First Benchmark Results Surface for M3 Chip in New Macs

[Mescagnus]

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

But to what extent does that hinder or slow down your real-world productivity? I consider M2 with 8 GB RAM delightfully fast. YMMV of course, depending of your workflows.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

My iPhone 15 Pro Max does 2900 or something in single core. That is quite interesting.

Well, I was going to day you might want to go back and re-check your history on that. I have a 15 Pro Max as well - 512 GB version. But I hadn't updated GeekBench from 5 to 6 yet.

My GeekBench 5 CPU results were 2132 and 5900 respectively.​

My GeekBench 6 CPU results were 2916 an 7217 respectively.​

​

Wonder what changed between GeekBench 5 and 6? That's a big difference between them.

 

[Spock]

As much as I love iMacs, that's a major issue with them. I have some perfectly lovely iMacs with great screens that I can't really use because they are getting old (2013/2014) and can't be used as an external monitor with my Apple Silicon computers.

The good thing is now at least they can the used as an AirPlay receiver. Not perfect, but for content consumption it works well.

 

[eropko]

But to what extent does that hinder or slow down your real-world productivity? I consider M2 with 8 GB RAM delightfully fast. YMMV of course, depending of your workflows.

Does the extent of slowdown matter if you are able to NOT experience any slowdown at all if you've had 16Gb?

Also I'd be worried about SSD wear and tear by swap cause 8Gb usually are bought with 256Gb, smallest TBW.

 

[klasma]

how do you fit desktop into backpack and keep it under 3.5 pounds?

Hence why Apple should develop different SoCs for laptops vs. desktops, which they don’t.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

As much as I love iMacs, that's a major issue with them. I have some perfectly lovely iMacs with great screens that I can't really use because they are getting old (2013/2014) and can't be used as an external monitor with my Apple Silicon computers.

As you may be aware, there IS a hack option that could resolve that conundrum for even much less than advertised (in the following video headline) since you already own those iMacs...

 

[StudioMacs]

One of the biggest value premises of the M series is that the chip can run at full speed without throttling (or minimal throttling) in both a laptop and desktop. So an M2 Max in an MBP and a Studio will perform the same. So yes, a newer generation of the same chip should absolutely outperform the prior generation of chip. Being in a desktop or laptop is irrelevant.

Most tests I’ve seen show thermal throttling in the MacBook Pro sooner than the Mac Studio due to differences between the enclosures and cooling.

 

[boak]

Well, I was going to day you might want to go back and re-check your history on that. I have a 15 Pro Max as well - 512 GB version. But I hadn't updated GeekBench from 5 to 6 yet.

My GeekBench 5 CPU results were 2132 and 5900 respectively.​

My GeekBench 6 CPU results were 2916 an 7217 respectively.​

​

Wonder what changed between GeekBench 5 and 6? That's a big difference between them.

Methodology is different.

Also:
Geekbench 5 uses some CPU as baseline, with a score of 1000.
Geekbench 6 uses another CPU as baseline, with a score of 2500.

 

[colinsky]

Also I'd be worried about SSD wear and tear by swap

One of these years we're going to start hearing about SSD wear and tear. Any year now.

 

[canon-cinema-0r]

Can they? They "have not ruled out" it will be a possibility. Well..

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

 

[eropko]

Most tests I’ve seen show thermal throttling in the MacBook Pro sooner than the Mac Studio due to differences between the enclosures and cooling.

I'm yet to see M1Max running at full fan RPMs, not even speaking about throttling.

You probably can make them throttle, if your daily productivity routine is running furmark non-stop.)

 

[eropko]

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

Idk, maybe that announcement overall looked sus to me. As long as they didn't confirm it can run external GPUs I'd consider it can't. For now.

 

[pi6xjdskfa]

1 have m1 max with 64gb max cores. it stutters with 8k video in final cut x. do you think m3 will allow smooth editing without having to create proxies in fcp x. this is the only reason i want to uprade as i need to edit quickly and have a mix of 4k, 5k, and 8k footage from drone and sony camera.

 

[dominiongamma]

After the snooze fest of a keynote I’m wanting an m4 already

 

[Jimmdean]

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.

sure - but not exactly at the same price point. not really apples-to-apples. If you want max power in a laptop Apple is going to make you pay out the nose for it.

 

[Mescagnus]

Does the extent of slowdown matter if you are able to NOT experience any slowdown at all if you've had 16Gb?

Also I'd be worried about SSD wear and tear by swap cause 8Gb usually are bought with 256Gb, smallest TBW.

My M2 MacBook Air has the 512 GB SSD, which is in any case faster than the 256 GB SSD – as pointed our by speed tests. Maybe it makes some difference?

Anyway, I have not at any point felt that the M2 is slow or wished that I had more RAM.

 

[lococroco]

That’s looking very good! So the standard M3 is now ca. 10–13 % faster than the M1 Pro with 8 cores in my MacBook Pro 14 (2021), while being much more efficient. That’s great news for me, because I rarely if ever get my fans to spin up. I could easily get the entry-level M3 MBP and enjoy much longer battery life. Not that I would, but it’s nice to have the option!

