Apple's First M3-Powered Macs Likely to Launch in October

[Anaxarxes]

Any chance the M3 will improve raytracing on the GPU, providing true hardware raytracing?

I expect that for the M3 considering that A16 GPU was planned with RT in kmidn but dropped due to power consumption.

The iPhone 14 Pro Was Supposed To Get A Better Graphics Processor, This Is What Happened

A lot of people may not realize it due to the power of the Bionic A16 chip, the iPhone 14 Pro sure comes with little improvement in the GPU.

www.gizchina.com

 

[phillytim]

So, sure, we're 21% below 2021, and 34% below 2022. But if you take the average of the years before (5.5M), we're still 31% above that. Similarly, if you take the median of all years 2014 through 2022 (5.6M), still 29% above.

2021 and 2022 were clearly outliers, and we all know why: increased demand due to COVID 19 WFH policies.

So I don't think Apple is worried about "awful" Mac sales figures.

Early 2021 also released the M1 processor, which contributed to the bump in Mac sales.

2022 Q2 may have gotten a bit of bump from the M2, since it was released towards the end of that quarter.

 

[dandeco]

I'm already looking to possibly buy an M2 Pro-equipped Mac Mini this August or September. It would be way too soon to come out with an M3 version of that, as it was only released in January.

 

[jole]

Mac sales aren't awful at all, and MacBook sales we simply do not know (but there's no reason to believe they're doing poorly). Recent Q2 revenue numbers for the Mac were:

2014 Q2	5.5M
2015 Q2	5.6M
2016 Q2	5.0M
2017 Q2	5.8M
2018 Q2	5.8M
2019 Q2	5.5M
2020 Q2	5.4M
2021 Q2	9.1M
2022 Q2	10.9M
2023 Q2	7.2M

So, sure, we're 21% below 2021, and 34% below 2022. But if you take the average of the years before (5.5M), we're still 31% above that. Similarly, if you take the median of all years 2014 through 2022 (5.6M), still 29% above.

2021 and 2022 were clearly outliers, and we all know why: increased demand due to COVID 19 WFH policies.

So I don't think Apple is worried about "awful" Mac sales figures.

Every Mac-user has been upgrading to Apple Silicon (and it is great).

Now the questions are: Due to every Mac user already having a great Apple Silicon Mac, why upgrade? If the current userbase is not upgrading, how do we attract new audiences faster?

I am in camp of being super happy about my M1 Pro MBP, no need to upgrade for years...

In a way Apple might have generated a problem by having a too good product. If I would be Apple, I would start exploring options for transforming Mac-ownership to a subscription over the next 10 years. As a consumer, I would hate that, but would go along due to product being great...

 

[phillytim]

In a way Apple might have generated a problem by having a too good product. If I would be Apple, I would start exploring options for transforming Mac-ownership to a subscription over the next 10 years. As a consumer, I would hate that, but would go along due to product being great...

I would never purchase another Mac ever again, if that horrendous Mac hardware subscription idea was ever forced upon us.

In fact, it may even drive my phone preference over to Android - along with my computer preference back over to Windows. Now that Windows has matured a lot, Mac lost a lot of its advantage - including its security advantage:

macOS vs. Windows: Which Desktop Operating System Is Safest?

Still think Macs can't get viruses? That outdated thinking puts you and your data at risk.

www.pcmag.com

The platform with the higher number of virus encounters? Mac users. That's right, the same group in which only 34% claim to install antivirus software. It's seriously time to rethink that position.

 

[chucker23n1]

Every Mac-user has been upgrading to Apple Silicon (and it is great).

Now the questions are: Due to every Mac user already having a great Apple Silicon Mac, why upgrade? If the current userbase is not upgrading, how do we attract new audiences faster?

I am in camp of being super happy about my M1 Pro MBP, no need to upgrade for years...

Sure. But let's be real — we're currently one generation beyond the M1. I don't think Apple was under any illusion that the average person was going to upgrade from an M1 to an M2. Almost nobody upgrades Macs that frequently. The median user will probably go from M1 to M4. Some to M3, some to M5.

That would be the case even if the M1 weren't pretty good. But on top of that, it is. Millions will have a sufficiently good Mac for years to come.

In a way Apple might have generated a problem by having a too good product.

Yup.

If I would be Apple, I would start exploring options for transforming Mac-ownership to a subscription over the next 10 years. As a consumer, I would hate that, but would go along due to product being great...

They're dipping their toes into that with things like the iPhone Upgrade Program…

 

[citysnaps]

Just because AAPL is worth more right now doesn’t mean it will be in another 15 years. I believe Tim and co are taking all the money they can out of the company. They’re selling out what customers want rather than being visionary about devices. Things like the notches on displays bother me as they’re the design language of Apple. There is no way that should be how people can tell one is using an Apple product. Losing Scott Forstall and Jonny Ive means the long term will not fair as well. There should be a visionary at the top not a bean counter who only cares about his $100m+ per year in stock grants. Steve didn’t care about the money or power. He only cared about making amazing products that truly enriched people’s lives. Tell me that’s what Tim or any of his executive team cares about??? If they do, letting all the design talent and visionaries go sure was the wrong thing to do.

Yeah...and just because planet Earth rotated into the Sun's rays this morning causing daylight doesn't mean it will in another 15 years.

People have been saying essentially what you said up above, for different time periods, for the last 30 years.

 

[garrick2007]

 

[coolbreeze2]

OK a new chip every year! if so, most times the changes will be small and non-impactful. I am going to keep my M2 Studio as my main workhorse for 10 years! I kept my Intel as my main computer for 5 years and only switched to M2 because of the huge impactful change. Another upgrade such as that will have to come in the next 10 years for me to change. Also, Vision Pro's price tag is going to prevent me from buying anything else for many years.

 

[shawnforever]

I wish Apple would update the chips in all of its models at the same time. I understand that they might not have the yields to do that though.

 

[chucker23n1]

They could do that, but that would invariably mean delaying some models that are already ready.

 

[Lioness~]

I wish Apple would update the chips in all of its models at the same time. I understand that they might not have the yields to do that though.

They are still a small rising company in their minds perhaps 😉

I bet they could release chip updates on all machines simultaneously, but obviously their organization haven't caught up with their sales yet.

 

[ImAlwaysRight]

I have the 2020 M1 MBA. Thing runs amazingly cool, especially compared to Intel. It is blazing fast. I got a great deal on refurbs with 16GB/512MB, so much so that the seller had 5 and I bought all of them for the 5 members of my family. I don't see myself replacing these until Apple stops updating them. Just a fantastic notebook computer that meets all our needs.

 

[theorist9]

Makes no sense. Why would Apple do that? Apple refreshed nearly every mac in the first half of this year, only to refresh it a few months later again? Maybe there will be a M3 for the Air and the Mac Mini, but surely no M3 Pro/Max etc..

Try taking another look at the article.

It predicts they'll be updating the 13" MBP, 13" Air, and 21.5" iMac in October 2023. That would be 15, 16, and 29(!) months after those models were last updated, respectively (since their last respective release dates were June 2022, July 2022, and May 2021).

And it predicts the 14"/16" MBP's will be updated in early 2024, which would be 12+ months after they were last updated in Jan 2023.

No model is getting refreshed "a few months" after it was last released.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

A transition of Apple Silicon Chip.

 

[Wanted797]

And next week Gurman will say they could be delayed until 2024 thus being able to say he was correct regardless.

Edit: https://www.macrumors.com/2023/07/23/new-macbook-pro-and-mac-mini-with-m3-2024-launch/

 

[John-Paul Hunt]

I wonder if the M3 TB4/USB4 ports will have eGPU support or not here as this is why people are kinda sour still on the apple silicon chips here for intestine graphics workloads and gaming at 4k here even with game porting toolkit leaked with crossover support for steam gaming as well as if this is just software restricted like on usb4 on and apps then its possible for apple silicon to have gpu support via tb4/usb4 here as minisforum pc’s do this already.

