Will it really see that amount of RAM? Two reasons, the slightly odd amount and the fact it will more than double the previous base. I could see them doing about 24GB
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Gurman: Apple Testing 'M3 Pro' Chip for MacBook Pro With 12-Core CPU and 18-Core GPU
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
36GB ram on the base M3 Pro? Very glad to hear. That means the M3 Pro can go up to around 64gb, and the M3 Max may also get 64gb as base RAM.
I'm hoping the regular M3 chips will also bump up the base RAM to 16gb.
Gurman does not say that. He says "at least one version in testing" has 36GBs.
The article seems to suggest that the 36 GB is the new maximum RAM on the M3 Pro. When he compares "base models" and lists: M1: 32GB, M2: 32GB, M3: 36GB. It certainly doesn't suggest that the M3 Pro will go up to 64GB, or that anything will ship with 64GB as "base" RAM.
I still expect base SKU RAM on M* chips will move to 12GB or 16GB in the next year or two. So either in the M3 or the M4 generation (i would bet on M4).
I said above in the previous post.
The GPU will probably have similar performance, assuming both machines have the same thermal envelop, but the M1 Max GPUs will probably be a touch faster in general.
My bad, thanks for clarifying.
I bet on M3 for the base RAM upgrade, I would be very surprised if they still offer 8gb as base RAM for an M3 Mac in 2024.
Informed speculation? It’s probably safe to assume that the CPU will be significantly faster (40-50% could be realistic). The GPU core in M3 should obviously be faster, but whether it’s enough to match the higher core count of the M1 Max remains to be seen. Then again, already M2 Pro can rival M1 Max on some workloads (like Blender).
Yes, I expect that to be the case with the Air, but am optimistic that thermal throttling won't be as bad as might be expected. I'm currently using a 32GB 16" M1 Max principally for process simulation work -- using Win86 software on Windows 11 Pro ARM via Parallels. Even with the two levels of emulation the simulations run very fast, but visualizations for complex simulations can take some time due to the AS GPU limitations. For example 20 iterations of a one year complex call center simulation can take 30 minutes -- ~10 minutes to run and ~20 minutes to render six 52 week visualizations. During runs like these I've yet to notice any appreciable heat or fan noise hence my hope that the fan-less Air might be able to handle it .. and maybe allow me to shed a pound or two between the laptop and power adapter. First world problem I know .. but a guy can dream.
Last edited:
If M3 will use 3nm process, I think it’s fairly unlikely that it will be based on A16. But one never knows…
Of course they are. They probably have a few M4 test models lying around too.
Still beats my how some folk still think this stuff is just knocked up between release cycles. They’re all years in the making.
Still beats my how some folk still think this stuff is just knocked up between release cycles. They’re all years in the making.
Oh, I agree, it is absolutely time... I have a graph for that one for Apple's consumer laptops:
Wow... Yeah... that is really MacBookPro territory
That must be related to the en********ation of the web. You will need to upgrade to the 512GB RAM model.
There are RAM modules now being built with 3GB (24Gb) dies https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micron-unveils-24gb-and-48gb-ddr5-memory-modules
And the leds battery status on the side of the chassis! That’s something I’ve been missing for such a long time!
Ehhh, I’ll most likely get something with lots of memory and storage, like a new MBP. Even if the Air comes in black like that, I’d still keep my M1. Looking for something that’ll last me another 5-6 years.
To paraphrase the quote about democracy from Winston Churchill:
"Firefox is the worst browser, except for all of the others."
I do like Safari, Firefox and Edge. They each have their uses, especially if you hop between operating systems.
Hopefully the two extra cores are performance cores and not more efficiency cores.
My M1 Pro is 10 Core- 8P2E
The binned M2 Pro is 10 core- 6P4E
The full M2 Pro is 12 core- 8P4E
Really hoping M3 Pro is:-
Binned 12 Core 8P4E
Full 14 Core 10P4E.
Actually I’m hoping the M3 Pro will be 14 Core 12P 2E but I doubt that. Or maybe the M3Max might get more CPU cores as well as GPU cores??
Given Logic and a lot of other Audio production apps don’t even use the efficiency cores, I’d much rather Apple focus on adding Performance cores and keep efficiency cores to 2 for these pro machines.
Not sure the jump from an M1 Pro with 8P cores to an M3 Pro with 10P cores is going to be too much of an increase in performance.
My M1 Pro is 10 Core- 8P2E
The binned M2 Pro is 10 core- 6P4E
The full M2 Pro is 12 core- 8P4E
Really hoping M3 Pro is:-
Binned 12 Core 8P4E
Full 14 Core 10P4E.
Actually I’m hoping the M3 Pro will be 14 Core 12P 2E but I doubt that. Or maybe the M3Max might get more CPU cores as well as GPU cores??
Given Logic and a lot of other Audio production apps don’t even use the efficiency cores, I’d much rather Apple focus on adding Performance cores and keep efficiency cores to 2 for these pro machines.
Not sure the jump from an M1 Pro with 8P cores to an M3 Pro with 10P cores is going to be too much of an increase in performance.
It’s fairly likely still 8+4 configuration, just like M2 family.
I thought the rumor is that the 12 core M3Pro chip being tested is likely to be the Base Model M3Pro?
If that’s the case then the mid model should have an extra 2 performance cores no?
M3 Pro 8+4 is not going to be much of a boost from an M1 Pro 8+2 in two generations.
I find this interpretation of the rumor unlikely, simply because their base and non-base models use the same chips. It’s just that in the base model two CPUs in a cluster are disabled to create more price differentiation. At this point in development schedule, the engineers are working with chips, not product configurations, so I think this rumor describes the full chip (whether accurate or not is a different question).
Also, 10 P-cores would be an odd configuration. That would mean either increasing the cluster size to 5 or shipping 2x full clusters and one half-cluster in the SoC. Not impossible of course, but odd.
What makes you think that? A new microarchitecture could very well result in a substantial performance uplift.
M1 Pro to M2 Pro was about 16% increase in Multicore Geekbench.
Unfortunately while the two extra efficiency cores help Multicore Geekbench scores they can’t be used for Logic, which has been shown not to load up efficiency cores.
So the real world benefit in Logic Pro of M2 Pro over M1 Pro was very little, less than 16%.
If M3 Pro maintains the same number of Performance cores we are going to be looking at a similar boost.
So 30% increase in 3 generations is pretty underwhelming IMO.
Unfortunately while the two extra efficiency cores help Multicore Geekbench scores they can’t be used for Logic, which has been shown not to load up efficiency cores.
So the real world benefit in Logic Pro of M2 Pro over M1 Pro was very little, less than 16%.
If M3 Pro maintains the same number of Performance cores we are going to be looking at a similar boost.
So 30% increase in 3 generations is pretty underwhelming IMO.
M1 to M2 was a minor iteration, especially if you consider P-cores only. A couple of new minor features and some system rebalancing to support higher clock. No change in IPC at all. Who is to say that M3 won’t come with a more substantial redesign of the P-core?
I am not familiar with Logic and don’t know which hardware features it’s using. Does it rely on GPU acceleration? Maybe it doesn’t really need a CPU performance boost in the first place?
I am not familiar with Logic and don’t know which hardware features it’s using. Does it rely on GPU acceleration? Maybe it doesn’t really need a CPU performance boost in the first place?