First Benchmark Results Surface for M3 Chip in New Macs

[GFLPraxis]

So let me get this straight, a laptop with m3 max will be faster than a mac studio with m2 max? Seems like anyone who bought a mac studio m2 max in the past 1-2 months got taken for a ride.

Edit: for those disagreeing, rumors are now saying M3 Max outperforms M2 ultra (in Geekbench 6 at least). If so, this makes it even more egregious! Mac Pro released a mere 4.5 months ago is already being bested by a laptop ?

They're also charging more for the high end M3 Max with those extra cores.

 

[eropko]

Exactly. The only reason people are angry with Apple is that overall, Apple products are GOOD. If they weren't, you would care just as little about them as you did about Samsung.

You are living in a country where it's easy to get custom config, that's it. And you think the rest of the world is the same. It's not. You haven't proven anything, 8Gb in base config still has to go, it's just not enough. They can charge their +$200 for 16Gb, it just has to be BASE. If it makes you happy, 8Gb has to go for Microsoft and Samsung too.

We are lucky you are not defending 4Gb.

 

[smulji]

8gb Ram and a huge markup on the upgrade.... that's a nope for so called pro features.

What markup?

You're getting a larger and much better screen
Much improved audio system
512GB storage as the standard (previous 13" MBP had 256GB SSD as standard)
More ports overall
An SoC with much improved CPU / GPU performance

Once you add 512GB SSD to the 13" M2 MBP, it sells for $1,499. For $100 more, you get quite a bit more. Learn to do math.

 

[5tranger]

The moment you realize a low power mobile M3 stomps your AMD 3700x desktop gaming processor in Geekbench by over 50%. And people claim Moore's Law is dead...

 

[Mcdevidr]

I have 8Gb Air and i definitely know it's constantly swapping RAM.

8gb also caused a game I played to crash. I haven’t played it in a while so it may not do it now but Victoria 3 would crash after about 1-2 hours on a 8gb model and would not crash on a 16gb model.

 

[ignatius345]

It's all sounds nice, viewed in a vacuum. The Thinkpad X41 in 2005 debuted at $2150. It's essential successor, the X13 Gen 4 starts at $1600 list price, before the heavy discounts. Even with your method Apple got more expensive compared to the rest of the industry.

Macs have always been more expensive than their PC counterparts. Go ahead, dive into these forums from 10, 15 years ago and you'll see exactly the same complaints. If it's a dealbreaker for you, just go ahead and buy that X13. Literally nobody is stopping you!

 

[Blue Sun]

That's because there is little to rave about for this update.
Apple themselves during the keynote advertised it as an upgrade for mostly Intel users and maybe some M1s, they dodged most comparisons against the M2 line.

There are actually some decent gains, my friend. GPU performance for one.

 

[Velli]

Those computers are comparable to a MacBook Air, not a Pro. The Galaxy Book Pro is $1,000 not $1,500.
It's a $35 retail chip, the fricken Air's should have 16gb at this point. My 2014 MacBook Pro came with 8gb stock.

They marketed this for true professionals this time. We need 16gb base and that upgrade prices me out and looking at older models.

My argument was aimed at people claiming that the product should have certain features, because it has "Pro" in the name.

And you don't need 16 GB "base". You need 16 GB. Who cares what "base" has. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to get more for less, but the reality is, if Apple was setting 16 GB as the base, the base would cost 1799,-, not 1599,-. Apple wants its margins.

Lineup now:
8 GB at 1599
16 GB at 1799

Imaginary lineup:
16 GB at 1799

Which is the better lineup?

Also, those Lenovo's with 16GB as base are slower in actual use than an 8 GB Macbook Air. I would know, I have one. If you want to argue that Macbooks should start at 16 GB, then all Lenovos should start at 32 GB. Or, rather, with whatever else they would need to offset the disadvantage the architecture has. It also SHOULD come with a decent display.

If you think Apple is giving you a poor deal because they are nickle-and-diming you on the RAM prices, wait until you start using the crappy Lenovo touchpad and the dim display. Also, start practicing reboot.

 

[Velli]

That's because there is little to rave about for this update.
Apple themselves during the keynote advertised it as an upgrade for mostly Intel users and maybe some M1s, they dodged most comparisons against the M2 line.

That's because people replacing their laptop every year should have their asses kicked. They were talking to their actual customers.

