First Benchmark Result Surfaces for MacBook Air With M3 Chip

[henrikhelmers]

Have to say that's pretty impressive. Here I am with a two year old Mac Studio Max whose single-core GeekBench score of 2406 is already obliterated by a fanless a Macbook Air

Single-core is about same across chips of the same generation. In my experience you need at least a 50% increase in CPU performance to notice it outside of compute tasks. Obliterate is a strong word for “acceptable increase”.

The bigger issue on the Mac side is that the system is still very much held back by lack of parallelization. Few would notice the difference between an M and M Ultra.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

If you do sustained processing tasks (eg. something that takes 10 minutes or more), and you do it all day every day, then get the MBP with M3 Pro or M2 Pro, especially since it comes already stock with 16 or 18 GB RAM. Otherwise get the Air with M2 chip or M3 chip, and spec it up with 16 GB RAM.

Getting the MacBook Pro with the simple M3 chip is a little ridiculous at MSRP since it only has one fan (not two) and the price difference isn't far from the better one with M3 Pro chip, especially when you spec it up t0 16 GB RAM. But less ridiculous if you can get it on a deep discount.

The Air display is better than 2015 MBP display, but how much you notice is user dependent. If you look at Gmail all day—then 10-bit, 1400:1 contrast, and DCI P3 color space won't matter one bit. Maybe increased brightness will matter if you're in a sunny room and you need to brighten the display to fight those reflections you see in the glossy glass; but if you weren't maxing out brightness before, then 100 extra nits won't matter.

What you will notice, or how your experience will improve, is hard to say.

If you're a photographer, or edit video, then I would say it's better. But for productivity, I don't think you'll notice. Still, it's good to know that Apple's adoption in display technology have kept up to modern standards.

I get a discount from my brother as he is an Apple employee. That’s why I’m leaning toward the MBP even with just the M3 chip. I have checked out both the Air and Pro in the store and I do seem to notice the better display on the Pro. There are M3 Pro MBP in the refurbished store which shortens the price gap between the Air and Pro.

 

[6749974]

I get a discount from my brother as he is an Apple employee. That’s why I’m leaning toward the MBP even with just the M3 chip. I have checked out both the Air and Pro in the store and I do seem to notice the better display on the Pro. There are M3 Pro MBP in the refurbished store which shortens the price gap between the Air and Pro.

You can’t go wrong. I say get the one that sparks joy.

 

[mypins]

I am running a 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 MBA. M3 ordered. 😁

 

[picpicmac]

it makes sense having some misleading numbers for the CPU to sell more Macs

What was "misleading"?

 

[tipoo]

FYI the article says V5 result but that's a V6 result

 

[bigpoppamac31]

You can’t go wrong. I say get the one that sparks joy.

So I am looking at the refurbs on the Apple Canada site. An M3 14" MBP 16GB/1TB is $2599. An M3 MBA 15" 16GB/1TB is $2499. Seems to make more sense to go with the MBP.

 

[6749974]

So I am looking at the refurbs on the Apple Canada site. An M3 14" MBP 16GB/1TB is $2599. An M3 MBA 15" 16GB/1TB is $2499. Seems to make more sense to go with the MBP.

