Apple’s new M3 Pro chip looks like an odd duck in a solidly improved MacBook Pro laptop. For most people who need a computer with a little more oomph than boring office tasks and multiple external monitors, the M3 Pro will meet their needs and has a great battery to boot. But someone who already has a Mac with an M2 Pro chip, or even a computer with his M1 Pro, who makes his upgrades will not see any performance improvements (even if there were ) may not be seen very often.
If you compare the 12-core M2 Pro and M3 Pro, you can expect much better performance from the latter. The truth is, the M3 Pro isn’t running away from older chips. That’s due to an interesting design choice. Apple has evenly split the M2 Pro between 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, compared to a performance-first 8:4 split. Also, if you have a binned 10-core M2 Pro, the performance split for efficiency cores is 6/4 compared to the cheapest M3 Pro option (11 cores and 5/6 split). Become.
However, the M3 Pro still outperforms the M2 Pro in most published benchmarks. This is also thanks to the new 3-nanometer die process that Apple has started implementing with its A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro. The performance difference is not that big. for example, ars technicaTests show that single-core performance is excellent. about 15% It’s better than the M2 Pro, but it’s almost equal in other scores.
As YouTuber Luke Miani points out with new benchmark video, the M3 Pro seems to be intentionally limited, with less performance and less GPU cores than the previous generation. His tests mirror the same results from other sources, with the M3 Pro and his M2 Pro having roughly the same performance overall. However, one of the clear advantages of the M3 Pro is its battery life, which makes a better sense of its silicon efficiency-oriented configuration.
M3 Pro might be worth waiting another generation
Overall, this signals a change in strategy for Apple’s chip lineup. The M3 Pro is better than the standard M3, but it lags even further behind its M2 generation counterpart and the M3 Max. The new lineup puts more daylight between the new “mid” (M3 Pro) and the high end (buyers may be more inclined to spend at least $2,999 on the Max, even if they don’t really need it).
The M3 Pro shows overall maturity in design, but for those looking for a bigger year-over-year gain to justify a new purchase, it’s worth waiting another generation. There may be. However, for those using Intel Macs, now is probably the best time to make the leap. And while the M3 Pro isn’t a huge departure from the regular M3 for most people, there are still performance improvements to be appreciated, such as the ability to connect his two external monitors instead of one.