 

[Velli]

I can fully grasp your thinking here. However, that person buying Mac Studio M2 MAX can't buy a Mac Studio M3 MAX yet. That's probably not hitting until Spring 2024 at the earliest... and may not hit until sometime after that. It is likely to WAIT for M3 Ultra which may or may not be ready for Spring 2024 shipments.

Else, if we're going to fault the timing of an upgraded laptop vs. a desktop, consider the timing of when someone could buy a M2 MAX MBpro vs. buying a M3 MAX MBpro (which- per the presentation- is delayed from delivery for a few more weeks vs. M3 PRO and M3). For them, it will be nearly 11 months as "king of the mountain."

Further, many argue that M2 MAX MBpro was delayed from plan, supposedly supposed to be launched last Fall. If we can buy that as plausible, it would have been over a year between updates for same model Mac if it had launched on time.

The big winners by far in this timing concern is the people who jumped on M1 Macs right out of the gate. M2 was delayed so they had "latest & greatest" for an extended period of time that may never be repeated. Some even argue that M-silicon, being based on A-silicon, is likely to get on the same annual update cadence as iPhone... even if Macs sell in much lower volume than the cash cow.

Bottom line: buy ANY tech now and an update is on the way. Time with "latest & greatest" is fleeting. One reason to follow rumors is to try to get insights when new "latest" is going to hit. If maximizing time with "latest" is paramount, do not buy one day later than launch day. Any mid-cycle purchases are doomed to lose "latest" status much sooner than those who pay maximum price at launch.

Some good number of people purchased M2 Macs on the day before M3 Macs were announced. And since those are not yet shipping, some number of people are buying M2 Macs today, tomorrow, and into Nov 7 before M3 replacements are actually available for purchase in stores. Some quantity of people are going to walk out of Apple stores today with a M1 iMac or M2 MBpros and not have a clue or thought about the SOC inside. To them, it is their "brand new" Mac.

If you are buying to be able to say you have the fastest one, that may be an issue. If you are buying to use a computer to perform tasks, it matters very, very little.

Insert joke about size of body part here.

 

[ocdeal]

The 14" MBP with just the M3 is the perfect laptop for me. I don't need the power of the Pro or Max line. But I went for the 14" MBP M1 Pro for the screen.

Like you, I also don’t need the power of the Pro or Max line. However, I will still go for the pro if that means I can connect 2 external monitors and have an additional Thunderbolt 4 port!

 

[Gudi]

I just now realized that hardware support for AV1 decoding actually means no hardware support for encoding. So transcoding movies with HandBrake to AV1 won't be blazing fast. M3 will only save a little bit of battery life while streaming Netflix. 😐

 

[SnoFlo]

It's such a shame they gimp the M3 in terms of displays and ram. The M3 is pretty much on paper for CPU performance like an M2 Pro 14" MacBook Pro. So much power and its not just for normal users.

My main machine is a 2020 27" iMac with the 10 core i9 and the basic m3 is like 25% faster than it apart from GPU as I have the 5700XT. But I use a fair amount of ram I have 64gb and hit it quite frequently, nice thing is I can get another 64 for like £150.

I will keep it as it is still very fast it has a 5k display and can power the other 2x27" 4k displays I have attached to it.

Ram is ram ye the new stuff is more efficient but the costs to get to 64gb is ridiculous dropping down isnt really a sensible option. Specing a 14" MacBook Pro to my iMac spec it would be £4k. £1000 more than my iMac with the additional ram and you dont get a 27" 5k display.

To get 64gb you have to get the max chip too and they are too powerful for what I need could get away with the standard M3.

This is the issue with the new Mac line up the CPUs are gimped by the marketing decisions around ram and displays making you spend 2k more than you should.

Ye they are great but man they are expensive.

I don't know how to phrase this more gently: a base model M1 MacBook Air would run circles around your machine, apart from multi-monitor support. I recently transitioned from Windows to MacOS and my last machine, an HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 with Intel 12950HX (16 cores, 24 threads), got roundly embarrassed not by a MacBook Pro, or a Mac Studio, but by an M1 MacBook AIR. There is more to the game than benchmarks. Apple has optimised performance between its silicon and OS. Granted, the ZBook's NVIDIA RTX A5500 graphic card would slaughter an Air's GPU, but if one's productivity isn't closely tied to fastest GPU performance, Apple's OS/Silicon marriage is in a different league from past Intel chips.

 

[smulji]

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.

Exactly. Intel Mac users comprise 40% to 50% of the Mac user base so yeah, that's still a large chunk of Mac users.

 

[Gloor]

Where is the M3 Max studio? I want to buy now seeing that you are saying those the got M2 Max studio in June are ^*(*ed now.

I hope you are not comparing laptop to a desktop here!!!

If my research is correct, the M2 Max mac studio was released on June 13... only to be obsoleted less than 4.5 months later by M3 max. If people who bought the m2 max mac studio had known m3 max was coming so soon, perhaps some would have delayed their purchase, no?

 

[falkon-engine]

sure - for a minimum of $3200. Someone is getting taken for a ride…

Yep and by time m4 max is ready, these same laptops will be on discount for $600 or more off.

 

[smulji]

Was kinda hoping single core would break 3200… I’m on the fence about upgrading from my M1 Pro to an M3 Pro or Max.

M1 Pro is still a great system. I would hang on to that for another 2 to 3 years.