Understanding Apple's "Scary Fast" Event

As I sit at my desk in Germany at 1 a.m. to catch Apple's latest event, I can't help but feel the excitement. With a holiday coming up on October 31st, it was worth the late-night shift to witness this unique nighttime event. Apple made history by hosting its first evening presentation, and it started with a message about hard work, showcasing the incredible tasks possible on a MacBook. The mood was further enhanced by eerie choir sounds and fog enveloping Apple Park, perfect for the Halloween season.

Tim Cook then took the stage to confirm the event's focus: Macs. Following this, the first major announcement was made—introducing the new M3 chips.

M3 Chip

The M3 chip boasts an 8-core CPU with a mix of 4 performance and 4 efficiency cores, and it features a 10-core GPU built on next-gen architecture that supports Dynamic Caching. This GPU includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature anticipated since the launch of the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 series. It also supports mesh shading for 3D graphics. The M3 can be equipped with up to 24 GB of unified memory, showing a 20% performance increase over the M2 in both CPU and GPU.

M3 Pro

The M3 Pro ups the ante with a 12-core CPU (6 performance and 6 efficiency cores) that is 20% faster than the M1 Pro. Its GPU features 18 cores and includes enhancements similar to the M3 but offers a 10% performance boost over the M2 Pro and a 40% improvement over the M1 Pro. The maximum unified memory configuration for the M3 Pro is 36 GB.

However, a closer look reveals some concerns: the M3 Pro has fewer transistors than the M2 Pro, and the memory bandwidth has decreased from 200 GB/s in the M2 Pro to 150 GB/s in the M3 Pro. This raises questions about whether the M3 Pro is worth upgrading to from the M2 Pro.

M3 Max

The M3 Max takes things further with a 16-core CPU, consisting of 12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores—marking the first time Apple's Max chip has more CPU cores than the Pro variant. The M3 Max also comes with an impressive 40 GPU cores and a memory bandwidth of 400 GB/s. The binned version features a 14-core CPU and a 30-core GPU.

#### New MacBook Pro Models

The 14-inch MacBook Pro will now be available with all three M3 variants, while the 13-inch model has been discontinued—a clear indication that updates were overdue.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro configurations include:

• M3: 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU
• M3 Pro: 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU
• M3 Max: 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU

Memory options vary by chip, ranging from 8 GB to 128 GB. Storage has also been enhanced, with the M3 Max now offering up to 8 TB.

#### Additional Features

Apple has also increased the brightness of the displays to 600 nits, up from 500 nits for non-HDR content.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro

The larger MacBook Pro will exclusively feature the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, maintaining similar memory and storage options as the 14-inch model.

A New Color and the 24-inch iMac

The MacBook Pro lineup now includes a new color—Space Black—previously seen on the M2 MacBook Air but now with improved smudge resistance. The 24-inch iMac has also been updated to include the M3 chip, although no other changes were made.

Wrap-Up

The pace of innovation in Apple's silicon design is impressive. While the M3 chips appear to herald a new era of performance, the M3 Pro raises some eyebrows. The evaluation of whether to choose the M3 Pro over the M2 Pro will be an important consideration for potential buyers.

What are your thoughts on the new M3 chip family and the latest Macs? Will you be making an upgrade? I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

Tobias

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