 

[Velli]

You are living in a country where it's easy to get custom config, that's it. And you think the rest of the world is the same. It's not. You haven't proven anything, 8Gb in base config still has to go, it's just not enough. They can charge their +$200 for 16Gb, it just has to be BASE. If it makes you happy, 8Gb has to go for Microsoft and Samsung too.

We are lucky you are not defending 4Gb.

Noone mentioned availability as an issue to me, but you're right - I am assuming that anyone with the actual need can get a custom config one. I buy that, of course Apple should ensure that anyone can get a 16 GB model if they want.

Other than that, I'm not trying to pursuade people with real needs to buy less than they need. I just loathe the position that if a product is not what *I* want, the product shouldn't exist.

 

[canon-cinema-0r]

Macs have always been more expensive than their PC counterparts. Go ahead, dive into these forums from 10, 15 years ago and you'll see exactly the same complaints. If it's a dealbreaker for you, just go ahead and buy that X13. Literally nobody is stopping you!

I've just posted a single paragraph that proves that no, they weren't always more expensive. My first mac was also cheaper than my last thinkpad, while they were roughly in the same category.

 

[Homy]

That's a really low score for the 14900k. If you look on Geekbench's web site, multi-core scores of >26000 and single core scores of 3400 are not unusual. Also, single core benchmarking won't bring either chip near it's max TDP. Multi-core benchmarking will, though, which is why the fastest multicore chips are desktop chips.

I made a rough calculation based on the numbers I found. I have corrected my previous post but that didn't change much. Previously M3 used about 8 times less power (125/15). Now it uses 7-15 times less power. So a Macbook with base M3 8 cores at 4.05 GHz and 5W with the single-core score 3076 is close to the best Intel desktop system with i9-14900K 24 cores at 6 GHz and 35W to 78W with 3409.

 

[ipaqrat]

Why couldn't they? AWS pairs nvidia gpus with their arm cpus for a while now.

Whoa, shenanigans 🤣. Throwing this out here is a teensy bit misleading, doncha think?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hardware architectures don't compare to ANYTHING most folk recognize as a "Computer"

AWS Web Services uses AMD EPYC or INTEL x64, racked and stacked in superclusters, doled out by their hypervisor. Here, the the ARM Cortex chipset is VIRTUALIZED on demand.

AWS also provides actual ARM Graviton processors, which are similar in performance and use cases to Inte's higher end Xeon. But again, they are typically pooled and doled out by a hypervisor on demand.

AWS graphics hardware is based on NVIDIA A100, T4 and V100 GPUs, typically blades racked and stacked in superclusters, doled out by their hypervisor. Conventional frame-buffered video is VIRTUALIZED.

AWS doesn't have Cortexs or Snapdragons, hot-snotted into ATX cases with RTX4090s, running secret-squirrel drivers.

 

[jimbobb24]

From the presentation, it seemed like they were trying to address the people still using Intel machines. Which is probably a big group, given that a lot of people will eke out 5 years' use from their computers. Those people are in for a treat, honestly. Going from my 2020 Intel i5 Air to the M1 Air gave me a Mac with 2-3x the battery life, zero fan noise, and what felt like 2x the responsiveness. Such a huge difference. Looks like it takes a few years worth of Apple Silicon updates to equal that jump.

I replaced laptops right away and WOW. But my desktops will just get replaced after normal 7 year lifespan. They just do photos and email and normal family stuff.

 

[hans1972]

Why Apple owners have to care and go somewhere discuss subpar Samsung or Microsoft. Here and now we discuss Apple.

Well, it shows that having 8Gb of RAM and calling the product "pro" is somewhat of an industry standard.

 

[tYNS]

I would like a faster Mac. I would not like a Windows PC that is faster than my Mac. I'm sure gamers feel the same way about Macs.

Me too. I have exclusively used MacOS daily since OS 8. I knew when they announced Mac OS X it was going to be a great OS. I love MacOS (until recently after they sucked out all the open standards). I had a dual roll as network admin for a Windows Server environments. I appreciate both worlds. The problem is we have a bunch of corporate greed trying to suck every dime out of apple now. 7g for a laptop or 10g for a desktop is not acceptable. Enough is enough. The specs they are selling for that amount are not justified when you look at PC equivalents for Price/Performance. No power user cares about Performance/Watt. When you can get a job rendered out faster on a Windows box with the same results for cheaper, that is what matters. More work done equals more money in your pocket. Savings you can use for upgrades that will again be faster than apple offerings in another year. When apple can say we have a machine that outperforms a 14900K with dual 5090's in it for 7g-10g, then I will say, hey.. they are actually competing. Right now, they are not competing. They are playing catch-up. They are about a year behind in CPU and 3-4 years behind in GPU. I would say they have painted themselves in a corner. They are going to hit a point where that SOC is just not feasible to produce for yields because they are jamming too much in. Again, I love MacOS and I love a lot of the features and service apple offers. ... but this last decade is dismal hardware and barely, if any, software offerings from apple for "Pro's". Sorry, but the 2000's were a glorious time for apple. It's changed drastically this last decade. Just my thoughts watching them for the last 30 years. They need to get prices down and simplify the product line again.

