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M3 Pro/Max have lower memory bandwidth
- Thread starter leman
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Only sky is the limit, pretty much.
Waiting for $9000 8GB/256GB MacBook Air 15”. /s
“Shut up and take my money!”
I’m imagining a world where Apple had the ability to literally mind control customers, forcing them to hand over their hard earned cash over new gadgets every product release. Must be dreams for Apple heh… 😈
Some tech people that were coming from the event hand-on said that Apple made that dynamic caching for the Gpu...so the M3 Pro will not be that limited in memory bandwidth. Apple made a cost production cut on TSMC but what its lost in memory bandwidth hardware they neutralised it with this new dynamic caching from software
Dynamic Caching has nothing to do with memory bandwidth. If anything, it might put more pressure on memory bandwidth as it might allow more shaders to run on the GPU.
Bottom line is that now, compared to yesterday i think the M3 Pro will be faster than M2 Pro even with this downgrades in P cores, memory bandwidth
I ordered with the M3 Max because i need both cpu and gpu, but i bet we will have people with M3 Pro that will test the shxxit out of it
I ordered with the M3 Max because i need both cpu and gpu, but i bet we will have people with M3 Pro that will test the shxxit out of it
I think what he describes is correct, but could be also potentially confusing to a viewer without in-depth knowledge of GPU tech. First, and most importantly, when we talk about memory in this context we are not talking about RAM. We are talking about the GPU core working memory (register file, shared threadgroup memory, private caches, etc.). Second, one needs to understand the point behind Dynamic Caching and shader tuning. You generally want to fit as many shaders on a GPU core as you can, so when one shader stalls (e.g. because of a memory operation or a long arithmetic operation), you can quickly switch to another shader. This is what shader occupancy means. Dynamic Caching allows you to fit more shaders on a core, potentially improving the amount of useful work the GPU is doing at any given time. But it only works if you have plenty of shaders that can be executed concurrently in the first place (e.g. it won't do anything if one shader waits for the output from another shader).
But RAM bandwidth? Entirely different topic.
The GPU architecture is completely different now, I don't think that really matters.
The new architecture has the same performance per clock, it’s just that it can run complex workloads more efficiently.
Add this factor to the slightly complicated BTO options, and to me, it seems that the M3 generation is not as value-oriented, as was the case with the more mature M1 and M2 gen products, which used the more mature 5 nm, so they could create chips that had more features for less. I think the M4 chips, if they still stick to 3nm, and use a more efficient 3nm process, will come back to that value orientated position.
That’s all and good, but it doesn’t help with the analysis paralysis I’m going through trying to decide if what the best value for my needs would be, or if I even want to upgrade. With M1 and M2 Pro/Max having the same core count and type you could extrapolate from Apple’s performance claims what you were getting pretty easily.
Coming from the perspective of someone that has had an M1 Pro with 16GB of RAM for two years. Based on my experience using this Mac for a fair amount of light media work, photos/video, the only “must have” I know I’m looking for is at least 32GB of ram. If the M3 Pro was positioned like the M1/M2 Pro, Apple probably would have gotten an impulse buy out of me: Trade in my M1 Pro for and interest free Apple Card payments for the rest because I was dumb and didn’t get 32GB two years ago. Instead I’m wondering if a good deal on an M2 Max is better value, or even an M1 Max, because it’s so hard to figure out where the M3 Pro slots into the lineup for performance.
Since you’re on the fence about upgrading to the M3 Pro, I’d recommend waiting for widely available performance data. We’re all reading tea leaves in anticipation right now, and there are many who are quick to assume the worst, and still others with unrealistic expectations.
You should look at how much psychology and even neuroscience and similar go into modern product design, advertisements, web pages, video games and social networks. It's disconcerting.
On the same boat. I was planning to get a 32GB+ or 64GB+ M3 Pro. Now that option is out the Window. I'm considering upgrading to an M1 Max with 64GB instead. Maybe find a good deal from someone else upgrading.
For $2999 after tax and 2 fewer P cores than an M2 Pro. Yes, the cores are a bit faster and the M3 Pro will likely match or slightly exceed M2 Pro in benchmarks. But it's a sidegrade to me.
Later this month, I'm sure I can find a used M2 Pro for significantly cheaper. Or even a new one on sale. I'm also seeing some 32GB M1 Pros well below $2,000.
B&H has a 14” M1 Max 32 Core GPU 64GB/2TB on sale for $2199 right now… It’s more than a little tempting, but I know I am going to want to play with Spacial Video content creation down the road and I could see Apple saying you need the new GPU architecture of the M3 for whatever authoring tools they come up with.
I’m imagining a world where you literally have the ability to mind control customers
What would you do with either of those computers? I feel like you’re trolling, and everyone knows that troll money isn’t real money.
I'm a software engineer who needs lots of CPU power, little to no GPU power, and lots of RAM to run software engineering dev tools.
Why is my use case trolling to you?
That's a ridiculously good deal. For $800 cheaper than M3 Pro machine with 18/512. I'm considering used ones at this point as well. Should be even cheaper.