Apple's computer lineup is getting really confusing and bloated. Screen sizes and chip gens all over the place. Same with iPads.
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New MacBook Airs and 13-Inch MacBook Pro Will Reportedly Feature M3 Chip
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The M1 is based off of the A14’s microarchitecture and the M2 is based off of the A15 (the M3 will likely skip ahead to the A17’s microarchitecture). The M2 brings significant efficiency gains from much faster efficiency cores. While not as big of a boost to top like single core performance there’s enough of an upgrade to warrant a new generation. TSMC’s 3nm process is only 20% faster than 5NP at the same power consumption so let’s not expect Intel -> M1 level performance gains with each generation.
Will be great to have M3 on the new 15" MacBook. Looks like it will be a WWDC launch.
M2 was on an intermediate node so only incrementally improved power consumption compared to M1. M3 will be a die shrink/more transistors and improved power efficiency. So, comparatively a larger improvement.
Mac Pro will be M3, likely unveiled at WWDC, and it is going to be an incredible machine.
Not certain about the 15" MBA. If it is announced at WWDC, it will be M3.
The point is that M3 will definitely be a bigger jump than M2 was just by process node alone, never mind arch improvements. Should get a nice perf and/or efficiency bump. An exciting time to upgrade.
It's because they started listening to people. Probably not all people, probably the noisy YouTube crowd. Every time I see an Apple presentation hit heavy on something that I've heard complaints about here, I feel like they've started to drift. Apple used to have enough confidence in their roadmap that they literally didn't care what people thought they wanted.
To be fair, the alternative justification might be that with the new AS lineup they're not sure exactly what the optimal lineup will be for people so they're playing around with the mix. They may eventually pare it back.
well, there are
1. consumer Macs: Mini, iMac and Air.
2. Pro level 2 notebooks and 1 desktop.
3. and 1 workstation.
Confusing, right?
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I'm not sure we have any reason to believe that it will be an M3. If it is, then it'll probably be a "released by the end of the year" preview. The M2 Ultra shipping the next day is just as likely, I'd think.
It would seem strange to me that Apple would consume precious 3nm capacity with low volume, low yield, massive Mac Pro chips when that capacity could be making lots and lots of iPhone chips.
Hi, the border of MacBook Air is thick enough to hold a high resolution camera so could u pls remove the notch in next gen products? thanks
You make a good point here. I will point out that Apple let the MP languish thinking it didn't matter and painfully realized a few years ago now that the MP is in fact their flagship. So, they need to pay special attention to it.
I don't mind the notch ... it rarely gets in the way. I think next years MBP will have Face ID so I think the notch will stay.
I prefer a pill shape design so they will have the same style with iPhone now.
M2 was a stop gap, it's not selling well on all the devices, so Apple knows they need the M3 to get the market excited, what they need though is to expand their appeal to creators other than photos and videos with trace rays in the gpu's
It needs better speakers and camera as well, but I doubt you get all that on an entry level MacBook, personally I'm waiting until they light up the logo again 😊
I said a while ago that MBA 2023 will have M3 and Pro notebooks will have M3 max/pro chips, Mac Pro will have fastest M3 ultra (multicore). Generally, only Studio will be left with M1 for a while, and then will be updated in mid 2024. 15 inch will also probably start with 512GB of storage as well to ensure higher price and faster read speeds. Generally, quite a beast of machine, though under Air brand.
Don’t forget the black sheep: the 13” M2 MacBook Pro.
Also, the Mac mini is both consumer and pro by your definition, based on the choice of M2 or M2 Pro chip.
If this is true (and with M3 chips having been in production for a few months, why not) then surely the M2 Ultra is getting passed over? I know potential new Studio and Mac Pro owners understand the difference, but it would seem weird releasing the premier machines with an M2-anything whilst the M3 base model is in the wild. If the Airs are released with the M3 then my guess would be the Pro is previewed at the same time with M3-something for release later. But that doesn't seem to sit right, either..... Who knows at this point.
People in the know about SOC. In terms of internal architecture, can Apple basically just swap out an M2 for an M3 in existing designs or is there a bit more to it than that?
They should have the latest chip for the MacBook Pro series first but they have been doing it the other way around.
I think the iPhone Pro Max is their flagship, at least by profit. Plus the benefits of 3nm for something in your pocket far outweigh the benefits of 3nm when plugged into a wall. Single core performance may improve because 3nm can also be faster in addition to lower power, but that's also more important for a consumer phone than it is for a multicore compute monster like the Mac Pro.
The fact that we haven't seen it yet suggests to me that they're paying special attention. If they weren't going to make something else, they would have called the Studio the Pro and acted like everything was ok. They're making sure they get this right because it's what proves their plan to make one architecture scale from watch to render farm.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Intel Xeons typically lag the top end consumer processors in key performance marks because things like single core performance isn't the point of the Xeon?
People act like "Pro" needs to be just like the Mac Mini but with better Geekbench scores, but really "Pro" means the best combination of features for very narrow use cases. That almost certainly means prioritizing multicore performance over single core and ensuring reliability.
The existence of the Studio suggests to me Apple gets that. The Studio is a Mac Mini with better Geekbench scores and they didn't call it a Mac Pro.
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On the positive side, if M3 is true they do seem to falling over themselves to release chips which - to the savvy buyer - can only be a good thing.
I think your first part makes a lot of sense - while it would be great if they so quickly went to M3, I don't think Apple needs to rush it. The demand of a 15" MBA will be huge already - seems more likely they'll use the M2 chips that they just announced.
Second point, agree with others, I don't think that's necessarily true. The iPad Pro having an M1 or M2 chip already feels overkill for what software can do, I don't think they'd have to change the chip. Eg. a screen upgrade (mini-LED in the 11") or some other hardware change could easily justify a new model.