• The 15-inch MBA has a larger display, which I think is significant for people who don't have an external display and/or have aging eyes and/or like to split windows for multitasking and/or do creative work with large artboards
• The 14-inch has a smaller display, but that makes it fairly compact; its preference and use case at that point
• While the 14-inch has ProMotion 120Hz, its pixel refresh is around 75.2 ms which is 9x too slow to show a clear image during motion (for that to happen the pixel refresh needs to be 8.3 ms or less); so its kind of pointless since 120Hz is supposed to increase clarity of an image in motion, not make it even blurrier. This is an iPad Pro but an example of smearing during motion for the exact same reason. Notice how text becomes illegible during motion, and details inside the Safari icon disappear in a blur. That's not what 120Hz is supposed to do. Heck, the MacBook Airs have a pixel refresh of like 32 ms which is more than 2x better than 75.2. Still, moving windows and the curser feels smoother than 60Hz even if the image smears, so many prefer the MacBook Pro to the more jittery (less smooth) Air.
• While the 14-inch has mini LED backlighting for improved contrast, it also has blooming around light objects (eg. closed captioning, people standing against dark backgrounds), which is made even more evident if you're sitting off axis and/or if the room you're in is low light. Its not always bad, but it can be bad. The camera exaggerates the blooming a bit so keep that in mind; you might not think its as bad to your eyes—I think everybody's eyes are different and take in light/contrast differently. Also, here's a video of the display showing the white ghosting following when people move (look for the trails) and the bright halos inside of peoples faces and figures. But again, you may not see it, and not every scene has this level of contrast. And blooming isn't as apparent during normal macOS work (unless you're in Dark Mode)

Apple is introducing OLED in 2026 to fix those issues in the MacBook Pro—still many people don't notice or care and find the MacBook Pro display exceptional. I find blooming distracting but many don't. If thats the case, you should get it. The MacBook Pro also has more ports and better speakers so theres a lot going for it.

Neither Air or Pro are perfect. Just pick the one that gives you that gut feeling of joy. I think for many that is the MBP. For me its the Air because I find it more well rounded (light for its size). But I'm in the minority. Apple actually sells more MacBook Pros than Airs if that tells you anything.

 

[svish]

Very similar to that of M1 Max. Good to see 18 to 20% improvement over the M2 model.

 

[Motorola68000]

As a business dedicated to providing Macs, and in particular leasing them to education and businesses, we are getting increased demands to provide Wintel machines, inevitable where the 8Gb is cited as a potential barrier, even though admittedly many of the front end applications envisioned by these customers are happy enough on 8Gb, its the perception that is causing the damage.

Yes, we have customers who are using equipment for far more extensive work, where 8Gb simply isn't enough, and when we mention that RAM configuration has to be made at the outset with the Mac and for all intensive purposes cannot be upgraded, and of course the consequent increased costs to them in upgrading at the outset we are finding consternation amongst potential customers, who inevitably cite PC's cheap and easy RAM upgrade path.

Most of our customers are not too concerned with the SSD's as when used for education, most data is stored on a server, same with businesses, so the 8Gb is now genuinely seen as a negative, and where external SSD speeds may be a more attractive proposition as speeds increase, and the unit costs pales into insignificance compared with Apple's SSD upgrade costs.

Does seem that Apple are seriously in danger of alienating customers or potential customers, which is not helpful to us, or to Apple.

Being considered in a dominant position doesn't mean you will always be in a dominant position, and history shows us how many very large companies who thought they were the dominant player, ended up as yesterday companies if existing at all.

I remember Blackberry being in a similar dominant position in mid 2000's on smartphone scene and I hope Apple pays heed.

 

[radus]

I get a discount from my brother as he is an Apple employee. That’s why I’m leaning toward the MBP even with just the M3 chip. I have checked out both the Air and Pro in the store and I do seem to notice the better display on the Pro. There are M3 Pro MBP in the refurbished store which shortens the price gap between the Air and Pro.

But both of them are only capable of Wifi 6e - may it is better to wait for Macs / PC with Wifi 7.

 

[chucker23n1]

Single-core is about same across chips of the same generation.

One exception is the M2 Max (and M2 Ultra), which unlike the M1 Max and M3 Max runs at a higher clock than the M2 and M2 Pro do. That gives it a ~5% boost in single-core.

 

[k1121j]

Because some of the people thinking of upgrading have an Intel Mac...

Remember, NOT EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS THE SAME AS YOU...

No need to yell. I have a 2016 MBP. remember you don’t know as much as you think you do!!!

 

[MajorFubar]

What does ‘BTO Upgrade” mean?

Built To Order. When you start clicking the dropdown items to add larger SSD and more memory to the standard base model of any particular Mac and you end up around £200 short of the next model up which already comes with those as standard.

