Apple introduces new MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″ with M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max sockets

Apple is launching new variants of its MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″. The devices have new M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips and support up to 128GB of memory. The laptops will be available next month for prices starting at 2029 euros.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros can be supplied with three different M3 chips. The entry-level model gets a ‘normal’ M3 SoC, which has eight CPU cores and a maximum of ten GPU cores. The standard M3 is only available in the 14″ MacBook Pro. This variant therefore serves as a replacement for the old MacBook Pro 13″. The new 14″ model has an updated design compared to the 13″ variant and no longer has a touch bar. According to Apple, this new model is up to sixty percent faster than the MacBook Pro with M1.

The M3 Pro chip will be available in both 14″ and 16″ models and will have a maximum of twelve CPU cores and eighteen GPU cores. According to Apple, that chip is up to forty percent faster than the M1 Pro. The M3 Max, in turn, comes with up to sixteen CPU and forty GPU cores. The M3 Max is ‘up to eighty percent faster’ than the M1 Max, Apple claims. The company does not publish comparisons with the M2 Pro and M2 Max, which appeared in the MacBook Pro lineup earlier this year.

Source: Apple

The biggest change in the M3 series of 3nm chips is the improved GPU. This offers, among other things, hardware support for ray tracing, for example for games. The chips also get hardware acceleration for mesh shading. The GPU also supports a new technology called Dynamic Caching. This is a feature in which “the GPU allocates the use of local memory in the hardware in real time, so that exactly the required amount of memory is used for each task,” Apple says. The tech giant claims that the GPU can be used more efficiently.

The MacBook with ‘regular’ M3 SoC can be further equipped with a maximum of 24GB memory and 2TB storage. The Pro variant has a maximum of 36GB of memory and up to 4TB of SSD storage. The MacBook Pros with M3 Max chips support up to 128GB of memory and get up to 8TB of storage space. The new MacBook Pros with M3 Pro or M3 Max chip also get a new color option: space black.

According to Apple, the new MacBook Pros last up to 22 hours on a single battery charge; This certainly applies to the 16″ model with M3 Pro socket. The tech giant does not share any claims about battery life for the 14″ variants and the MacBook Pro 16″ with M3 Max. Furthermore, the new MacBook Pros are virtually identical to the previous 14″ and 16″ models. The laptops again get mini LED screens with a notch for the webcam, although this time they achieve a brightness of up to 600cd/m² for SDR content; that is twenty percent brighter than before. The laptops get furthermore three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI connection, an SD card reader and a MagSafe connector for charging.

Apple’s MacBook Pro with M3 SoC will be available from 2029 euros; that is 410 euros more than the MacBook Pro 13″ with M2. The MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″ with M3 Pro chip will be available from 2549 and 3049 euros respectively, with the 16″ variant having a GPU with more cores as standard. The M3 Max variants have recommended retail prices from 4049 euros for the 14″ variant and 4299 euros for the 16″ model.

Source: Apple