Kuo: First MacBooks With M3 Chip Unlikely to Launch This Year

[jz0309]

Yes but my understanding is that the “heart” of the max/ultra/whatever else they’re called is the base M. So given that, I don’t think they’d be using N3B because longer term that’s a complete dead end.

They’re likely holding off for volume production of N3E for the entirety of the M series and N3B designs are not compatible to simply be “switched over” to the N3E process.

Am I wrong about the base M’a being the building block of the upper series? I could be.

yes, the "base" is the core so to speak, but Apple has been using SOC, meaning the entire Mx/Pro/max is an entire chip in itself. So from that perspective your first volume chip will be the base.
and yes, you cannot "switch" from N3B to N3E, it is a new/different design

 

[bradman83]

A friend of mine wants to replace her MacBook Air from 2013 and I told her she should wait until the new models will be released in October. What should I tell her now?

If she's upgrading from a 10 year old MBA then even the 2022 model MBA is going to be a substantial upgrade in just about every category. That also tells me she probably isn't looking for bleeding edge performance (otherwise she would have upgraded sooner) so an M2 will more than meet her needs for the next decade. The MBA will likely stick with its current design for a few iterations, and while the M3 will be faster and more efficient it probably isn't going to make a huge difference. Plus she can probably find them on sale somewhere (Amazon currently has various M2 configurations for $200 off).

 

[Gudi]

Kuo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

I always rolled my eyes when journalists quoted Twitter as if it was a serious source of information. But now it is getting beyond ridiculous. I can't be the only one who spontaneously associates a frilled shirt singing purple rain with this phrase. What's next, the short-message service known as unpronounceable unicode symbol?

 

[HudsonSteele]

Honestly, what apple is doing with the M series chips is truly fascinating. I just wish they would open up the ipads to really perform like a laptop: Let them run deskop software. I know it doesn't put as much money in their pockets like services do but for an IT guy, having a desktop class device, with full functionality, thats portable, would make me invest in one hands down. I used to have one, but it really can't do much more than my phone (which is way ore portable) so I would either revert to my phone because of ease or move to the computer because of capability. I have seen people jailbreak and run Windows 11 on ipad pro and it looks awesome, but I would rather not have to monkey with a $1000+ dollar device and risk bricking it to get it to do what I want.

 

[dlastmango]

Does anyone remember this article?

18 month upgrade cycle. We get M3 18mo after M2,

 

[Warped9]

Kuo is mentioning only MacBooks. That means the M3 iMac can still happen this year. 👍

 

[jecowa]

That sucks. I was really looking forward to a new M3 MBP for the new school year. Hardware raytracing lets goooooooo!

What happened to the good ol' days when there were new laptops for the school season? I guess Apple's complacency has driven them to the point of "it's ready when it's ready". Good on them that they have the ability to take their time with limited competition.

They usually do sales of old models for back-to-school, then release new models later. There's limited 3nm chips from TSMC for now, so Apple might be having to prioritize the iPhone line for the upcoming release.

 

[Tdude96]

If she's upgrading from a 10 year old MBA then even the 2022 model MBA is going to be a substantial upgrade in just about every category. That also tells me she probably isn't looking for bleeding edge performance (otherwise she would have upgraded sooner) so an M2 will more than meet her needs for the next decade. The MBA will likely stick with its current design for a few iterations, and while the M3 will be faster and more efficient it probably isn't going to make a huge difference. Plus she can probably find them on sale somewhere (Amazon currently has various M2 configurations for $200 off).

I bought an M2 Air BTO for personal use, and it's surpassing my expectations in every way. That was a real eye-opener on the power of these chips.

It sips power, cost less than $2000 before taxes, and aside from only being able to support a single external display, it surpasses the performance of the 5 year old ~$3,000 MBP I use for work in virtually every way.

Anyone coming from a 10 year old MBA is going to see an extraordinary difference, no need to hold out for an M3 model.

 

[Adelphos33]

With Apple announcing the phone and watch next week, it would be highly unusual for Apple to not have another release before year end. So something is going to be released in October. We have no rumors on the iPad front, while we know an M3 iMac has been under development for a long time. They just released a new m2 Macbook Air. I think we get M3 iMac, plus some minor iPad refreshes, in October.

