A Bloomberg report on Sunday revealed that Apple has been testing the base version of its new M3 chip with a new Mac mini. Now Bloomberg is back with another report about M3 Macs, but this time related to the more powerful M3 Max chip. According to Mark Gurman, the company has been experimenting with a chip with up to 40 GPU cores for a new high-end MacBook Pro.
What to expect from the new MacBook Pro with M3 Max
While Apple has yet to unveil the M3 chip, engineers have already been running tests with more powerful versions of the chip. And Bloomberg‘s sources familiar with the matter have heard about a new laptop codenamed J514 that features an Apple Silicon chip with a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU. That laptop is probably the new MacBook Pro.
More specifically, the M3 Max chip powering the high-end version of the new MacBook Pro will have 12 high-performance cores to handle highly demanding tasks and four efficiency cores to save battery when the user is running less intensive apps. Compared to the M2 Max, that’s four more CPU cores and two more GPU cores.
Bloomberg also heard that the new MacBook Pro has 48 GB of RAM. Current models can be configured with 32 GB, 64 GB, and 96 GB of RAM. Of course, that’s just one of the configurations Apple has been testing internally.
More M3 chips coming soon
In a previous report, Gurman mentioned that the new base M3 chip would have an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU, similar to the M2. However, M3 Pro is expected to have a 12-core CPU and an 18-core GPU, which is two extra CPU and GPU cores compared to M2 Pro.
While the jump in performance may not be as significant from the M2, the M3 chips will benefit from the new 3-nanometer architecture, the same as the A17 chip that’s coming with the iPhone 15 Pro later this year. This means the new chips will consume even less power, which is great news for MacBook users.
The transition to M3 is expected to begin in October, starting with entry-level Macs – including the iMac and 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, new versions of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max won’t arrive until 2024. As Mac sales declined in the last fiscal quarter, M3 Macs could help Apple recover its Mac revenue.
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