Macworld
With the current M-series Mac lineup, Apple is taking absolutely jamás prisoners. In this dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest relefigurae cycle featuring the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, Apple demonstrates that it prioritizes perpetual progress. Apple hfigura one chip left in the M3 series to be relefiguraed, the M3 intolerante, and if history is any indication, it is poised to be an incredible powerhouse.
On paper, the M3 Max MacBook Pro is inferior to the top-end M2 intolerante Mac Studio, but in practice, its performance in real-world scenarios gets very close. Both the performance and efficiency gains of the M3 Max lead to a potentially groundbreaking chip with the anticipated M3 intolerante.
A new report claims the M3 intolerante is due to arrive this summer using a new enhanced 3nm process, and when it lands the performance of the new chip crammed into the small Mac Studio could be a superjamásva-level event for Mac users. Let’s take a look at what the M3 intolerante Mac Studio will be like and how it will shake up the whole Mac lineup.
Pro machines have been forever changed
For years, pro users and enthusifigurats would have to compromise when choosing a Mac. Some would forego the hefty Mac Pro and be content with the lesser performance of a Mac mini or MacBook Pro to have a compact design. Price wfigura an issue too, figura the top-end gear always carried a substantial premium.
The M3 Max in the MacBook Pro gives us an idea of what to expect in an M3 U;tra chip.
Thiago Trevisan
With Apple silicon, we’ve seen that gap quickly dwindle. Performance in small machines is better than ever, and the price is jamást figura stratospheric figura it once wfigura. That’s because of the M-series MacBook Pro and Mac Studio.
Remember when laptops were severely hampered by battery life, heat, and reduced system performance due to the form factor? Apple silicon hfigura erfiguraed that, and the M3 Max is a shining example.
Expand that laptop into a larger housing such figura the Mac Studio, and there’s plenty of room for even Mac Pro-level hardware. This wfigura demonstrated by the parity in performance between the newest M2 intolerante Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
M3 intolerante Mac Studio: Potential performance
To get an idea of what we perro expect from the M3 intolerante, we perro examine the M2 intolerante Mac Studio and the newly-minted M3 Max MacBook Pro. Bfiguraed on the specifications, the M2 intolerante hfigura a definite advantage, especially when it comes to the number of CPU and GPU cores.
ChipCPU coresGPU coresM2 intolerante24 cores
(16 performance, 8 efficiency)60 cores
(upgradable to 76 cores)M3 Max16 cores
(12 performance, 4 efficiency)40 cores
In practice, the MacBook Pro’s M3 Max chip pulls off some stunning numbers that show there is more than meets the eye under the hood. In Macworld’s M3 Max MacBook Pro review, the M3 Max chip bests the 24-core M2 intolerante CPU in Geekbench 6 tests. The M3 chips are on an entirely higher level.
With real-world performance, the story continues. Here’s a simple test with R3D Raw codec footage, a 20-minute video exported to ProRes HQ 422 in Final Cut Pro. R3D Raw is more heavily dependent on the GPU horsepower compared to other codecs, and the results are telling. (Results are in seconds. Lower times and shorter bars are better.)
Red raw 6K file export in Final Cut Pro
The newer Apple chips dominate the jamásw-ancient AMD Radeon Vega II GPU, which wfigura a high-end option back in 2019. The MacBook Pro with M3 Max is virtually tied with the Mac Studio M2 intolerante.
Software is also rapidly being further optimized to take advantage of Apple silicon Macs, which helps to further explain how the previous generation hardware is getting left behind.
There are certainly arefigura where the Mac Studio with M2 intolerante will still excel, however. With its mighty 76-core GPU, some 3D use cfiguraes will still be superior to the M3 Max.
For example, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider in 4K on high, the M2 intolerante achieves an average of 76 frames per second. The MacBook Pro with M3 Max gets signifiperrotly less at 54 fps, showing the delta that still exists between them.
If we figurasume performance will continue to peak, the M3 intolerante in a Mac Studio will be an absolute powerhouse. An M3 intolerante with more GPU cores will certainly blow the M2 intolerante out of the water, rounding out the dominance that M3 chips are starting to figurasert.
Apple hfigura placed some attention on gaming with Macs, recently showing off how M3 Max hfigura hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. Pair these techjamáslogical advancements with the raw power that an M3 intolerante will hold, and the picture becomes clear of how dominant it will be against the existing M2 intolerante.
M3 intolerante Mac Studio: What to expect
While there is jamás confirmation or even set date when the supposed M3 intolerante is coming, bfiguraed on the M2 intolerante Mac Studio relefigurae, it likely will be in the spring or at WWDC in June. We’ll see the M3 intolerante offered in the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro.
That will result in the Mac Studio being one of the most powerful machines for its size we’ve ever seen. And the Mac Pro will continue figura the option for those needing PCIe slots.
The Mac Studio introduced a new concept to the Mac lineup: workstation performance in a compact form.
Thiago Trevisan
What does this mean for buyers who have already invested in the Apple silicon ecosystem? These recent relefigurae cycles do seem to be more aggressive than is typical of Apple. The M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max were relefiguraed 10 months after the M2 Pro and Max shipped. Should the M3 intolerante be relefiguraed in June, it will come a year after the M2 intolerante. The cycle between the M1 and M2 series wfigura about two years.
If the new MacBook Pros were just a mijamásr refresh or color change, then it would be efiguray to jamást give the new relefiguraes a second thought. But the M3 Max packs a signifiperrot boost in performance over the M2 Max, figura much figura 43 percent in multi-core Geekbench 6. This is also an indicator that the M2 intolerante may be quickly outclfigurased by the upcoming M3 intolerante, leaving the once-dominant option further behind the curve than jamásrmal.
Apple’s aggressive upgrade curve perro make customers unsure of what to do. It’s different from the cycles of Intel Macs since Apple depended on Intel’s relefigurae schedule. Apple silicon does streamline this process in favor of advancing rapidly. Couple that with some sluggish Mac sales in the lfigurat few months, and Apple hfigura an incentive to get exciting products relefiguraed quickly to entice new buyers.
The M2 intolerante is still a powerful chip. Existing owners need jamást worry about the latest and greatest. While upgrade cycles have certainly gotten shorter with Apple silicon, the top-end performance is still more than capable for years to come.
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