Apple presented the first Mac processors with 3-nanometer structures, new MacBook Pros and an updated 24-inch iMac on Tuesday night. For the first time, the company has released a new Apple Silicon generation in three versions at the same time: the M3, the M3 Pro and the M3 Max.
Advertisement
Black MacBook Pro
The new MacBook Pro computers in 14- and 16-inch versions as well as the iMac are available to order now. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is disappearing from the range. Instead, there will be a MacBook Pro with a 14-inch display and M3 – i.e. without Pro and Max – for the first time. Apple will also sell the MacBook Pro in an additional color in the future. Prices increase for several models.
What’s particularly striking about the new MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro and M3 Max is the new color variant “Space Black”. The devices are also available in silver. The black version is said to be particularly resistant to fingerprints thanks to a chemical process. Initial experiments that the author was able to carry out during a hands-on in New York confirm this.
Prices for Macs are rising
With the exception of the processors and the available colors, nothing changes in the features and appearance of the MacBook Pro. New variants with the M2 Pro and M2 Max were only released at the beginning of the year.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 is available from 1999 euros. This means that the price of the cheapest MacBook Pro has risen significantly; the 13-inch version was previously available from 1,599 euros. In return, the buyer receives an inch more screen diagonal, more ports and MagSafe. The version with M3 Pro is available from 2,499 euros (100 euros more than the M2 Pro), the 16-inch device from 2,999 euros (same price as the M2 Pro). The MacBook Pro 14 with M3 Max costs from 3999 euros with 14 cores and from 4574 euros with 16 cores. The 16-inch version with M3 Max costs at least 4249 euros (14 cores) or 4849 euros (16 cores). According to Apple, the M3 Max machines will appear later than the M3 and M3 Pro; those willing to buy them will have to wait until mid-November.
New 24-inch iMac
The 24-inch iMac with 4.5K Retina display is now refreshed with the M3 chip after skipping the M2. The last model was released in 2021, so the reboot was overdue. The all-in-one computer is said to be up to twice faster than its predecessor. Apple has not changed anything in terms of design, features or the seven colors (green, yellow, orange, rosé, violet, blue and silver). The iMac M3 is available from 1599 euros, can be pre-ordered now and should be available next week.
The cheapest price increases by 50 euros. In the standard configuration, the new iMac has an 8-core CPU, a meager 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD. There was speculation in advance about a larger Pro model with 32 inches and new accessories with a USB-C port – everything here remains the same for the time being.
M3 improves graphics performance
According to Apple, the M3 chip improves significantly, especially in terms of graphics performance. As with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, the M3 will enable hardware-assisted ray tracing in all versions. The feature list also includes accelerated mesh shading and dynamic caching. In the latter case, the RAM is allocated by the hardware according to needs and not fixed across the board. This should make the chip usable more efficiently, which will benefit apps and games.
Apple advertises that it will exploit the advantages of the more compact design in terms of both performance and energy consumption. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro is said to run for up to hours on a single battery charge.
More efficiency in performance and energy consumption
The M3 Max supports up to 128GB of shared RAM. The number of transistors is said to be 92 billion. The 16-core CPU has twelve performance and four efficiency cores. It is the only one of the three chips that is scheduled to appear slightly late, at the end of November. According to Apple, the M3 Pro consists of 37 billion transistors and an 18-core GPU. It can be configured with up to 36 GB of shared memory. The M3 has 25 billion transistors – five billion more than the M2 – and an 8-core CPU with four performance and four efficiency cores each. It supports up to 24 gigabytes of RAM.
According to Apple, the media engine of all three chips has been improved; It now also supports AV1 decoding, which is used by streaming services, among other things, and should lead to longer battery life. There are also improvements to the Neural Engine, which is important for AI and machine learning applications.
(bsc)