 

[chucker23n1]

"The results have a "Mac15,13" identifier, which indicates they are for a 15-inch MacBook Air."

My 15" M2 MacBook Air reports itself as a "Mac14,15". Given that, it looks like the benchmarks are from a 13-inch M3 MacBook Air - not a 15".

The first digit (14) is the major version (it's a "15th-generation Mac", if you will), and the second digit (15) is the model within that version. It's not the display size or anything like that.

 

[ender78]

I would.

So you obviously don't work in CPU design Dr Wojtus (my name is also Wojtek). The amount of engineering and work that it takes to get an extra 10-15% out the silicon year to year is incredible. Follow the performance specs of any CPU and GPU, you simply don't see larger gains.

 

[johannnn]

What was "misleading"?

When an average consumer reads “the new Mac is xx % faster”, I think most average consumers assume the comparison to be vs the current Mac

If PlayStation 5 comes out and the ads boasts it to be 100% faster, do you really think an average consumer is gonna look at the fine print to see what they compared with and what the benchmark method was? Average consumers are not tech nerds. So if the comparison was against the PlayStation 2, then yes I think that ad would have been extremely misleading

Misleading ≠ lying

 

[DrWojtek]

So you obviously don't work in CPU design Dr Wojtus (my name is also Wojtek). The amount of engineering and work that it takes to get an extra 10-15% out the silicon year to year is incredible. Follow the performance specs of any CPU and GPU, you simply don't see larger gains.

I’m not saying the field isn’t incredibly advanced, I’m saying 10% improvement is too small to notice. 15% is incremental, and 20% is significant.

 

[chucker23n1]

I’m saying 10% improvement is too small to notice.

That's arguably true, but is a different assertion than calling it "abysmal".

 

[bigpoppamac31]

• The 15-inch MBA has a larger display, which I think is significant for people who don't have an external display and/or have aging eyes and/or like to split windows for multitasking and/or do creative work with large artboards
• The 14-inch has a smaller display, but that makes it fairly compact; its preference and use case at that point
• While the 14-inch has ProMotion 120Hz, its pixel refresh is around 75.2 ms which is 9x too slow to show a clear image during motion (for that to happen the pixel refresh needs to be 8.3 ms or less); so its kind of pointless since 120Hz is supposed to increase clarity of an image in motion, not make it even blurrier. This is an iPad Pro but an example of smearing during motion for the exact same reason. Notice how text becomes illegible during motion, and details inside the Safari icon disappear in a blur. That's not what 120Hz is supposed to do. Heck, the MacBook Airs have a pixel refresh of like 32 ms which is more than 2x better than 75.2. Still, moving windows and the curser feels smoother than 60Hz even if the image smears, so many prefer the MacBook Pro to the more jittery (less smooth) Air.
• While the 14-inch has mini LED backlighting for improved contrast, it also has blooming around light objects (eg. closed captioning, people standing against dark backgrounds), which is made even more evident if you're sitting off axis and/or if the room you're in is low light. Its not always bad, but it can be bad. The camera exaggerates the blooming a bit so keep that in mind; you might not think its as bad to your eyes—I think everybody's eyes are different and take in light/contrast differently. Also, here's a video of the display showing the white ghosting following when people move (look for the trails) and the bright halos inside of peoples faces and figures. But again, you may not see it, and not every scene has this level of contrast. And blooming isn't as apparent during normal macOS work (unless you're in Dark Mode)

Apple is introducing OLED in 2026 to fix those issues in the MacBook Pro—still many people don't notice or care and find the MacBook Pro display exceptional. I find blooming distracting but many don't. If thats the case, you should get it. The MacBook Pro also has more ports and better speakers so theres a lot going for it.

Neither Air or Pro are perfect. Just pick the one that gives you that gut feeling of joy. I think for many that is the MBP. For me its the Air because I find it more well rounded (light for its size). But I'm in the minority. Apple actually sells more MacBook Pros than Airs if that tells you anything.

