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They are only to support low power background work, so I would assume they are sufficient.
The efficiency cores are surprisingly powerful for everyday tasks. Using iStat in my menu bar, I like to watch my M2 Max to see if what I'm doing requires power cores.

I'm amazed how infrequently any of my power cores are taxed above 5%. Even while having dozens of apps and tabs open (some playing video ads and doing other background activities, etc) and running a Teams meeting (which alone used to absolutely crush my Intel MacBook and turn the fans on full blast) and actively switching among the 20-30 apps I have open...nothing.

About the only time I see them wake up and do something for more than a second or two is when I'm editing or compressing video. And even there, it is rare for me to light them all up.

The real head-scratcher for me is how often I have to wait for some things to process...while most of the power cores aren't lighting up. Even Apple's Compressor sometimes only uses 1-2 power cores...such as when I'm exporting to mp3. When that happens, it feels like I'm driving a Ferrari with only two cylinders. I mean, I just go do something else while I wait...but I can't help but wonder why I can't apply more horsepower to the job.

My point...the efficiency cores alone are quite sufficient for most users.

...and writing multi-threaded software must be harder than I realize.
 
I will finally be upgrading my 2018 iPad Pro to one of these M3 OLED iPad Pros whenever they come out in 2024/25? Until then, my 2018 iPad Pro is still going strong 👍🏼
 
Is this speculation or real sources?

Rumors are that the A17 will have 6 GPU cores. That would cascade to 12 GPU cores for M3, 24 for M3 Pro, 48 for M3 Max, and 96 for M3 Ultra.


If Gurman's report is true, and this A17 6 GPU rumor is true, then at least one of the following is true:
  • M3 is not based on A17
  • Apple is decoupling core scaling between A series and M series
  • N3B has very poor yields so Apple is limiting GPU cores on M3 series
  • A17 has 5 GPU cores, instead of the rumored 6
  • Gurman is only seeing lower-binned M3 SoCs in logs. Their higher-binned SoCs will have more GPU cores and have not been tested yet.
its probably true, and yes my understanding is that he saw the binned M3 SoCs
 
The already great Max chips look to be a significant improvement. If they also include Ray Tracing, look out!
exactly...people dont understand if this is true, and probably it is, if the core itself is has power improvement, plus the ray tracing...this is big...probably Apple can achieve at least 20-30% improvements at the same power draw alone for the M3 and M3 Pro...while the M3 Max we could see over 40% maybe 50%
 
The more exciting rumor IMO is that the M3 will start at 12GB of RAM and Apple may move to 12GB increments. Meaning the Pros would start at 24GB etc...
If that's true, the base M3s will unequivocally be the perfect computer for the average consumer. In my opinion, the MacBook Air should only have one SKU. And 12GB makes it a perfect everyday computer. And if you need more power, get a MacBook Pro.
 
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"Hi, I'm Mark Gurman and I state the bloody obvious".

That's a bit unfair. Gurman sums up all the rumors and blends it with history and presents it to his customers. His customers appreciate it enough to pay him.

But it is a fair to ask why his musings are frequently republished on "Rumor" sites, as most of his "predictions" are hyper-nebulous. "M3 could offer more cores" is an extraordinarily weak claim.
 
First 3nm CPUs could be a big improvement in efficiency, I'd love to see efficiency benchmarks - it will be the nail in the X86 (Intel/AMD) coffin. But I'll stick with M1 until Apple get rid of their "top notch" design, which I personally find annoying. Also, their new design is just bulky and without a wedge, it is less healthy for the wrists.

The M1 Air is the best ergonomic laptop they have ever made. With 16GB of RAM and a 512GB hard drive, I can get all my work done. Apple silicon is the best implementation of ARM in the world, there is nothing that comes close. If they only invest in game studios to port the top 100 Steam games to Apple Silicon, it will be the end of Intel and x86 architecture.
 
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“The standard M3 chip will apparently feature the same CPU and GPU core configuration as the M2 chip, with eight CPU cores (four performance and four efficiency) and ten GPU cores. “

Pair that with your semi-crippled SSDs in all the baseline configurations and you’ve got yourself even less of an upgrade on the low-end M3s from their M2 counterparts when comparing to the upgrade you get by comparing baseline configuration M1 Macs vs M2s?

Damn, look at Tim, always cooking up some extra helpings for the investors!

I hope I’m completely wrong.
 
Will there be a single core speed increase of the M3 over the M2?
Yes, of course there will.

In fact, it is reasonable to hope for a larger single-core performance jump from M2 to M3 than there was from M1 to M2, because M3 will be riding a significant process improvement from TSMC. We will have to wait to see the benchmarks.
 
First CPUs at 3nm could be a big improvement in efficiency, I'd love to see efficiency benchmarks - it will be the nail in the X86 (Intel/AMD) coffin. But I'll stick with M1 until Apple get rid of their "top notch" design, which I personally find annoying. Another is that their new design is just bulky and no wedge makes it less healthy for the wrists.

The M1 Air is the best ergonomic laptop they have ever made. With 16GB of RAM and a 512GB hard drive, I can get all my work done. Apple Silicon is the best in the world implementation of ARM, there is nothing that come close. If they only invest in gaming studios to port top 100 Steam games to Apple Silicon, it will be the end to Intel and x86 architecture.
could be...but i think Apple is looking to keep the same battery life and improve the performance
 
CPU improvement of M3 Max is great but I am really disappointed about the number of GPU cores. That is the weakest part of the silicon Macs, especially compared to pc's with nVidia 4090. I was hoping on a significant increase in the graphics score. :(
Yeah, CPU is already a monster, I don't understand why now they don't focus on GPU either.
 
Yeah, CPU is already a monster, I don't understand why now they don't focus on GPU either.
Because they have not invested in the gaming industry to actually use the GPU. Apple doesn't care, most of their revenue comes from IPhones. They have the best CPU ever made and still they don't have the business drive to take over the industry. It looks like their business doesn't understand what a jewel Apple Silicon is, they're driving with the handbrake on.
 
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Because they have not invested in the gaming industry to actually use the GPU. Apple doesn't care, most of their revenue comes from IPhones. They have the best CPU ever made and still they don't have the business drive to take over the industry. It looks like their business doesn't understand what a jewel Apple Silicon is, they're driving with the handbrake on.
GPU is also used for photo, video and 3D editing, not just for games. But yeah, I personally have been waiting for gaming on Mac since ever.
 
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