 

[TheLunaPark]

I wish the benchmarks were in real-world units, like how many Logic Pro virtual tracks can it play before hiccup, or how fast can it copy a TB hard drive, etc. I’ve looked for this answer for years, but still don’t know if I need 16GB of RAM or a Pro chip to run my studio, or if M2 is enough. Everyone will say “just pay for the RAM to be sure” etc, but rather spend difference on a better interface or microphone, you know? I don’t make huge productions, but I’ve still hit processor overload on my i5 iMac with 24 GB.

I’m in this same dilemma. Running a 2017 21.5” iMac that was specced up to 32GB RAM etc however with Apple silicon, it’s difficult to judge the right spec. I’m thinking M3 Pro Mac Mini when it arrives and up the ram to 32GB. But some say that 32GB isn’t necessary anymore and at £400 it’s quite a pricey spec-up. But as I’m sure you don’t, I wouldn’t want to leave out the extra RAM to regret it when a big Logic project’s open along with Safari and a few other bits and pieces. If only Apple’s RAM wasn’t so stingy and overpriced.

 

[reklex]

Well, as it's basically performance of M1Pro or M1Max, having 14 inch Pros start with base M3 might be justified. M1Pros performance is quite enough for many, if not all, productivity tasks.

just the RAM is disappointing honestly, you deserve more spending almost €2k. But that’s just my opinion.

 

[canon-cinema-0r]

Whoa, shenanigans 🤣. Throwing this out here is a teensy bit misleading, doncha think?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hardware architectures don't compare to ANYTHING most folk recognize as a "Computer"

AWS Web Services uses AMD EPYC or INTEL x64, racked and stacked in superclusters, doled out by their hypervisor. Here, the the ARM Cortex chipset is VIRTUALIZED on demand.

AWS also provides actual ARM Graviton processors, which are similar in performance and use cases to Inte's higher end Xeon. But again, they are typically pooled and doled out by a hypervisor on demand.

AWS graphics hardware is based on NVIDIA A100, T4 and V100 GPUs, typically blades racked and stacked in superclusters, doled out by their hypervisor. Conventional frame-buffered video is VIRTUALIZED.

AWS doesn't have Cortexs or Snapdragons, hot-snotted into ATX cases with RTX4090s, running secret-squirrel drivers.

Everything you wrote down is pointless and rather obvious attempt at showing off, unless you think the challenge would be connecting the components with pcie.

 

[davedude]

It would have been better to have started the M3 14" with 4GB of RAM just to see MacRumors have a meltdown.

 

[Abazigal]

Well, it shows that having 8Gb of RAM and calling the product "pro" is somewhat of an industry standard.

You could always just add the specs you want and treat that as the default starting price.

 

[tYNS]

I've just posted a single paragraph that proves that no, they weren't always more expensive. My first mac was also cheaper than my last thinkpad, while they were roughly in the same category.

I came out of college with debt in '99 and I still could afford a PowerMac G3. They were about 2,500 (canabucks). I am accomplished now with knowledge and money to spare and I am not stupid enough to spend 7g on a laptop or 10g on a Mac Pro.

 

[ptfuzi]

Well, it shows that having 8Gb of RAM and calling the product "pro" is somewhat of an industry standard.

It has hdmi ports now

 

[Deep_learned_mistake]

It has hdmi ports now

with a dirt slow SD card reader I bet.

 

[chucker23n1]

AWS Web Services uses AMD EPYC or INTEL x64, racked and stacked in superclusters, doled out by their hypervisor. Here, the the ARM Cortex chipset is VIRTUALIZED on demand.

I assure you AMD EPYC and Intel x64(? Do you mean Xeon?) does not virtualize ARM Cortex. Not only is that not what virtualization is, but it also wouldn’t make any sense to do that, unless you have a binary that’s ARM-only.