Apple M3 Chip: Everything You Need to Know

Jean updated on May 10, 2024 to Glossary and Terms

Do you want to learn about the Apple M3 chip? This article will give a detailed information about the newly released chip by Apple. You can read this article to find the answer!

On October 30, 2023, Apple launched the newest chip: the Apple M3 chip family, including M3, Pro, and Max. If you want to know about the M3 chip family, you are in the right place. This article will introduce the M3 chip family and compare the differences between M3 and the previous chips. Besides, you will know the benefits of the M3 chip for Mac users. Now, let's get started!

What Is Apple M3 Chip

After the M1 and M2 chips, the Apple M3 chip is the most recent generation of silicon chips for Mac and iPad. It is the first time to use TSMC's 3-nanometer process technique by Apple. Therefore, it increased speed and efficiency by packing more transistors into a smaller area, which was used to build the M3 chip, the first personal computer chip.

The M3 chip consists of the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, which belong to the M3 series of processors. These latter two kinds of chips are used for harsher and more demanding applications.

You may want to know:

Differences Between M3 and Previous Chips

Compared to the M1 and M2 chips, the M3 chip has a faster and more efficient GPU, a higher-performance CPU, a quicker Neural Engine, and support for more unified memory. Additionally, the M3 chip introduces Dynamic Caching, a novel method that enhances hardware's real-time use of local memory.

Therefore, if you have a high demand for a MacBook, including CPU, GPU, or RAM, the M3 chip will meet your needs. There is a table that shows a more detailed comparison by taking the 14-inch MacBook Pro in M2 and M3 as an example.

Specification MacBook Pro (M2/Pro/Max) MacBook Pro (M3/Pro/Max)
Memory 16GB - 96GB 8GB - 96GB
GPU 16-core / 19-core/ 30-core 10-core /18-core/ 30 or 40-core
CPU 10-core/ 12-core/12-core 8-core/11 or 12-core/14 or 16-core
Speed 30 percent faster than the M1 Max 80 times faster than the M1 Max

Benefits of the Apple M3 Chip for Mac Users

There are some advantages for Mac users to use Apple M3 chips.

First, it can improve the visual quality and performance of the MacBook. For instance, the M3 chip can provide 2.5x faster rendering speeds than the M1 chip. In addition, the M3 chip was the first to bring new rendering features to Mac and iPad devices. Moreover, it provides a new media engine for supporting AVI decoding. Therefore, you will enjoy a better and more efficient experience in watching videos or playing games.

Second, it will improve the productivity and efficiency of users. Due to 30 percent faster CPU performance cores and 50 percent faster CPU efficiency cores of the M3 chip than the M1 chip, the applications and tasks on MacBook will be dealt with faster and more fluidly. What's more, the M3 chip can support a unified memory of up to 32GB and allow CPU and CPU to visit the same data. As a result, it will reduce the lag and power consumption when you are working or playing games on a MacBook.

Finally, it provides enhanced abilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Therefore, it is crucially important and beneficial for application developers to create and deploy stronger and more intelligent applications and functions. If you want to know more detailed information about the M3 chip, you can read this passage as follows.

Devices Available to Apple M3

After learning about the above benefits of using M3 chips, you may want to know what are devices available for the Apple M3 chip. There is a table that shows the devices for you.

M3 Chip Devices
M3

MacBook Pro (14-inch, Nov 2023)

iMac (24-inch, 2023)

M3 Pro MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, Nov 2023)
M3 Max MacBook Pro (14-inch and 16-inch, Nov 2023)

Conclusion

In a word, this article has talked about what is the Apple M3 chip and provides some differences between the M3 and the previous chips. You can share this article on your social media to help more Mac users know about it!