Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max, powers new iMac and MacBook Pro

Apple today has announced the next generation of its computing chips - M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max - focusing on increased performance for Mac. They are the first personal computer chips built using 3-nanometer process technology, these chips have more transistors packed into a smaller space, improving speed and efficiency.

Apple’s new M3 family of chips features a next-generation GPU that represents the biggest leap in graphics architecture ever for Apple silicon. Apple claims the GPU is faster and more efficient, and introduces a new technology called Dynamic Caching, while bringing new rendering features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to Mac for the first time.

Rendering speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips. The CPU performance cores and efficiency cores are 30 percent and 50 percent faster than those in M1, respectively, and the Neural Engine is 60 percent faster than the Neural Engine in the M1 family of chips. And, a new media engine now includes support for AV1 decode, providing more efficient and high-quality video experiences from streaming services. These chips are powering the new  MacBook Pro and iMac.

“Apple silicon has completely redefined the Mac experience. Every aspect of its architecture is designed for performance and power efficiency,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “With 3-nanometer technology, a next-generation GPU architecture, a higher-performance CPU, faster Neural Engine, and support for even more unified memory, M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”

The next-generation GPU inside the M3 family of chips features Dynamic Caching that, unlike traditional GPUs, allocates the use of local memory in hardware in real time. With Dynamic Caching, only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task. This is an industry first feature which is transparent to developers, and Apple claims it is the cornerstone of the new GPU architecture. It increases the average utilisation of the GPU, which significantly increases performance for the most demanding pro apps and games.

With the M3 family of chips, hardware-accelerated ray tracing comes to the Mac for the first time. Ray tracing models the properties of light as it interacts with a scene, allowing apps to create extremely realistic and physically accurate images. This, along with the new graphics architecture, allows pro apps to deliver up to 2.5x the speed of the M1 family of chips.

Apple says each chip in the M3 family features a unified memory architecture. This delivers high bandwidth, low latency, and unmatched power efficiency. Having a single pool of memory within a custom package means all of the technologies in the chip can access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory, further improving performance and efficiency, and reducing the amount of memory a system requires for the majority of tasks. Additionally, support for up to 128GB of memory unlocks workflows previously not possible on a laptop, such as AI developers working with even larger transformer models with billions of parameters.

M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max also have an enhanced Neural Engine to accelerate powerful machine learning (ML) models.  AI image processing tools, like noise reduction and super resolution in Topaz, get faster with the new chipsets. Scene edit detection in Adobe Premiere and Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro also see a boost in performance.

All three chips in the M3 family also have an advanced media engine, providing hardware acceleration to the most popular video codecs, including H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. And for the first time, the media engine supports AV1 decoding, enabling power-efficient playback of streaming services to further extend battery life.

Also Read: Govt issues high-risk warning for Apple products, asks them to update iPhone and other devices urgently

Also Read: Apple iPhones to be made in India for domestic and global markets by Tata: Rajeev Chandrasekhar