Today, Apple held an online-only event entitled ‘Scary Fast’ in which they announced the latest iteration of the Apple Silicon chips, the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, powering a new 24-inch iMac desktop and new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops. We have the details.

Apple Announces M3 Family Of Chips

Apple has announced the M3 family of chips - M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max. These are the first personal computer chips built using the industry-leading 3-nanometer process technology, allowing more transistors to be packed into a smaller space and improving speed and efficiency.

New Generation GPUs

The M3 family of chips all feature an updated GPU that is faster and more efficient and introduces a new technology called Dynamic Caching to Mac for the first time. Unlike traditional GPUs, which allocate the use of local memory in hardware in real-time, Dynamic Caching only uses the exact amount of memory needed for each task.

In addition, Apple has brought new rendering features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading. Ray tracing models the properties of light as it interacts with a scene, allowing apps to create extremely realistic and physically accurate images. Game developers can use ray tracing for more accurate shadows and reflections, creating deeply immersive environments. Hardware-accelerated mesh shading has been designed to deliver greater capability and efficiency to geometry processing and enabling more visually complex scenes in games and graphics-intensive apps.

Apple claims that rendering speeds are now up to 2.5x faster than on the M1 family of chips.

• The CPU performance cores and efficiency cores are 30% and 50% faster than those in M1, respectively.

• The Neural Engine is 60% faster than the Neural Engine in the M1 family of chips.

• The M3 GPU is able to deliver the same performance as the M1, using nearly half the power and up to 65% more performance at its peak.

All compared to the previous-generation 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max, a 10-core CPU, a 32-core GPU, 64GB of RAM, and 8TB SSD.

New Media Engine

Apple has also introduced a new media engine into the new M3 family of chips, which now includes support for AV1 decode, providing hardware acceleration to the most popular video codecs, including H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. For the first time, the media engine supports AV1 decoding, enabling power-efficient playback of streaming services to further extend battery life.

New Neural Engine

The M3 family of chips also come with an enhanced Neural engine designed to improve the performance of machine learning (ML) models.

Apple claims that the Neural Engine is up to 60% faster than in the M1 family of chips, making AI/ML workflows even faster while keeping data on your device to preserve privacy. Powerful AI image processing tools, like noise reduction and super-resolution in Topaz, will be even even faster. Scene edit detection in Adobe Premiere and Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro also see a boost in performance.

M3 -Faster and More Efficient CPU

The M3 family of chips also feature design improvements to the performance and efficiency cores. The performance cores are up to 30% faster than those in the M1 family, so musicians can use hundreds of audio tracks, plug-ins, and virtual instruments in Logic Pro.

The efficiency cores are up to 50% faster than the efficiency cores in M1, making everyday tasks faster while allowing the system to improve battery life. Together, Apple claims that these cores create a CPU that delivers the same multithreaded performance as M1, using as little as half the power and up to 35% more performance at peak power.

New M3 MacBook Pro

There are versions built around M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. All the new MacBook Pro models feature a Liquid Retina XDR display with 20% brighter SDR content, a built-in 1080p camera, an immersive six-speaker sound system, and a wide array of connectivity options.

The enclosure is created from a custom alloy that uses 100% recycled aluminium and is designed to be incredibly durable. MacBook Pro also uses 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and 100% recycled tin soldering and gold plating in multiple printed circuit boards. Apple claims that the new MacBook Pro is also free of numerous harmful substances such as beryllium, brominated flame retardants, and mercury, and 100% of the wood fibre in the packaging is recycled or comes from responsibly managed forests.

M3 MacBook Pro

The 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro is aimed at students, business owners, aspiring musicians and video editors and promises up to 60% faster performance than the 14-inch M1 model. The M3 model has a 70-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery offering up to 22 hours of battery life.

With the new media engine and GPU, Apple claims that with the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro render performance in Final Cut Pro is up to 7.4x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Core i7 and up to 60% faster than the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with M1.

The MacBook Pro with the M3 chip can drive 1 external high-resolution display.

With the release of the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro, Apple has discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro is no longer listed for sale in the Apple Store, with the MacBook Pro section now offering only 14-inch and 16-inch models. In addition, the 13-inch MacBook Pro was the last Mac with a Touch Bar, so discontinuing the 13-inch MacBook Pro also means that the Touch Bar is no longer on any current Apple Mac product.