Well I ended up going with the M3 MBP 14" with 16GB/1TB. Should be plenty for my needs. I'm sure it will be a nice upgrade from my 2015 MBP 15". I do like the MBA 15". But the difference in weight is only 0.1 pounds even though I do like how slim it is.

 

[3xBoom]

I wouldn't call 10%/16% "abysmal".

I would suggest to put a dollar sign in front of any number under consideration. Say, how about that 16% salary raise, buddy? Is it still abysmal? Or, how about that abysmal additional 16% higher tax on your income?

 

[6749974]

Well I ended up going with the M3 MBP 14" with 16GB/1TB. Should be plenty for my needs. I'm sure it will be a nice upgrade from my 2015 MBP 15". I do like the MBA 15". But the difference in weight is only 0.1 pounds even though I do like how slim it is.

You’ll love it coming from a 2015, for sure.

By the way, you’re getting the MacBook Pro with entry M3 chip? With 16/1 that costs $2000 USD...

but the better M3 Pro chip model would cost only $200 more...

which comes with 40% better GPU (and better CPU with 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores), two fans instead of one, three Thunderbolt 4 ports (not two), does two external display support while internal display is on, and has 18 GB of RAM (2 more than 16) that has 50% faster bandwidth, and the sequential read/write storage speeds of the SSD are 2x.​

In fact, for $2200, Best Buy has a sale on the unbinned M3 Pro (12c CPU, 18c GPU) with 1 TB storage.​

So on one hand, for $200 more, you can buy a better model either at Apple (binned M3 Pro) or Best Buy (unbinned M3 Pro).

That being said, if you know your workload can't take advantage of those extra features, it is rational and disciplined to save $200 instead, and maybe put that $200 towards AppleCare+ or software. Theres no wrong move. Just thought I'd bring it up if you haven't considered it.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

You’ll love it coming from a 2015, for sure.

By the way, you’re getting the MacBook Pro with entry M3 chip? With 16/1 that costs $2000 USD...

but the better M3 Pro chip model would cost only $200 more...

which comes with 40% better GPU (and better CPU with 5 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores), two fans instead of one, three Thunderbolt 4 ports (not two), does two external display support while internal display is on, and has 18 GB of RAM (2 more than 16) that has 50% faster bandwidth, and the sequential read/write storage speeds of the SSD are 2x.​

In fact, for $2200, Best Buy has a sale on the unbinned M3 Pro (12c CPU, 18c GPU) with 1 TB storage.​

So on one hand, for $200 more, you can buy a better model either at Apple (binned M3 Pro) or Best Buy (unbinned M3 Pro).

That being said, if you know your workload can't take advantage of those extra features, it is rational and disciplined to save $200 instead, and maybe put that $200 towards AppleCare+ or software. Theres no wrong move. Just thought I'd bring it up if you haven't considered it.

I paid $1760 with my brothers Apple employee discount. That includes Apple Care. Do you still think it's worth it? I do like that space black colour. I wish all the colours were available on all the model options. The higher end MBP doesn't get space grey which is the colour I chose.

I also watched a couple videos about thunderbolt and there doesn't seem to be much difference between 3 and 4.

 

[chucker23n1]

I paid $1760 with my brothers Apple employee discount. That includes Apple Care. Do you still think it's worth it?

Generally, I'm inclined to agree with them that the upgrade is worth it.

But in your case, given that you've stuck with the 2015 for so long, even the regular M3 is quite a bump.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

Generally, I'm inclined to agree with them that the upgrade is worth it.

But in your case, given that you've stuck with the 2015 for so long, even the regular M3 is quite a bump.

I realize that overall coming from a 2015 MBP it will be quite a jump. But one thing I can't seem to find is SSD speed for the M3 MBP. I ordered the 16GB/1TB option. My current 2015 15" MBP write/read is 2512/2001. Will the M3 SSD speeds be any faster? Will I notice it?