Gurman: First M3 Macs may launch by end of the year, chip has more CPU/GPU cores compared to M2

In the latest edition of his Power On Newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that he expects Apple to launch the first Macs with next-generation M3 Apple Silicon either at the end of this year, or early 2024.

Based on developer logs of apps running on prototype M3 Macs, Gurman also details what one variant of the M3 lineup is made up of. His source — which has correctly predicted previous Apple Silicon configurations — indicates that the M3 Pro chip features 12 CPU cores, 18 GPU cores and 36 GB RAM.

If this chip configuration currently in testing comes to fruition, it would see the M3 Pro chip have 2 more CPU cores and 2 more GPU cores compared to the M2 Pro chip, and slightly more max RAM (36 GB on M3 Pro vs 32 GB on M2 Pro). You can expect similar increases on the base M2, Max, and Ultra chips as well.

The current M2 Pro chip is composed of six high-performance cores and four efficiency cores. The M3 Pro chip reportedly has six high-performance cores and six efficiency cores, for a total of 12. This mirrors what Apple did with the jump from M1 to M2, where the core increase was due to a higher count of efficiency cores whilst the number of high-performance cores stayed the same.

The M3 chip line will be made using a 3-nanometer fabrication process. As well as allowing the higher density of cores, the improved fabrication density also usually implies that the performance of each core will also increase. This means the six M3 cores will likely be faster than their M2 counterparts, so it’s not just about comparing the number of cores overall.

At WWDC in June, expect Apple to launch a 15-inch MacBook Air running on an M2 chip. The first M3 Macs are not due until the fall or early 2024. Gurman says Apple is already working on M3 versions of MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.

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