They bring a big technical step forward, but do they offer enough improvements for M2 users to upgrade?
Here’s how Apple’s M3 Silicon compares to the M2 range.
What Is M3 Silicon?
Apple
The M3 range is the first to be based on 3-nanometer (nm) fabrication technology.
The top-tier trims in the M3 lineup support up to 128GB of unified memory.
The next-generation M3 chips also feature Dynamic Caching, improving overall GPU performance.
Apple
Apple says the feature allocates only the “exact amount of memory needed” for each task.
The new GPU also comes with mesh shading and hardware-accelerated ray tracking for better gaming performance.
While the baselineM2 chip came with an eight-core GPU, the entry-level M3 chip has a 10-core GPU.
Apple
Both chips support 100GB/s memory bandwidth, so there’s no improvement there.
Apple’s M3 is currently available on the $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro.
A similar configuration is also available on the15-inch M2 MacBook Air.
Apple
Out of these, the M2 Pro was based on 5nm fabrication technology and shipped with 40 billion transistors.
The M3 Pro offers a smaller transistor size of 3nm.
However, the number of transistors has gone down to 37 billion.
Interestingly, the GPUs on both M3 Pro models have fewer cores than the M2 Pro.
The memory bandwidth decreased from 200GB/s on the M2 Pro to 150GB/s on the M3 Pro.
Users can also plug in an 8K (60Hz) or 4K (240Hz) display over HDMI.
The M3 Pro is available on Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
When it comes to external displays, the M3 Max can support up to four screens at a time.
This could be three screens with 6K at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one with 4K at 144Hz over HDMI.
The two ProRes encode and decode engines for fast post-production remain identical to the M2 Max.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Max starts at $3,499.
Should You Buy an M3 Mac?
Apple’s M3 series, barring the M3 Max chipset, is an incremental update at best.
Comparing the base M3 with the M2, we see few major improvements worth investing in.
Apple’s M3 Pro shares the same story: it barely offers any upgrades.
The M3 Max, as we mentioned earlier, is in a league of its own.
It comes very close to Apple’s most powerful and expensive chip, the M2 Ultra.
