Apple Testing M3 Max Chip With 16-Core CPU and 40-Core GPU

[AJB1971]

I'm hoping for 16gb as base ram. Even 12 is fine as long as they don't put 8gb as base ram.

Here's my thinking from Apple's point of view as far as the base M3 is concerned.

Going to a base configuration of 16GB would likely deprive them of upgrade sales. 12GB won't be considered sufficient for a lot of those that currently upgrade and they will move up to 24GB.

We've already seen rumours of an M3 with 36GB of RAM. Everything seems to be multiples of 12 now rather than 8, although there is some crossover.

My post about the base M3 having 12GB of RAM does seem divisive. Some people think it's laughable, while others agree. I guess we'll see.

I wonder if those that are dismissive of it expect it to stay at 8GB or move to 16GB?

 

[chucker23n1]

Apple’s M2 on the Mac mini uses the SSD for shared memory storage if you only have 8gb of unified ram.

The M2 doesn't use the SSD.

macOS uses the SSD for swap.

So does the SSD speeds impact the overall performance of the SoC itself here?

Real-world performance, yes. Performance of the SoC, no.

For some odd reason Windows trackpads still suck after all these years. Maybe they're not running at the correct interrupt level or something, but they've never been as good as even the PB100.

The PB100 didn't have a trackpad.

But, yes, most laptop vendors seem unable to produce decent trackpads. Microsoft's are OK. Apple's have been best-in-class for a long time. (Most third parties just source from Synaptics, and I guess they aren't incentivized to improve their product.)

I’m not so sure about that assertion:

View attachment 2243005

Astonishing... never thought macosx marketshare to have reached this level.... well-done, Apple.

As much as those sites like to call their statistics "market share", it's usage share. Which correlates with install base (but only if you presume that browser usage is representative of overall usage), not market share.

Mac market share isn't quite as high.

 

[Lone Deranger]

I'm going to be very disappointed if the M3 generation does not have some silicon dedicated to ray tracing.

Please Apple, enough with the 2D encoding/decoding cores. It's great that we'll be able to edit 359 extra 8K streams in real-time (in addition to the fifteen thousand streams or whatever) on a base MacBook Air. Throw us 3D artists a bone too for once. nVidia is stealing your lunch.

 

[DarthDon]

For servers, but for workstations no way Linux is better than Windows or Mac.

For servers makes sense because you don't install peripherals, like gaming mice, gaming keyboards, sound cards, but as soon as you need premium workstation software and hardware, good luck with Linux Go to Lenovo. Workstations and Notebooks with Linux - working out of the box.

For servers, but for workstations no way Linux is better than Windows or Mac.

For servers makes sense because you don't install peripherals, like gaming mice, gaming keyboards, sound cards, but as soon as you need premium workstation software and hardware, good luck with Linux.

Go to Lenovo. Workstations and Notebooks with Linux - working out of the box with ubuntu. My one runs fedora like a charm. But if you want to Game buy a PS or xbox ;-)

 

[Klagarde]

All those sweet YouTubers are salivating at the 2% performance increase for their benchmarks and zero real world performance.

I think for this iteration there is significant real world performance iteration. The smaller node side allows for higher clock frequencies. Which will benefit single core performance significantly!. I do feel that with the phones max real world performance has been achieved a while a go. With laptops it's still a while off.

 

[rikki_t]

Two more GPU cores wow?, pretty sure Apple will boast it's twice as fast as a five year old Nvidia RTX, the problem with Apples one size fits all approach is the machines are overkill for the average user but no where near enough for the pros

 

[Frantisekj]

most ppl chasing performance on the pc side are gamers, even with m3 max i doubt apple can topple a 4080 let alone 4090.

If M3 has HW raytracing and tehre will be native well optimazed games then M3 Ultra can level the game a bit. But other wont be sleeping of course. So we will see.

 

[Frantisekj]

I think the only space Apple is interested in competing for the moment is in performance per watt. The fact that they cancelled the n*M2 Ultra and are not using the thermal capacity of the MacPro to offer a 96 core + 304 GPU core behemoth is proof enough of that. I hope that changes though.

There was problem with manufacturing Extreme chip. And maybe with some other things. That is probably the reason.

 

[enb141]

Go to Lenovo. Workstations and Notebooks with Linux - working out of the box with ubuntu. My one runs fedora like a charm. But if you want to Game buy a PS or xbox ;-)

With consoles, you have to rebuy old games or keep old consoles to play old games and with modern games they look trashier than on a modern PC.

 

[chucker23n1]

Two more GPU cores wow?

Yeah, but they're also cores that are two generations (A16, A17) newer.

 

[futbalguy]

ever since SSD, rise of ryzen, intel getting out of 14nm, and apple silicon, all computers have hit a wall, honestly. these days it's just about raw CPU and GPU power. once nvidia releases a GPU that can do 4k 144hz on the latest AAA game at near max settings, people are gonna slow down or stop with the PC upgrades. that is why it is essential that companies start working on VR/AR now. it's still premature but it has a lot more potential than PC/Macs have

Only if the game developers stop improving graphics of each generation of games. Given how far we are from games looking like real life, I doubt it slows down anytime soon. Unreal engine 5 is already expected to need significantly better cpu and gpu to get the same fps as unreal engine 4. NVME SSDs will start to be required for fast loading. I certainly agree that VR and also ray tracing are adding to the reasons for users to upgrade each year tho.

 

[MacMediaNet]

amd + intel in shambles

I wouldn't say so - https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-i9-13900ks

 

[chucker23n1]

I wouldn't say so - https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-i9-13900ks

Yeah, but M3 will achieve the same with a seventh the power budget.

 

[enb141]

Yeah, but M3 will achieve the same with a seventh the power budget.

