The Apple M3 chips They have been a topic of conversation for quite some time, but only now can we take a look at their supposed specifications. At least those corresponding to one of its versions. In its newsletter Sunday, the renowned journalist Mark Gurman, from Bloombergrevealed what would be the most important characteristics of the M3 Pro.
The new member of the Apple Silicon family would not arrive until the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, but it promises a very interesting evolutionary leap. It may not seem like it, if we limit ourselves to making a direct comparison with the M1 Pro and M2 Pro. But you have to look a little further.
The breaking point would be that Apple’s M3 chips would be manufactured under TSMC’s 3-nanometer process. In this way, those of Cupertino could include more cores, both CPU and GPU, within a compact design component.. Something that may not represent a noticeable change in the M3 Pro, but that could be more evident in other variants, such as the rumored M3 Max and M3 Ultra.
Of course we should not get ahead of the facts. Apple still hasn’t finished updating its line of computers with M2 chips, so models with M3 are still several months away. Despite this, taking a look at the supposed specifications of the M3 Pro allows us to get an idea of what could we find in Macs from 2024 onwards.
A first look at the new Apple chips, from the hand of the M3 Pro
The information collected by Gurman comes from a developer on the App Store. The data indicates that one of Apple’s M3 chips would incorporate a 12-core CPU, 18 graphics cores and 36 GB of RAM. The journalist from Bloomberg He believes that, based on the specifications seen on the M1 and M2, it is the base configuration of the M3 Pro.
The chip in question is apparently being tested in a new MacBook Pro running macOS 14. So considering the most recent versions of those laptops were released earlier this year, it’s likely that a model with this hardware configuration won’t see the light until the beginning of 2024.
An interesting point is that, of the 12 CPU cores in the M3 Pro, 6 would be of high performance and the remaining 6 of efficiency. If so, Apple’s M3 chips would maintain the evolutionary formula already seen among its previous generations.
The M1 Pro was launched in October 2021 with an entry version with an 8-core CPU —6 high-performance and 2 efficient— and 14 graphics cores. The base M2 Pro, meanwhile, hit the market in January of this year with a 10-core CPU —6 for performance, 4 for efficiency— and 16 graphics cores.
The basic version of the M3 Pro would maintain the correlation in the increase of CPU efficiency cores and graphics cores. Although it would make an interesting leap in the RAM section, considering that the two previous generations supported up to 32 GB of unified memory.
It remains to be seen how much the performance of Macs using this new hardware improves. But, as we indicated previously, the really interesting thing about Apple’s M3 chips could be seen in the most powerful versions.
Unlocking the potential of 3 nanometers
As always, everything that corresponds to leaks of future products or Apple developments should be taken with a grain of salt. The most striking thing about this case is how could i scale the cpu and gpu core count on the other m3 chips. All thanks to the 3 nanometers.
Gurman speculates that those from Cupertino could surprise us with the hypothetical M3 Max and M3 Ultra. As they are higher density chips, thanks to the manufacturing process that TSMC would use, the most powerful models could make a very important quantum leap in their cores.
The journalist indicates that it would not be strange for Apple to launch M3 Max chips with 14 CPU cores and more than 40 graphics cores. Or an M3 Ultra with a CPU of up to 28 cores and more than 80 graphics cores. This, when directly comparing them with their predecessors —the M2 Max and the M1 Ultra— and following an identical evolution to that of the M3 Pro. Of course, none of this is official, nor is it close to being so at the moment.
And we must not forget a detail that is not minor: no word on what the standard M3 will look like yet; so there is still a long way to go to meet the most capable future chips in the Apple Silicon family.