Summary

• Apple's new M3 chipsets for Mac focus on GPU performance and power efficiency, making them appealing for professional creators and gamers.
• The MacBook Pro with M3 offers a modern chassis, improved display brightness, and an all-new Space Black finish option.
• The M3 chipsets introduce Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and mesh shading for better graphics performance, while the CPU and Neural Engine also receive significant upgrades.

Apple's family of M3 chipsets is here. Following months of speculation and rumors, the Cupertino firm's latest Mac processors have been officially unveiled. As expected, the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max largely focus on GPU performance and power efficiency, making them an even more tempting option for professional creators and gamers. Customers can get their hands on them through new MacBook Pro and iMac models, which were announced at Apple's 'Scary fast' event.

MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)

Starting with the MacBook Pro, the company now offers customers only two size options: 14 and 16 inches. That's right, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has finally been retired, along with its outdated design. So those opting for the base M3 chip will now get to utilize the modern chassis, which packs a wider port variety, superior display, sharper webcam, MagSafe 3 charging, and other internal upgrades — when compared to the classic variant.

The MacBook Pro's second 2023 upgrade doesn't strictly revolve around the M3, however. The refresh also packs in a welcome 20% display SDR brightness increase, a bump from 500 to 600 nits. Otherwise, users are pretty much getting the same set of technical specifications when compared to the M2 Pro and M2 Max models. Interestingly, though, there's an exclusive finish option for those who opt for an M3 Pro or M3 Max MacBook Pro: an all-new Space Black.

Those interested in the MacBook Pro M3 can pre-order a unit starting today, with shipping to follow as soon as November 7. The base M3 model costs $1,599, while the M3 Pro and M3 Max variants start at $1,999 and $2,999, respectively.

24-inch iMac (M3, 2023)

Moving on to the company's all-in-one computer, the 24-inch iMac also got a taste of M3. Along with the chipset upgrade, users get to utilize faster connectivity, thanks to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 support. Otherwise, the new iMac is pretty much identical to its M1 predecessor, offering seven color options and two different port configurations.

While rumors had pointed to USB-C Magic accessories, Apple has stuck to the Lightning port for now. So those using the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, or Magic Trackpad will still need to rely on the company's proprietary connector to top them up. And just like the MacBook Pro M3, you can pre-order a 24-inch iMac with M3 starting at $1,299, with general availability scheduled for November 7.

M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max

So, with the newly-announced MacBook Pro and iMac primarily focusing on processor bumps, you may be wondering what the M3 family is all about. Well, as previously mentioned, these Apple silicon chips heavily revolve around GPU performance and power efficiency. They also happen to be Apple's first Mac processors to adopt the 3nm manufacturing process. This enables the company to pack more transistors into smaller spaces, which only contributes to superior performance and lower energy consumption.

GPU

The M3 chipsets introduce a new technology called Dynamic Caching, along with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. Dynamic Caching allocates the exact memory needed for a certain task, which consequently increases the performance for apps and games. When combined with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, users get to render graphics more realistically and at faster speeds. As a result, M3 can deliver the same GPU performance as M1 using around half the power, and its peak performance is around 65% higher.

CPU

The CPU on the M3 chips also gets a bump, with the performance and efficiency cores becoming 30% and 50% faster, when compared to their respective M1 counterparts. When combined, these cores' multithreaded performance can match that of M1 while consuming around 50% less energy. That's not to mention that they can offer 35% more performance at peak power and accommodate up to 128GB of RAM (a notable increase from 96GB).

Neural Engine

Lastly, the Neural Engine, which powers on-device AI features, has also received an upgrade. When compared to that of M1, the Neural Engine on M3 is up to 60% faster. The difference may be noticed when relying on AI photo and video processing tools, such as noise reduction and scene edit detection. And with support for AV1 decoding, users will get to play video on streaming services while consuming less power.

Bottom line

Apple's 'Scary fast' event, for the most part, delivered what we had been expecting. While we didn't get USB-C Magic accessories, the keynote indeed revolved around the rumored MacBook Pro and iMac with M3. That's not to mention the company's emphasis on the included gaming improvements. At this point, it's safe to assume that Apple won't be launching any more products for the remainder of 2023, unless it decides to drop some new iPad models through press releases. To read more about the new MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, and M3 chips, you can head to Apple's Newsroom website.