When you think of Apple laptops, you don’t typically think of hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and mesh shading. Those buzzwords tend to be the domain of gaming-focused Windows laptops instead of Apple’s productivity machines. However, that’s exactly the kind of promise the new MacBook Pro M3 is bringing to the table.
That’s right, the new-generation MacBook Pros just may be proper gaming machines now, allowing Apple users to ruin their productivity with the newest AAA titles just like Windows users have done for decades. Of course, graphics artists, animators, and 3D modelers more keen on getting work done should also be able to take advantage of the new machines’ beefed up graphics performance whenever they’re so inclined.
The new MacBook Pro M3 line, of course, uses the outfit’s fresh-off-the-oven family of M3 chips, namely the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. According to the outfit, these are the first personal computing chips built on a three nanometer process, which means they contain more transistors per unit of space than the five-nanometer M2. This results in performance cores that are 15 percent faster than the M2, with efficiency cores that are 30 percent faster. That means, you don’t just get faster performance, you get more efficient power use, too.
To illustrate this efficiency, Apple claims that the M3’s GPU can hit the M1 GPU’s performance levels while using around half the power levels. The base M3 gets an eight-core CPU and 10-cpu GPU, with support for up to 24GB of unified RAM, while the M3 Pro steps it up with a 12-core CPU, an 18-core GPU, and support for up to 32GB of memory. The M3 Max, on the other hand, takes things to the next level with a 12-core CPU, a 40-core GPU, and support for up to 120GB of RAM. Yeah… the Max takes things to OP territory.
The MacBook Pro M3 line comes in 14-inch and 16-inch versions, with both sizes available to be equipped with any of the three M3 chips. Each laptop also comes with a Liquid Retina XDR display, with the 14-inch model sporting 3,024 x 1,964 resolution and the 16-inch machine getting 3,456 x 2,234 resolution. Both displays boast 1,600 nits max brightness and 1,000 nits sustained, all while being able to display SDR content up to 600 nits, which is up from 500 nits in the last generation. They also get multichannel sensors that adjust the color and intensity of the display, adaptive refresh rates up to 120 Hz, and the full DCI-P3 color space.
All the new MacBook Pro laptops are equipped with 22 hours of battery life, a 1080p FaceTime HD webcam, a six-speaker sound system with built-in woofers, three-mic array with directional beamforming, Touch ID, backlit Magic Keyboard, three USB-C ports, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and the usual wireless connectivity options. The 14-inch laptop can get up to 2TB of storage, while the 16-inch can have up to 8TB. They are available in silver, space gray, or space black colors.
The MacBook Pro M3 is available now, priced starting at $1,599.