overall, the M3 chip is a considerable upgrade from the M2, distinguished by its higher transistor count, improved performance in CPU and GPU tasks, and superior energy efficiency. While the M3 offers clear advancements, the extent of its superiority does not necessitate an immediate upgrade for current M2 users, especially if their existing workflows are still completed comfortably. For new buyers or those upgrading from older models, the M3's improvements in performance and efficiency will be much more pronounced.
M2 Pro vs. M3 Pro
The M3 Pro presents something of a mixed picture. Despite having fewer transistors than its predecessor (37 billion compared to the M2 Pro's 40 billion), the M3 Pro leverages its 3nm technology to achieve moderate performance improvements, but in some ways the chip is a step back.
![M3-Pro-Chip-Feature.jpg]()
In single-core tasks, the M3 Pro shows a 18% improvement over the M2 Pro, much like the M3 compared to the M2. In multi-core tasks, the M3 Pro shows a modest improvement of approximately 8%. The M2 Pro offers either six or eight high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores. In contrast, the M3 Pro comes with either five or six high-performance cores and six energy-efficient cores. The increase in energy-efficient cores in the M3 Pro suggests a focus on maintaining high performance while optimizing for power efficiency, which could be particularly advantageous in battery-dependent or thermally constrained environments compared to its predecessor.
The M2 Pro is equipped with either 16 or 19 GPU cores, while the M3 Pro scales back to 14 or 18 GPU cores. In GPU performance, there is a decrease of about 5% compared to the M2 Pro due to its reduced number of cores. Despite this, the new GPU architecture, inclusive of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shading, and Dynamic Caching, could still yield notable performance improvements in specific real-world workflows, especially those that leverage these new technologies.
The M3 Pro's unified memory bandwidth of 150GB/s, compared to the M2 Pro's 200GB/s, might impact tasks heavily reliant on rapid memory access, although the overall efficiency gains from the 3nm process could balance out some of these constraints.
Overall, the M3 Pro presents a complex predicament: It offers a clear advantage in single-core CPU performance and a slight edge in multi-core performance, but a step back in GPU performance and core counts. The M3 Pro is a potentially suitable choice for users who prioritize CPU performance and can benefit from the specific advancements in its new GPU architecture. For many current M2 Pro users, especially those whose workflows are heavily GPU- and memory bandwidth-centric, the M3 Pro does not constitute a worthwhile upgrade at all.
M2 Max vs. M3 Max
The M3 Max comes with an impressive 92 billion transistors, a significant increase from the M2 Max's 67 billion, allowing for more complex and efficient processing capabilities. The M2 Max features eight high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores, while the M3 Max adds an extra two or four high-performance cores. This increase in the number of high-performance cores in the M3 Max indicates a shift towards providing better raw processing power compared to previous generations that had the same number of CPU cores as the M1 Pro and M2 Pro chips.
... Click here to read rest of article![M3-Max-Chip.jpg]()
Article Link: M2 vs. M3 Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M3?
The base M3 is brilliant as is M3 Max, sadly you have to spend $200 more on the RAM for the base M3 to unlock it's true potential.
M3 Pro is just a repositioning of the chip, which was far too close to the Max, even so it's still much better than the M2 Pro!
All in all a much better upgrade than made out by some of these so called YouTube pro's
Quite frankly Apple is wrong to assert that 8GB is sufficient for a Pro machine. But heavy/pro users shouldn't be getting the base machine.
Using that logic, the M3 is the first 3nm design with a lot of new changes and features in the chip, that undoubtedly will be refined and improved quite a bit in the next iteration as Apples engineers work out the kinks. M4 is likely to be a more refined and performant in the same way as M2 was a refined and performant M1. The M3 is also a bit of a dead end in the respect to its manufacturing process which has very poor yields and will be dropped as soon as an alternative is ready to go. Many of the M3's are either binned or designs that are compromised in some ways to get the most of each wafer. It's very much a version one product all over again, in design and manufacturing and if you are worried about that kind of thing, you would definitely stay away from M3 and hope the M4 fixes a lot of that. Honestly the M2 is the best buy in respect of the fact it's the best of the 5nm process. The M3 will most certainly not be the best of the 3nm process by a long shot and I suspect in time will be seen as a poor first outing all things considered.
They kinda took the M3 Pro from being somewhat close to the Max to being close to the base chip. Being in the middle would have been ideal. It seems weaker now than it needed to be. Apple could pretty much scrap the Pro chip and go from base to Max. I struggle to see who the Pro chip now serves, aside from people that want support of 2 monitors.
I upgraded my 2020 M1 13" MBP, to M3 16gb RAM, the performance difference is considerable, aside from the fact the 14" specs are night and day compared to 13"!
Still, I suppose different people have a different definition of the word "Amazing" 😊
You would get no where near $800 on Ebay !
Probably get between $550-$600 max.....before Ebay fees, the hassle of post & so on, so he probably thought, FOR $70 to a $100 more, I can't be bothered with the hassle
Biggest gains are in gaming, 3d graphics and general web browsing, video editing hasn't seen any gains generally, which is why the so called you tube pro's are moaning.
However you are right as far as the future is concerned, M1 & M2 will quickly become obsolete
Why? Completely different chips, aimed at completely different users!
The M3 is faster in single core and much snappier for web browsing as long as you get 16gb RAM, in Lightroom it's the same speed, most other pro tasks the M3 is slightly slower as you would expect from a chip with less cores!
I've noticed a huge difference between my old 13" M1 MBP and my new M3 (16gb RAM) and I'm just an average user!
Personally I think they've positioned all their M3 chips correctly now, whenever they did it, the Pro would take a hit, even so, it's still better than the M2 Pro in most real world tasks.
People buying the so called M1 & M2 bargains now, will have a rude awakening when AI, AR & VR become more main stream over the next 2 years
Who do you see the M3 Pro as being the ideal choice of chip for now? I understand why the chip is positioned close to the base chip and far from the Max, because it apparently doesn't cost much more to make than the base chip.