M3 Pro MacBook Pro

Apple is also offering 14-inch and 16-inch M3 Pro models, designed for even more demanding tasks. These are stated to be 40% faster than their 16-inch M1 counterparts, and text-based editing in Adobe Premiere Pro is now up to 1.7x faster than the 16-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 30% faster than the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with M1 Pro.

The MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip can drive up to 2 external high-resolution displays.

The 14-inch M3 Pro comes with a slightly larger 72.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, offering up to 18 hours of battery life. Whereas the 16-inch M3 Pro comes with a 100-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery offering up to 22 hours of battery life.

M3 Max MacBook Pro

The M3 Max variant is the most potent of the lineup, claiming to be 2.5 times faster than the MacBook Pro with an M1 Max chip and up to 11x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro model. Noise reduction in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio is claimed to be up to 2.7x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Pro and up to 65% faster than the 16‑inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max.

The 14-inch M3 Max comes with a slightly larger 72.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, offering up to 18 hours of battery life. Whereas the 16-inch M3Max comes with a 100-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery offering up to 22 hours of battery life.

The Liquid Retina XDR display is claimed to be the world’s best laptop display, with 1000 nits sustained and 1600 nits of peak brightness for HDR content, improved contrast ratio, vivid colours, and an improved viewing angle. SDR content is now displayed at up to 600 nits, which is 20% brighter than before.

The MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip can drive up to 4 external high-resolution displays.

For audio professionals dealing with complex DAW projects or who are integrating video and audio, the M3 Max offers a new level of efficiency and power.

Memory Capabilities

Models in the M3 MacBook Pro series offer up to 128GB of memory. This is a considerable improvement, especially for those working on large projects that require substantial RAM. It allows for more headroom when using memory-intensive applications, providing a smoother multitasking experience.

Memory Options

• M3 - up to 24GB

• M3 Pro - up to 36 GB

• M3 Max - up to 128 GB

Prices start at $1599 and you can order today, M3 Max models will be available later this year.

A new Space Black option is now available with this update for the Pro and Max versions.

M3 MacBook Pro Quick Specs At A Glance

New M3 Apple iMac

Hot on the heels of the M3 MacBook Pro launch, Apple has announced its new 24-inch iMac, powered by the M3 chip. Here's a quick rundown of what this means for audio professionals, particularly those in music and sound production.

Performance Boost

The new 24-inch M3 iMac claims to be 2x faster than its M1 predecessor. For anyone upgrading from an Intel-powered iMac, Apple claims that the M3 iMac is 2.5 times faster than the most popular 27-inch models and 4x faster than the most powerful 21.5-inch model.

It also features a 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels and over a billion colours, as well as faster wireless connectivity.

Apple has also added Wi-Fi 6E support, enabling the ‌new iMac‌ to connect to 6GHz networks, as well as supporting the Bluetooth 5.3 protocol for improved connectivity and range.

The M3 ‌iMac‌ still comes in two-port and four-port varieties, with the for-port model featuring an extra two USB 3 ports. The two-port model has an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU and up to 1TB of storage, while the four-port model has an 8-core GPU and 10-core GPU and up to 2TB of storage.

This sort of performance leap is significant, especially for tasks like audio editing, mixing, and mastering that require a powerful machine. For anyone who felt constrained by the previous model's capabilities, this new iMac offers a much-needed upgrade in terms of computational prowess.

Apple was widely expected to be planning to switch the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse to USB-C upon the release of the M3 ‌iMac‌, but Apple has chosen to continue to feature a Lightning port for these peripherals.

Pricing and Availability

Priced at $1299, the new M3 iMac seems like a competitive option, especially considering the performance gains. It's slated to be available next week, making it a timely consideration for those planning to update their setups.

Apple iMac for Audio

For audio professionals, the introduction of the 24-inch M3 iMac offers another option in the Apple ecosystem for those who prefer the all-in-one footprint. With its improved performance and reasonable price tag, it warrants attention for those who spend their days in digital audio workstations or dealing with other demanding audio applications. If you've been considering an upgrade to iMac, this could be the nudge you've been waiting for.

Two pairs of force‑cancelling woofers with a high‑performance tweeter. iMac also supports Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos.

Memory Options

• Up to 24GB

This article will be updated as more information appears.