From M3 chips to new MacBook Pros, here’s everything Apple announced at its Scary Fast event

Three new M3 chips

Apple has announced the M3 family of chips, which includes the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips. These new processors are built on a 3-nanometer architecture and feature a new GPU microarchitecture, as well as a new dynamic memory caching and allocation system. Apple has stated that local memory is dynamically allocated in hardware in real-time, ensuring that only the necessary amount of memory is allocated, which improves GPU utilization. Additionally, the new processors offer new rendering features such as mesh shading and ray tracing, promising up to 1.8x faster rendering performance compared to the M2 and 2.5x faster than the M1. The performance cores of the M3 are up to 15 per cent faster than those of the M2, while the efficiency cores are up to 30 per cent faster than the M2.

Here’s a breakdown of the specifications for each chip:

• M3: 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and 25 billion transistors.
• M3 Pro: 12 CPU cores, 18 GPU cores, and 37 billion transistors.
• M3 Max: 16 CPU cores, 40 GPU cores, and 92 billion transistors.

Apple refreshed the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro and M3 Max processors during Tuesday’s event.(Image credit: Apple)

14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros

The new MacBook Pro lineup features the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips, delivering significant CPU and GPU performance improvements. The lineup now includes a baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro model for the first time, featuring the standard M3 chip, alongside the usual higher-end configurations with the M3 Pro and M3 Max, available in both 14-inch and 16-inch sizes. This marks the end of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The new GPU in the M3 series includes features like Dynamic Caching and ray tracing.

Apple claims that the M3 Pro is up to 20 per cent faster than the previous-generation M2 equivalent, while the M3 Max is up to 2x faster than the M2 Max. With the M3 Max, the MacBook Pro can now support up to 128 GB of RAM. Battery life is rated at up to 22 hours, and Apple states that these laptops offer consistent performance whether plugged in or running on battery power. Although the external design of the laptops remains the same, Apple did introduce a new Space Black colour option.

Pricing for the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 starts at Rs 169,990, while the model with the M3 Pro comes in at Rs 199,990. The 16-inch MacBook Pro model starts at Rs 249,900.

The new 24-inch iMac is still colourful and aimed at students and average users. (Image credit: Apple)

24-inch iMac

As rumoured before, Apple has also announced the next generation of the 24-inch iMac. The new model retains the same design as the previous one, and even the display remains unchanged: it still features a 24-inch screen with a 4.5K resolution. At 11.5mm, it’s still thin, has white bezels, and the same 1080p camera, speakers, mics, the USB port configurations. However, the new iMac now comes equipped with the new M3 chip, which offers improved speed and greater power efficiency. The 24-inch M3 iMac starts at Rs 134,900 for the eight-core GPU and Rs 154,900 for the 10-core GPU. Users can preorder starting today, and it’ll ship on November 7.