Apple’s New M3 Pro Chip Brings Incremental Improvements to MacBook Pro
Apple’s latest release, the M3 Pro chip, is causing a stir in the tech world as it seems to be a bit of an odd fit in the otherwise solidly improved MacBook Pro lineup. While the new chip offers great battery life and performance gains over the standard M3, it falls somewhat short of expectations for year-over-year upgraders.
The M3 Pro’s performance is not significantly better than the older M2 Pro, due to an interesting design choice by Apple. The M3 Pro features an equal split of six performance cores and six efficiency cores, compared to the performance-favored eight/four split in the M2 Pro. Additionally, the M3 Pro edges out the M2 Pro in most published benchmarks, thanks in part to a new three-nanometer die process.
However, tech experts and YouTuber Luke Miani have pointed out that the M3 Pro seems purposefully limited, with fewer performance and GPU cores than the previous generation. This has resulted in the M3 Pro and M2 Pro performing almost identically overall, despite the newer chip’s enhanced battery life.
Overall, the M3 Pro seems to demonstrate a subtle shift in Apple’s chip lineup, positioning it as an incremental improvement over the standard M3, but still falling behind the high-end M3 Max. This strategic move puts a larger gap between the mid-range and high-end options, potentially pushing buyers towards spending more for the Max model.
For those hoping to see significant performance gains, it may be worth waiting for the next generation. However, for users with Intel Macs, now may be the best time to make the leap to the new M3 Pro. While it may not be a significant leap from older models, the M3 Pro still offers some performance gains and the ability to connect two external monitors instead of one.
In the end, Apple’s new M3 Pro chip offers incremental improvements over its predecessors, but may leave some users waiting for more substantial gains in the next iteration of MacBook Pro models.