Technically, no. Previously the M2 Pro MacBook Pro 14" started at $1999. But the current baseline M3 14" MacBook Pro is a brand new product. The baseline replaces the old, Touch Bar equipped 13" MacBook Pro, which IIRC was $1299.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Announces New 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro Models With M3 Series Chips
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Because no one who has an M2 is going to want upgrade to M3 simply for the spec bump. BUT people like me with an M1Pro MBP might actually be persuaded to upgrade to an M3 Pro.
Agreed. I upgraded after 11 years back in May, assuming there would be no M3 MacBook Pro for at least a year +.
Apple’s update cycles are so all over the place.
I get there’s always something new around the corner, but not overly happy.
They compared it to both the M1 and M2 versions. While the verbal comparisons were with the M1, the bar graphs all included the M1 and M2. Go back to the MacRumors live blogging and you'll see all the charts giving comparisons with the M2 versions.
It will be an absolute beast, I think you will love it. But consider my point about upgrading a little more often and selling the old machine to cover half or more of the cost of the new one. It's best to sell a device before it becomes obsolete. Done this way, it may only cost you ~$1500 every 4-5 years to upgrade, whereas if you wait 8 years it will cost more like $3000 and in those last few years you will start to miss out on significant improvements to things like displays, battery, etc. Financially it's similar – basically spending half as much twice as often – and you'll get to enjoy newer machines and features more frequently. Again, just some food for thought.
The only thing going for the MacBooks is battery life at this point. Speed wise intels are plenty fast for almost everybody. Nobody except the “creators” are doing any CPU/GPU intensive stuff on their laptop. Apple ads invariably feature those “creators” who people rarely meet in real life. It’s past time that Apple direct their resources to support real productive work. I mean, the MacOS UI hasn’t changed in what, two decades? Pain in the as$ to do any serious multitasking on multiple monitors. So little business/science/engineering software support too. It’s always “creators, creators, creators,” who create barely anything of physical value. It used to be Macs had a better Unix like environment but with WSL2 that’s changed as well. Intel still sucks at battery life but IF one day they stumble upon a breakthrough MacBooks will all become over priced junk.
All true. I upgraded from a 15" 2015 to a 16" M2 Max. It'll be five years before I stop shouting: THIS THING IS INCREDIBLE.
because upgrades these days tend to be less substantial year-to-year, and the M2 MBP's came into existence earlier *this* year.
M2 users are not and *should not* be the target of the upgrade. nothing ground-breaking has taken place.
but that space black doe.
Will they? What is going to happen in 10 years that everyone has 16TB of personal data?
entry level macbooks are not that expensive, and are substantially better than intel counterparts. unless there's some super strong impetus to be on Windows, the "only thing going for the MacBooks" is not battery life.
The 8GB on the $1599 14" is just obnoxious. Same with the cut down cores and lower memory bandwidth.
When Apple releases a new model, it's always "We improved it but we also hobbled it".
When Apple releases a new model, it's always "We improved it but we also hobbled it".
This comment comes up often on the Internet so let's set the record straight. QCOM's Snapdragon X was probably the one that was reactionary. Aside from the previous M2 launch Apple has a long precedent of launching new Macs in October so this is nothing unusual. Meanwhile Qualcomm did a paper launch for an SOC that won't be even be available until the middle of 2024 if they don't slip. Designing new SOCs, macbooks, and marketing collaterals take years. It's not something you pull together last minute in a knee jerk reaction to another company. The M3 MacBooks are shipping soon so the manufacturing has already ramped months ago, before any QCOM announcements, and validation started over a year ago.
Agreed. I won’t be upgrading my MBP until at least 6 years. The only reason I went from a 2019 to the M1 was how bad intel was at the end of their run with Apple.
Spreadsheets are going to become infinitely more complex in the next 10 years. That, and AR/VR porn.
Awkward. So you’ll live without FaceID until 2030? Well I guess to each their own.
apple doesnt seem to be getting anywhere near becoming the consumer's friend in this department.
the fastest 4TB samsung pcie 4 nvme drive does not cost as much as that 2tb upgrade. they just keep selling the upgrades so why bother changing it.
they're not becoming a multi trillion dollar company by doing right by the customer all of the time.
unless that space black is actually black and not just darker space grey
Lots of different pricing options with M3 and M3 Pro and RAM (8/16/24GB) and again, the magic $200 to change anything so now we're at $1799 for a 14" M3 16GB/512GB, or does one get the M3 Pro 18GB/512GB for $200 more ($1999)? Obviously the latter (in Space Black) so now no one buys the M3 14" (because who wants 8GB RAM)?
Makes me wonder if Vision Pro will come with M3? Why announce the chip just a few months later?
It's a shame to start at 8GB for a PRO laptop in 2023. At least it should support 2x4K external monitors.
I’m confused. Simultaneously rendering is nearly twice as fast as last gen with the same amount of cores, which means around 90% faster GPU cores, but the M3 Max GPU is only 20% faster tha M2 max. With the core count going up by 2, that indicates a 14% faster core.
So which is it? That’s a pretty big gap and pretty important for me who was planning to buy the M2 max before I heard this rumour. They increased the price of the top end model by quite a bit, and the same priced model has 8 fewer cores. So is that model‘s GPU slower or faster than the M2 Max?
So which is it? That’s a pretty big gap and pretty important for me who was planning to buy the M2 max before I heard this rumour. They increased the price of the top end model by quite a bit, and the same priced model has 8 fewer cores. So is that model‘s GPU slower or faster than the M2 Max?
Is there any way to compare the lowest end M3 Pro processor (11 core CPU, 14 core GPU, 14" MBP) with the lowest I might have gotten on an M2 Pro 14" MBP? (10 CPU and 16 GPU maybe?) I'm guessing I'd have to go with the 12 core CPU 18 core GPU M3 Pro to truly get an upgrade in performance over the base M2 Pro? I'm just trying to avoid going backwards in power if I do buy a new 14" M3 Pro MBP. Advice welcome here!
Odd memory limitations -- can't do anything more than 32GB with M3 Pro, and 48GB is only available with $900 M3 Max upgrade. The two M3 Max chips have completely different memory choices! Why?
Last edited: