Apple's M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra Chips Could Offer Even More CPU and GPU Cores

[MacRumors]

Apple's upcoming M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra chips could feature more CPU and GPU cores, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman set out the key changes to the CPU and GPU core numbers of the M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra chips, including how many of the CPU cores are dedicated to performance or efficiency:

	M2	M3
Pro	10 or 12 CPU cores (6 or 8 high-performance and 4 energy-efficient) 16 or 19 GPU cores	12 or 14 CPU cores (6 or 8 high-performance and 6 energy-efficient) 18 or 20 GPU cores
Max	12 CPU cores (8 high-performance and 4 energy-efficient) 30 or 38 core GPU cores	16 CPU cores (12 high-performance and 4 energy-efficient) 32 or 40 GPU cores
Ultra	24 CPU cores (16 high-performance and 8 energy-efficient) 60 or 76 GPU cores	32 CPU cores (24 high-performance and 8 energy-efficient) 64 or 80 GPU cores

The standard M3 chip will apparently feature the same CPU and GPU core configuration as the M2 chip, with eight CPU cores (four performance and four efficiency) and ten GPU cores. This chip is expected to be offered in the 13-inch MacBook Pro, 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac, and iPad Pro.

Apple is also apparently testing MacBook Pro models with 36GB and 48GB of memory, suggesting that new memory options may be available in the future. Currently, the high-end MacBook Pro models can be configured with 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 96GB of memory.

Gurman reaffirmed that the first Macs with the M3 chip should debut in October, while Macs with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips will not arrive until 2024. Macs with the M3 Ultra chip, such as the next-generation Mac Studio, may not arrive until the end of 2024 at the earliest.

Article Link: Apple's M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra Chips Could Offer Even More CPU and GPU Cores

 

[jetjaguar]

Not really a surprise

 

[NewUsername]

So from Pro to Max will also be a CPU improvement? Interesting.

 

[gpat]

So from Pro to Max will also be a CPU improvement? Interesting.

Most probably, same single threaded performance, better multi threaded performance, as it was with M1 and M2 relatively to their Pro/Max counterpart.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

M3 base (for MBAs) will retain 4E cores only?

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

So the M3 pro chip will really only get two more energy efficiency cores above the M2 Pro variant. Plus one or two more graphics cores.

The main interest will be what difference the 3nm process architecture will bring to the table for the Pro variants.

 

[Simon89]

You’d hope there would be an increase in performance, otherwise why would you upgrade?

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

"The standard M3 chip will apparently feature the same CPU and GPU core configuration as the M2 chip, with eight CPU cores (four performance and four efficiency) and ten GPU cores."

The base M3 chip will be more interesting as virtually the only difference will be the 3nm process architecture.

It will give us a more direct comparison with M2.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Will there be a single core speed increase of the M3 over the M2?

 

[Doodah7]

And the MacBook Air still won't be able to run two monitors at a time...

 

[iBluetooth]

M3 base (for MBAs) will retain 4E cores only?

They are only to support low power background work, so I would assume they are sufficient.

 

[uller6]

Well yes, they could have more cores than the M1 and M2 series. Or they could have the same number of cores. Probably not fewer though. I think. Fingers crossed.

 

[neuropsychguy]

And the MacBook Air still won't be able to run two monitors at a time...

Mine doesn't have any problems running two monitors - the built-in screen and one external one.

If you meant two external monitors, there are ways: https://planetofthepaul.com/dual-monitors-macbook-air-m/

 

[Feek]

"Hi, I'm Mark Gurman and I state the bloody obvious".

New chip has more cores, who would have thought it.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

CPU improvement of M3 Max is great but I am really disappointed about the number of GPU cores. That is the weakest part of the silicon Macs, especially compared to pc's with nVidia 4090. I was hoping on a significant increase in the graphics score.

 

[MayaUser]

So the M3 pro chip will really only get two more energy efficiency cores above the M2 Pro variant. Plus one or two more graphics cores.

The main interest will be what difference the 3nm process architecture will bring to the table for the Pro variants.

more performance for almost the same amount of power draw

 

[MayaUser]

CPU improvement of M3 Max is great but I am really disappointed about the number of GPU cores. That is the weakest part of the silicon Macs, especially compared to pc's with nVidia 4090. I was hoping on a significant increase in the graphics score.

Again, not the number of cores matters at this point...but the power of the core...if the improvements with hardware ray tracing are even greater in scaling...then what we are talking about?! Performance per core in the same "envelope" it what it matters...you cannot go big and bigger with these SoCs forever because they are meant for laptops too
so you want Apple with 3-4 SoCs to combat all the pc graphics card on the market
For what it is to even discuss about nvidia 4080/4090 performance level is an achievement at this power draw and after just 3-4 years of development of these M while nvidia is building gpu for decades

 

[ohthehorror]

Another Gurman exclusive. Does he get paid by the rumor or does he just get bored.

 

[haruhiko]

My take: it will be faster. (Please credit my MacRumors username)

 

[MayaUser]

If the gpu core get even greater improvement, then this is fabulous that even the base M3 Macbook air graphics power could have, including hardware ray tracing hopefully

 

[PowerButton]

What it didn’t mention is that the cores should be clocked higher than the M2 so you’ll also see performance gains on that that front.

 

[senttoschool]

Is this speculation or real sources?

Rumors are that the A17 will have 6 GPU cores. That would cascade to 12 GPU cores for M3, 24 for M3 Pro, 48 for M3 Max, and 96 for M3 Ultra.

iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Chip Said to Feature 6 GPU Cores, Support for 6GB RAM

Apple's upcoming A17 chip that is set to be used in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models includes a 6-core CPU and a 6-core GPU,...

www.macrumors.com

If Gurman's report is true, and this A17 6 GPU rumor is true, then at least one of the following is true:

• M3 is not based on A17
• Apple is decoupling core scaling between A series and M series
• N3B has very poor yields so Apple is limiting GPU cores on M3 series
• A17 has 5 GPU cores, instead of the rumored 6
• Gurman is only seeing lower-binned M3 SoCs in logs. Their higher-binned SoCs will have more GPU cores and have not been tested yet.

 

[Feek]

Is this speculation or real sources?

It's Gurman. He wakes up in the morning and makes up stuff, often contradicting stuff he's made up before.

/edit - I really should stop hating on Gurman, it's just that he makes it so easy

 

[GuruZac]

I would love a larger M3 powered iPad Pro w/ new Magic Keyboard with function row.

 

[foobarbaz]

This is pretty suspicious: The M3 Pro would have more efficiency cores than the M3 Max?

So far, the Pro is the same design as the Max, just with some bits "cut off". It doesn't seem to make much sense to make a change that will require the Pro to have parts the Max won't have. Then it's two different designs and more work.