M1 and M2 suck at gaming (Baldur's Gate 3, I'm looking at you), so there is always a space for improvement, so it is great to see M3 soon
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Mac Trade-In Changes May Indicate New Model to Launch This Month
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Excited to see the new Mac Studio models coming up this year with the M3 cpus
Definitely it is a time for new iMac. Old one M1 is not the best choose for today.
It would be nice if I had at least a year with my M2 Max 16" MBP as the coolest kid on the block...
Either way, this is the best computer I have ever owned(well, used... it is my work computer)
I don't miss my 2018 15" MBP at all, even if it was lighter and thinner. it was at a terrible cost... The fans were full blast all day long by the time I traded it for the M2.
Either way, this is the best computer I have ever owned(well, used... it is my work computer)
I don't miss my 2018 15" MBP at all, even if it was lighter and thinner. it was at a terrible cost... The fans were full blast all day long by the time I traded it for the M2.
I still think updating the 13" Air and not the 15" Air would be a bizarre decision on their part (and thus evidence that it's not happening).
If the iMac is just M2, I don't understand why it wasn't released earlier. Also, releasing an M2 iMac when M3 Macbook Airs and Mac Minis are likely released within the next 6-9 months doesn't make much sense.
An M3 Imac, released October, makes the most sense. It's a unique product - a consumer desktop.
An M3 Imac, released October, makes the most sense. It's a unique product - a consumer desktop.
M3 is not just more power efficient. It will include the new GPU which is definitely something the iMac could benefit from as the M1 has lacklustre graphics capabilities.
As is any old Intel Mac released in the last decade. Being ‘still fine’ is not good enough for a product sold right now for more than $1000
I don't think they would upgrade the 15 inch until March. They are likely gonna say, there are sufficient pro's and con's to having staggered releases. Want a bigger display and better audio, go for the 15 inch Air; want portability and performance, go for the 13 Air or Pro with M3. This will differentiate line up or force many to buy both. 😄
I'm in line to replace a 27" iMac. Ideally, it'd be M3 @ 32". Probably, it'll be M2 @ 24" and I'll be sad.
What use case does a $1200 iMac user have where the M1 GPU is 'lackluster'?
No. Apple’s history shows it will be released as is. Then a year later it will get the M3. Apple will release a new Vision every year. Any takers? Odds? Heh.
🤞 Please, Please, Please... iMac Pro XDR 🤞 Haha. I can dream. 🤣
I have a lot of Intel Macs from the last decade. They're hot, not very fast for single-threaded tasks and basically fail in comparison to every Mx product for average-user tasks.
The real question, at least for me, is whether the new M3 family of SoC will be manufactured on the N3B or the N3E process. If this clues are true and new M3 Macs are around the corner, then yes, it will be manufactured on the N3B process, most likely. If so, I’ll probably wait until the N3E based M4, but that’s just me.
What I'm excited about is to see if the M3 will get hardware raytracing on the GPU like the iPhone 15 Pro/Max A17 pro did. This is one of the few things still lacking on the Apple silicon GPU and could be a game changer. Literally.
While bang for buck Nvidia still has an edge for the budget line of GPUs, Apple Silicon is really catching up performance wise. Excluding a few very special use cases or gaming a lot of pro level apps for content creation are now just as fast if not faster for almost all tasks compared to Nvidia. Even complex noise reduction for video is catching up. In Resolve for example noise reduction is just about the only thing left that Nvidia does better.
Even for gaming the addition of hardware raytracing could really boost the performance in games and open up interest with developers to port or create games for Mac. At least they can no longer hide behind the excuse that the performance isn't there. It will now clearly come down to budget and if they want to justify spending the resources to make a Mac version.
At least the performance hurdle can possibly finally be crossed. Then we have two hurdles left.
1. Developers hiring talent to port Mac versions of games and justifying that cost with sales.
2. If those using Macs even care about gaming on their Mac. We have so many more options today like our phones and consoles. Even though though are games for Mac now I never really want to bother playing them on my Mac. I prefer to keep my Mac as a workhorse computer and keep it as a productive tool. I just much prefer to play games on something else instead. Either my iPhone, iPad Pro, Apple TV or Nintendo Switch. I also have a desktop PC for a few specific games I must have and if it came down to it I'm going to do that on my PC instead. Not because it's better but I can keep the use cases for each device specific. Not everyone has that option and may want to play games on their Mac because its all they have vs maybe a phone as well.