 

[theorist9]

and yes, you cannot "switch" from N3B to N3E, it is a new/different design

If they designed the M3 architecture, from the start, to accommodate both processes, they could move M3 from N3B to N3E. But none of us know if they've done that. Otherwise porting, while it could be done, would be costly.

Yes but my understanding is that the “heart” of the max/ultra/whatever else they’re called is the base M. So given that, I don’t think they’d be using N3B because longer term that’s a complete dead end.

It doesn't matter that N3B is finite, because so is M3. They could just keep the N3B production lines, which they've already spent a lot of money to set up, in place until production moves to M4.

 

[Adelphos33]

Anyone that is a iMac owner doesn't want the update to be just a base M3 and thats it after 2 1/2 years of waiting for the successor of the M1 based 24" iMacs. Not enough of a performance increase for a non-battery Mac.

M1 Imac owner here eagerly awaiting a yellow M3 Imac with 24GB or RAM and 1 TB of storage...

Base M3 should be a solid jump over Base M1. You could easily see Apple focusing on that, and saying more to come for pro chips next year

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

Curious to see if the M1 iMac can hit three years

 

[theorist9]

That sucks. I was really looking forward to a new M3 MBP for the new school year. Hardware raytracing lets goooooooo!

What happened to the good ol' days when there were new laptops for the school season? I guess Apple's complacency has driven them to the point of "it's ready when it's ready". Good on them that they have the ability to take their time with limited competition.

That was when Apple was on Intel, and Intel had a new process every year. But remember that started to slow down. Both the 2018 and 2019 MBP's were on Coffee Lake, the difference being that Intel increased the clock & cache on the 2019 model.

 

[deevey]

A friend of mine wants to replace her MacBook Air from 2013 and I told her she should wait until the new models will be released in October. What should I tell her now?

That you don't actually know? 😅

The 15" Air just got released in June. I just can't see Apple updating the 13/15 Air's separately - so at least a summer '24 launch.

An M3 iMac or Mini, a possibility, or perhaps the MBP's will get newer chips first this time around and the Air's will be updated on a schedule 6 months behind, which would make perfect sense IMHO unless they manage to squeeze the Pro chip in the 13" to widen the spec gap against the Air.

All speculation - we'll see in a month or so.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

But that's not fair. I wanted a discounted 13" M2 MBA before the end of the year.

 

[dandyryan]

M1 iMac is going to turn 3 💀

 

[t0rqx]

So more time for them to remove that notch on the MB and streamline the design with their other products like iPhone and iPad.

 

[nihil0]

You know what's really sad? That currently only AIO in Apple's lineup maxes out at 16 GB RAM. Yup, in 2023, when the CPU's are in-house, iMac is limited by the M1 architecture. It is a great computer but it is outdated by other Apple products. I mean, is it THAT hard to swap M1 for M2 in factory and insert new memory modules there, Apple?

 

[RedTheReader]

Wow… they really are determined to give Intel the raw time (measured in years) that they need to become somewhat competitive on efficiency with them. Most normal people would think that’s insane and only someone who grossly underestimate a titan like Intel would do so. But I suppose Apple’s arrogant enough to let it happen.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

What happened to the good ol' days when there were new laptops for the school season? I guess Apple's complacency has driven them to the point of "it's ready when it's ready".

There was a new MacBook Air in June 2023 and 2022.
That’s back to school season, not late October.

 

[theorist9]

Does anyone remember this article?

18 month upgrade cycle. We get M3 18mo after M2,

...which is why they probably skipped the A16 when designing the M3, since the A-series chips come out annually:

A14 => M1
A15 => M2
A17 => M3

But I'd also read that, eventually, Apple wanted to synchronize the two, and have both on an annual update cycle. Not sure whether that's actually true, though.

 

[Burnincoco]

A friend of mine wants to replace her MacBook Air from 2013 and I told her she should wait until the new models will be released in October. What should I tell her now?

Tell her "I'm not a wizard!"

 

[Abazigal]

The vision pro ships next year with an M2 chip. It doesn’t take a detective to conclude that we won’t be getting an M3 chip before then.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

The vision pro ships next year with an M2 chip. It doesn’t take a detective to conclude that we won’t be getting an M3 chip before then.

Cancel it and ship the MBP M3

 

[ohthehorror]

All this wringing of hands, rendering of garments, gnashing of teeth over high priced luxury items. Living in the first world bubble is grand.