Apple is reportedly making strides with its M3 chip family, as developers have observed testing activities. The M3 chip is expected to enhance performance by incorporating additional CPU and GPU cores. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared details of the M3 chip, which boasts a 12-core CPU featuring six high-performance cores and six high-efficiency cores. Additionally, it includes 18 graphics cores and 36GB of memory. These specifications indicate that the chip could potentially be an M3 Pro variant, suitable for deployment in 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pros or high-end Mac minis. Comparatively, the current base model M2 Pro utilizes six high-performance CPU cores, four high-efficiency cores, and 16 GPU cores. The specific details of the regular M3, M3 Max, or M3 Ultra are currently unknown.
Apple and Intel have both pursued similar approaches in recent years to enhance processor performance. They have focused on architectural upgrades and incremental clock speed boosts to improve single-threaded performance on the primary CPU cores while incorporating numerous high-efficiency cores to enhance multi-threaded performance for demanding professional workloads. This strategy has proved successful for Intel in its desktop and laptop chips. However, Apple has gained a notable advantage in power efficiency. AMD has not adopted a big-core-little-core hybrid approach in its CPUs thus far, but there are rumors that the upcoming Zen 5 architecture could bring changes to this.
According to Gurman, the M3-generation chips are expected to make their debut in Macs later this year or early next year. This timeline would align with the approximately year-and-a-half gap between the release of the first M1 Macs and the subsequent M2 models. It is plausible that certain products, such as the 24-inch iMac or the Mac Studio desktop, might bypass the M2 generation altogether and directly transition from M1 chips to M3 models.
Gurman’s report suggests that Apple aims to entice customers back to the Mac lineup, which has experienced a decline in sales. However, it seems unlikely that introducing another new processor alone would reverse this trend, considering the recent sales dip occurred after the release of updated M2 Macs like the MacBook Pro and Mac mini. While slightly faster versions of products may yield marginal sales improvements, Apple might need to explore alternative approaches to stimulate sales growth. Introducing entirely new models tailored to different customer needs could be a more effective strategy. For instance, rumors suggest that Apple may unveil a 15-inch MacBook Air at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, providing a larger screen option for users who do not require all the features of a MacBook Pro.
By: Mr. WWK
