Apple’s latest 3nm family of Mac chipsets include the M3, M3 Pro, and the M3 Max, and based on various performance tests and leaks, two of them are considered iterative updates over their direct predecessors, while one of them is viewed as a worthy upgrade. In a new report, the base SoC and the M3 Pro are largely criticized as they do not bring anything noteworthy.

M3 Max performance compared to desktop chips like the M2 Ultra that power the Mac Studio and Mac Pro

In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter, the Bloomberg reporter provided his thoughts on Apple’s latest M3 lineup. In his view, the base chipset sporting an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU is a ‘nice refresh’ when compared to the M1, but it does not provide a considerable upgrade that requires an immediate switch. However, we do want to point out that the M3 actually matches the 10-core CPU of the M2 Proin Geekbench 6’s multi-core test while beating the latter in the single-core benchmark, so improvements do exist.

“The M3 doesn’t move the needle considerably from the M2, but it’s a nice refresh coming from the M1. The company says the 2023 iMac is about twice as fast as the 2021 version with the older chip.”

Gurman appears to be highly disappointed with the M3 Pro and states that incorporating a pair of power-efficient cores and adding nothing to the GPU core count will not set it apart from the M2 Pro. M3 Pro is also barely faster than the M2 Pro, obtaining a measly 6 percent leadin Geekbench 6’s multi-core score. Fortunately, he does praise the M3 Max, which provides the biggest performance uplift when you compare direct predecessors. In fact, the top-end part that features a 16-core CPU is actually faster than the M2 Ultraand its 24-core CPU configuration.

“The M3 Pro isn’t much of a game-changer, simply adding a pair of power-efficient processing cores and not gaining much in the graphics department over the M2 Pro. The M3 Max is quite a feat, adding more main processing cores and graphics cores, plus the ability to top out memory to 128 gigabytes in a laptop. Users can now carry around a laptop with 16 main cores and 40 graphics cores, putting its performance in line with desktop machines like the M2 Ultra Mac Studio or Mac Pro.”

Another area where Apple prioritized the M3 Max is the transistor count compared to each generation. Between the M2 Max and its successor, there is a 37 percent transistor count difference, making it the highest gap for any M-series chipset. Unfortunately, with the M3 Pro, it appears that Apple went in the completely opposite direction, as it sports fewer performance cores and a lower memory bandwidth than the M2 Pro. Did you agree with Gurman’s assessment of the new 3nm Apple Silicon range, or do you believe these provide something entirely new? Tell us in the comments.