Currently the mac equivalent to an core i9 13 gen is the Mac Pro which costs $7000, so unless you run a mac 27/7 for something like 50 years, the intel will be way cheaper.

 

[giggles]

The ‌M3‌ Max will be the higher-end chip in a trio that also includes the ‌M3‌ and the ‌M3‌ Pro. The ‌M3‌ chip will include an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU, while the ‌M3‌ Pro will feature a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU.

What is the source of this?
Usually Mx Max and Mx Pro have the same number of CPU cores.
That would make the M3 Pro a 16-core CPU.
Unless this will change in the M3 generation to make the upsell to the Max more interesting.

 

[nathansz]

amd + intel in shambles

How’s that?

Performance wise, apple silicon isn’t even keeping up

 

[soyazul]

I wish they would make a high end desktop chip. The Ultra is amazing for what it is, but can't compete with NVIDIA high-end and workstation GPUs.

This year Apple will launch the M3 Extreme. M3 architecture will allow Macs to do it in a more efficient way than M2.
In 2024 Apple will match Nvidia's performance. One of the reasons is that they will include Ray Tracing acceleration to the M3 Pro and Max.

 

[soyazul]

In 2024 Apple will launch the M3 Extreme. M3 architecture will allow Macs to do it in a more efficient way than M2.
In 2024 Apple will match Nvidia's performance. One of the reasons is that they will include Ray Tracing acceleration to the M3 Pro and Max.

 

[soyazul]

We might see a 50% increase every generation (that already seems optimistic), and a generation every 15 months.

M1 Ultra, early ‘22: up to 128 GiB
M2 Ultra, mid ‘23: 192
M3 Ultra, late ‘24: 288
M4 Ultra, early ‘26: 432
M5 Ultra, mid ‘27: 648
M6 Ultra, late ‘28: 972



I think they just really like the simplicity and low latency of unified memory.

This year Apple will launch the M3 Extreme. M3 architecture will allow Macs to do it in a more efficient way than M2.
In 2024 Apple will match Nvidia's performance. One of the reasons is that they will include Ray Tracing acceleration to the M3 Pro and Max.

 

[Fender2112]

The likelihood of an M3 iMac this fall looks ever more likely. Design wise I’d like to see them put the Apple logo back on the chin. I’m not asking much.

And 12GB Ram as base standard would be nice. It’s long overdue.

I'm hoping for an 27" iMac with at least an M3Pro

 

[ArkSingularity]

I haven't seen a single driver that manufacturers provide for linux, I'm talking about software with drivers, neither Logitech, Razer, Corsair, Creative, nobody releases drivers with software for Linux, just the basic simple limited driver.

Yea, I suppose if you're using a lot of unique hardware. I've never really had any problems with the stock drivers on the hardware that I've tried, I've had better luck in Linux than I have had even in Windows (much to my surprise, even midi devices worked out of the box, despite not working without special drivers in Windows. And Printers? They just work. Never had a single issue.)

There are notable exceptions (nvidia being the most notorious of them). And frankly, Linux is not very good for audio work, and that's for a plethora of other reasons (I wouldn't ever want to put myself through having to do serious work through it). But for a lot of situations where you just need something to work, Linux really shines these days compared to how it used to be, especially on older hardware. Often you can't even get Windows 10 drivers for devices that were released back when Windows Vista or Windows 7 was still the norm.

 

[BlendedFrog]

On a tl;dr of 6 pages of comments, I take it that this supposed rumor of an October announcement of the m3 chip and macbooks will just be for the m3 and not an m3 pro/m3 max? I was looking at getting a 16" m2 max mbp this week, but then saw these articles on the m3 October announcement. If all it is is the m3 and the m3 pro/max coming sometime in 2024, then I will still get the m2 max.

 

[Adelphos33]

People asking for a 27” iMac understand there is almost no indication that is happening anytime soon, right? What will be released this fall is the updated M3 24”
iMac.

 

[MacCurry]

computers just are disposable these days.. but their usefullness goes farther. I can't imagine your G5s are good for anything in 2023. I help onto my G4 for 10 years but it was sluggish as hell by year 5. I'm sure these new Macs will still be snappy in 5 years at least. I'm currently on a 2017 intel iMac and I've never replace the ram or hard drives in 6 years. still works fine

I have a 27” iMac from 2019 and it’s holding up well (still snappy) for photo editing, MS Office applications & web browsing. I don’t do a much video editing. Thinking about the M2 Mac Studio, but may wait until M3 Mac Mini comes out.

 

[enb141]

Yea, I suppose if you're using a lot of unique hardware. I've never really had any problems with the stock drivers on the hardware that I've tried, I've had better luck in Linux than I have had even in Windows (much to my surprise, even midi devices worked out of the box, despite not working without special drivers in Windows. And Printers? They just work. Never had a single issue.)

There are notable exceptions (nvidia being the most notorious of them). And frankly, Linux is not very good for audio work, and that's for a plethora of other reasons (I wouldn't ever want to put myself through having to do serious work through it). But for a lot of situations where you just need something to work, Linux really shines these days compared to how it used to be, especially on older hardware. Often you can't even get Windows 10 drivers for devices that were released back when Windows Vista or Windows 7 was still the norm.

If you need old hardware to work (basic driver) not driver + software, then Linux has more chances to keep those hardware working for a loooooong time.

Linux is good for servers because they are usually running either a database or a web server, so for those uses, then linux is fine plus you don't have to pay per core or per user license that Microsoft/IBM/Oracle charges exorbitant prices.

But for Workstation, for real work that needs top software like adobe, office, cubase, logic, pro tools, autocad, in that case, MacOS smokes Linux, so if you want a Unix OS, definitively go MacOS if you need a good workstation, for servers, Linux is pretty good.