While bang for buck Nvidia still has an edge for the budget line of GPUs, Apple Silicon is really catching up performance wise. Excluding a few very special use cases or gaming a lot of pro level apps for content creation are now just as fast if not faster for almost all tasks compared to Nvidia. Even complex noise reduction for video is catching up. In Resolve for example noise reduction is just about the only thing left that Nvidia does better.
Even for gaming the addition of hardware raytracing could really boost the performance in games and open up interest with developers to port or create games for Mac. At least they can no longer hide behind the excuse that the performance isn't there. It will now clearly come down to budget and if they want to justify spending the resources to make a Mac version.
At least the performance hurdle can possibly finally be crossed. Then we have two hurdles left.
1. Developers hiring talent to port Mac versions of games and justifying that cost with sales.
2. If those using Macs even care about gaming on their Mac. We have so many more options today like our phones and consoles. Even though though are games for Mac now I never really want to bother playing them on my Mac. I prefer to keep my Mac as a workhorse computer and keep it as a productive tool. I just much prefer to play games on something else instead. Either my iPhone, iPad Pro, Apple TV or Nintendo Switch. I also have a desktop PC for a few specific games I must have and if it came down to it I'm going to do that on my PC instead. Not because it's better but I can keep the use cases for each device specific. Not everyone has that option and may want to play games on their Mac because its all they have vs maybe a phone as well.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
if we're iMac dreaming, this long-term iMac user embraced separates and a 5K ultra-wide screen. To ever lure me back to an iMac, the ultra-wide screen would have to be a part of it along with a Target Display Mode resurrection so the screen could continue being used after the guts are made obsolete too soon by software or some bit of those guts just conk (which is almost never the screen itself).
All that extra screen R.E. is just wayyyyyyyyy too useful. So dreaming: M3 MAX iMac ≈ 40" ultra-wide! Height doesn't actually look much different than the former 27" but width is productivity boosting delight.
Magic 8 Ball says: No chance. But dreaming is fun.
All that extra screen R.E. is just wayyyyyyyyy too useful. So dreaming: M3 MAX iMac ≈ 40" ultra-wide! Height doesn't actually look much different than the former 27" but width is productivity boosting delight.
Magic 8 Ball says: No chance. But dreaming is fun.
Waiting on two product updates:
- m3 mini - my company is very cash sensitive/cheap to replacing my aging, 3 previous owners 2017 MBP, and I could probably talk them into getting a mini instead. The bump from 2017 intel to M3 would be massive, even in an affordable mini.
- M3 Mac Studio - which we know is way off. Hoping to see some raytracing cores added to M3 GPU that all these render engines can take advantage of. The new iPhone chip having RT capabilities is a good indicator of things to come.
I don't think its a hardware product they are gonna let stagnate. They will keep iterating it even if some years most of the upgrades are internal upgrades. But I do agree, the M2 model is locked for launch and the M3 model will be 2025.
My current 11" iPad Pro 2TB has the M2 chip.... Got one so I could continue the use of my Brydge keyboard from my M1 11" iPad. Supposedly a redesign flor the M3.
There needs to be a significant increase in the single core speeds of the M3 processors for me to even notice them. Apple has almost the same single core speed in every M1 and also in the M2 lineup.
There was about a 10% jump inn single core speeds from M1 to M2. May have to wait for the M4 before there is a significant enough jump in single core speeds to trash my M1 Ultra Mac Studio and 14" MBPro M1 Max. They represent about a $12k cost basis and do what I need them to do.
There needs to be a significant increase in the single core speeds of the M3 processors for me to even notice them. Apple has almost the same single core speed in every M1 and also in the M2 lineup.
There was about a 10% jump inn single core speeds from M1 to M2. May have to wait for the M4 before there is a significant enough jump in single core speeds to trash my M1 Ultra Mac Studio and 14" MBPro M1 Max. They represent about a $12k cost basis and do what I need them to do.