Apple M3 Processor Series

Understanding possibly five Apple M3 Series processors

Currently there are no released M3 Series processors.
Wikipedia 

I think it is almost certain that M3 Series processors will start appearing in Apple products in mid 2023. We know Apple is trying to move M Series processor upgrades to an annual rhythm like the A Series processors for iPhones etc. We also know that Apple supplier TSMC’s 3-nanometer process is in production and that Apple has purchased 100% of that capacity.

The M3 series will use the N3E architecture, an improvement on the N3 or 3nm process. The N3E process is expected to have a 15% performance boost and a 30% power saving improvement over the N5P process in the M2.

The M3 series will be improved but probably not enough for most people to upgrade from a M2 equivalent. The M3 series will be improved enough for many people to upgrade from an M1 equivalent though.

The brilliance of Apple silicon is the components of each one are the same. There are just more or less of them in each type.

Performance of the various M3 processors, just like their predecessors really will boil down to the base M3 processor performance.

All M3 Series specifications are estimates

All we know for sure now is the M3 Series will be based on 3-nanometer technology. If nothing else changes, this alone will bring performance improvement.

** If you are browsing this page from a phone, you may want to view the following chart in landscape mode.

Component	M3	M3 Pro	M3 Max	M3 Ultra	M3 Extreme
Efficiency CPU Cores	4	6	4	8	16
Efficiency Clock	2.4GHz	2.4GHz	2.4GHz	2.4GHz	2.4GHz
Performance CPU Cores	4	6 or 8	12	24	48
Performance Clock	3.5GHz	3.5GHz	3.5GHz	3.5GHz	3.5GHz
Neural Engine Cores	16	16	16	32	64
GPU Cores options	8 or 10	18 or 20	32 or 40	64 or 80	128 or 160
Unified Memory options	8GB 16GB 24GB	16GB 32GB	32GB 64GB 96GB	64GB 128GB 192GB	128GB 256GB 384GB
Memory Bandwidth	100GB/s	200GB/s	400GB/s	800GB/s	1600GB/s
Video Decode Engines	1	1	1	2	4
Video Encode Engines	1	1	2	4	8
ProRes Encode-Decode Engines	1	1	2	4	8

Assuming a 2 year processor life cycle, before the end of 2025 the M3 Series should be history and fully replaced by the Apple M4 Processor Series in newly released products.

CPU & GPU Performance Benchmarks

Buying an Apple M3 Series computer

Any Apple M3 Series computer will be an incredible experience compared to music and video production on Intel hardware. However it is highly recommended to get at least 16GB of memory (or more) and 512GB storage (or more) if you select an M3 Series system.

There are 9 basic form factors of Apple macOS systems with M3 Series processors expected, 5 laptops and 4 desktops.

• 13″ MacBook Air M3
• 15″ MacBook Air M3
• 13″ MacBook Pro M3
• 14″ MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
• 16″ MacBook Pro M3 Pro & M3 Max
• 24″ iMac M3
• Mac mini M3 & M3 Pro
• Mac Studio M3 Max & M3 Ultra
• Mac Pro M3 Ultra & M3 Extreme

Thanks!
-Yehuda

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