I’ve been wanting to upgrade my 2018 Air but I’m not sure if I’m ready to take the plunge on this new architecture and what I may not be able to do with it… the intel Mac’s keep getting cheaper, and more tempting… has anyone found they couldn’t do something important or even fun on the new M chip? Clearly you can’t run Windows as a virtual machine, which I may seriously want to do for Visual Studio if I get a much more capable Mac.
Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
761–770 of 1001 posts
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#762Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine the amount of people upgrading from an M2 Mac will be close to 0, while there's a lot of Intel stragglers out there.
Intel straggler here ! When M1 hit I was certain I would get a M Apple in a year or two when they iron out the transition. It was just leaps and bounds ahead of others and the pricing was great. Now I think AMD and Intel caught up enough, Apple didn't keep the momentum, and they do standard Apple pricing discrimination - I think I'll take a gamble on Framework AMD version. I really like the idea behind the self-repai…
The big thing I like about the M's is how quiet they are. I hate fan whirr in my old age.
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#763Earlier quoted context omitted.
I imagine the amount of people upgrading from an M2 Mac will be close to 0, while there's a lot of Intel stragglers out there.
I’m an Intel strangler because it’s the only way I can have Mac and Windows on the same machine. Am I the only person that really needs this? Parallels has trash performance.
I got a NUC for whenever I need windows and just RDP in it. It mostly collects dust.
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#764I got a new M2 Pro 16" just a few weeks ago. I was pissed when I discovered that a new M3 Pro was coming out. Reading all the comments here, I feel a bit better.
You missed out on black though.
Yes, the black is the "killer feature" of those Macs, I'm thinking about upgrading from my M1 Air solely for this reason :)
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#765A few things I noticed, as I'm seeing the variety of SKUs becoming more complex. - Note that memory bandwidth is down. M2 Pro had 200GB/s, M3 Pro only has 150GB/s. M3 Max only has 400GB/s on the higher binned part. - Just like the low-spec M3 14" has one fewer Thunderbolt port, it also doesn't officially support Thunderbolt 4 (like M1/M2 before it) - The M3 Pro loses the option for an 8TB SSD. Likely because it was a…
In addition to the reduced memory bandwidth, the M3 pro also loses 2 performance cores for only 2 more efficiency cores. M2 pro: 8 performance cores + 4 efficiency cores. M3 pro: 6 performance cores + 6 efficiency cores. Not a great trade... I'm not sure the M3 pro can be considered an upgrade
The new efficiency cores are 30% faster than M2, and the performance ones 20% faster, so lets do the math:
M2: 8 + 4
M3: 6*1.2 + 6*1.3 =
7.2 + 7.8
They do say the system overall is up to 65% faster, and has lower power consumption at the same performance level.
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#766It's quite impressive that the event was filmed on iPhone 15 Pro[1], although it involved professional lighting and various equipment, which is not typical for the average user.
With the ability to capture in Log, it's possible that the next iPhone release might be filmed using the very phone that's being unveiled.
[1] Source: https://www.youtube.com/live/ctkW3V0Mh-k?t=30m02s
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#767Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m an Intel strangler because it’s the only way I can have Mac and Windows on the same machine. Am I the only person that really needs this? Parallels has trash performance.
Parallels is an overpriced rubbish with stupid limitations. I’m switching to WMWare or VMWare as of right now
Parallels used to be front-runner with better support for new macOS features. vmWare used to lag behind with weird issues. This is why I switched from vmWare Fusion to Parallels Desktop a few years back. What are these limitations you speak of? And what makes it rubbish?
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#768Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#769One thing that left me a bit confused was the comparison against Intel Macs. Although I am still using an Intel 16-inch MacBook, I really wanted to see how the M3 fared against the M2, not Intel and M1. I think it's no surprise the M3 exceeds the Intel Core i7-9750H in basically all of Apple's own benchmarking. My real question, which will probably be answered next week, is how it compares to the generation right bef…
I was more surprised not to see any AI-specific benchmarks—sure, the most popular open-source models are from avowed competitors, but there should have been a way to define a re-training task that would be relevant for the wave of ML programmers.
I had the same thought. It seems like the improvements there weren't worth talking about.
AFAICT, the biggest benefit is just the unified memory model at this point.
Re: Apple unveils M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max
#770A few things I noticed, as I'm seeing the variety of SKUs becoming more complex. - Note that memory bandwidth is down. M2 Pro had 200GB/s, M3 Pro only has 150GB/s. M3 Max only has 400GB/s on the higher binned part. - Just like the low-spec M3 14" has one fewer Thunderbolt port, it also doesn't officially support Thunderbolt 4 (like M1/M2 before it) - The M3 Pro loses the option for an 8TB SSD. Likely because it was a…
Wish that you could get the 16-core CPU with the smaller Max GPU, but alas I just ordered one anyway.