Also if and when 8k iMacs ever do release to replace the Mac Pro here it would be a boon for video and photo editing and for 8k video watching on the macOS platform here as LG 8k TV’s are about the same price as a standard apple display and are from 2021 as well being older 8k tv sets as I like the idea of having a overpowered SoC chip design boosted by an EGPU for intensive graphical workloads that need that extra horsepower the M series chips cannot support here after pricing APUs from AMD and gpus on amazon and best buy as well.

Even though I’m still a gamer I can see how gpus can help view editions and graphics designers needing that 4090 in an gpu setup here still as apple silicon and APU SoC chips that can do that sort of work are still at least 10-20 years away from becoming a reality that is affordable to the masses to buy cheaply here that can replace GPUs entirely here making them obsolete.

 

[John-Paul Hunt]

A transition of Apple Silicon Chip.

View attachment 2235898

But can apple make PCI gen 5 ssds work better so as to save money on buying more united memory on the m3 and m4 SoC designs and will apple give us eGPU support on the m3 series or m4 series here based on USB/TB4 though?

 

[chucker23n1]

But can apple make PCI gen 5 ssds

Apple SSDs aren't connected via PCIe.

 

[chucker23n1]

Makes no sense. Why would Apple do that? Apple refreshed nearly every mac in the first half of this year,

They only refreshed the Mac mini, 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro. (And they introduced the 15-inch MacBook Air.)

They did not refresh the 13-inch MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, or the iMac.

And that's exactly what the article focuses on:

Given that Apple launched new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models in January, and more recently new 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models in June, Gurman believes the first beneficiaries of the new M3 chip will be the next iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

only to refresh it a few months later again? Maybe there will be a M3 for the Air and the Mac Mini, but

Probably not the mini yet. But the Air would at that point be almost a year and a half old.

surely no M3 Pro/Max etc..

True. I imagine the Pro/Max are on a 15-18 month schedule, so we shouldn't see the next of those until spring or summer 2024.

 

[applesed]

It’s funny how people talked about Apple no longer being reliant on Intel so they can adhere to their own schedule Look, Gurman is guessing because even Apple is still figuring it out internally and probably has two or three plans depending on timing of sufficient yields based on these alternate 3nm approaches. It is really any different from any other engineering workplace though..

 

[John-Paul Hunt]

Apple SSDs aren't connected via PCIe.

Do you mean this below?

 

[chucker23n1]

Do you mean this below?

What about it? The controller of Mac SSDs is in the SoC, and the flash storage doesn’t use PCIe as its interconnect. Nor does Apple use the M2 form factor.

 

[theorist9]

Apple SSDs aren't connected via PCIe.

Do you have a reference for this? On Intel and AMD chips, I/O between the ports&SSD and the chip is done via PCIe lanes. On the M series chips, they also use PCIe (v. 4.0) for I/O between the chip and the ports, so I assumed the I/O for the SSD uses PCIe 4.0 as well.

Plus the M-series SSD's are limited to PCIe 4.0 speeds, which further suggests PCIe is used. I.e., they've already got PCIe I/O in place for the ports, so why not use for the storage as well, particularly since they're not doing anything with their storage that PCIe 4.0 can't handle?

The key thing that's different about Apple's SSDs is that the controller is on-die (so, technically, the I/O isn't between the chip and a complete SSD, but rather between the chip and the SSD's storage module), but I don't see how that would affect the ability to use PCIe lanes to transmit data.

 

[John-Paul Hunt]

Apple’s M2 on the Mac mini uses the SSD for shared memory storage if you only have 8gb of unified ram. So does the SSD speeds impact the overall performance of the SoC itself here?