Scary Fast: Apple introduces M3 chip to power new MacBook, iMacs

While you were sleeping Apple revolutionized the laptop and computer segment by introducing the first-ever chip based on 3-nanometer technology. Apple’s M3 chip family packs in more transistors, meaning more technology into a smaller space, meaning “scary fast” computers.

The company also unveiled the new MacBook Pro, a notebook powered by the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips.

These chips are designed to beef up performance while saving battery life.

The base model of the M3 chip has eight main cores – the processing engines on a chip – in addition to 10 cores for graphics.

The M3 Pro chip has 12 central cores and 18 cores for graphics, meanwhile, the M3 Max has 16 main cores and 40 graphics cores. This makes it 80 percent faster than the M1 chip from 2021.

The M3 family of chips features a next-generation GPU, which is faster and more efficient and introduces a new technology called Dynamic Caching.

The company said that new rendering features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to Mac have also been added for the first time.

Rendering speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips and the CPU performance cores and efficiency cores are 30 percent and 50 percent faster than those in M1, respectively.

Trust us, it is crazier than it actually sounds on paper.

Apple announced the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3. The company said that it is not only “great for everyday tasks” but also delivers “phenomenal” sustained performance in pro apps and games”.

The MacBook Pro is available in two variants – 14-inch and 16-inch. The laptop comes with Liquid Retina XDR (3,024×1,964 pixels) displays with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1600 nits (HDR content) and 600 nits (SDR content).

Both variants are further available in three options of M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips.

The M3 Max chip can be configured with up to 128GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the models equipped with M3 and M3 Pro chips can be purchased with up to 24GB and 36GB of RAM, respectively.

All laptops are available with up to 1TB of storage.

The 14-inch model has been priced at a whopping Rs 1,69,900 and the one running on the M3 Pro chip will cost you Rs 1,99,900.

The 16-inch base model of MacBook Pro will cost Rs 2,49,900.

Customers can order the new MacBook Pro in 27 countries, including India, starting today, with availability beginning November 7.

Apple also announced the long overdue update to its 24-inch iMac computer. For those upgrading from the iMac with an M1 processor, it’s going to be 2x faster and for those moving from a 27-inch iMac, it is 2.5x faster.

The computer features a 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels and over a billion colors, faster wireless connectivity, and a seamless experience with the iPhone.

The new iMac starts at Rs 1,34,900 for the 8GB+256GB model with the M3 chip. You can configure it with up to 24GB RAM+1TB SSD, and it will cost Rs 2,14,900.

The 10-core GPU version of the iMac with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage is priced at Rs 1,54,900. It can be configured with up to 24GB RAM+2TB SSD, which costs Rs 2,87,400.