Days after Apple launched an updated lineup of its MacBooks and iMac powered by the M3 silicon at the “Scary Fast” event, the first benchmark results of the company’s latest generation chipset surfaced in the Geekbench 6 database, providing an insight into the Mac’s improved CPU performance.
According to the Geekbench results, the M3 has a single-core score of 3,030 and a multi-core score of 11,694. For comparison, the standard M2 from last year has single-core and multi-core scores of 2,570, and 9,600, respectively. This makes the latest baseline chipset 20% faster than the similarly placed M2, proving Apple’s claims during Monday’s event.
Standard M3 Powering New 14-inch MacBook and 24-inch iMac 20% Faster Than M2
However, it was unclear whether the tests were conducted on the new 14-inch MacBook Pro or iMac as both are available with the standard M3 chip and are said to have similar performance output.
The “Mac15,3” identifier spotted by MacRumors on the Geekbench website indicates it was a laptop with the same display resolution as the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The 24-inch iMac may have performed slightly better as the desktop does not have to deal with a draining battery, unlike the laptop.
The baseline M3 is armored with an 8-core CPU and a 10-core GPU that supports up to 24 GB of unified memory. It also has a 16-core Neural Engine for powering artificial intelligence (AI) programs. The results of the chip’s much-improved GPU architecture can be seen in its gaming performance as it now supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading.
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M3 Max MacBook is More Powerful Than The M2 Ultra Mac Studio in Single-Core Performance
The Geekbench score for the M3 Max also appeared on Wednesday, once again under the identifier “Mac15,3”. According to Bloomberg tech analyst Mark Gruman, it refers to the 16-inch MacBook Pro powered by the Apple silicon that sits at the top of the chain.
The M3 Max scored a remarkable 2,971 in single-core and 20,785 in multi-core performance. For comparison, the most powerful M2, the M2 Ultra in Mac Studio, which came out in January 2023, scored 2,692 in single-core and 21,231 in multi-core.
The highest-end M3 has a 16-core CPU with 12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 40-core GPU, and offers up to 128 GB of unified memory. The chip is up to 80% and 50% faster in CPU performance than the M1 and M2 Max, and up to 50% and 20% faster in GPU performance than its predecessors.
Meanwhile, the M3 Pro, which is second-in-line in the M3 lineup, has a 12-core CPU with 6 performance and 6 efficiency cores that are up to 20% faster than the M1 Pro, and an 18-core GPU that is up to 40% faster than the M1 Pro and 10% faster than the M2 Pro.
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Apple Claims M3 To Be The Most Advanced Chips Ever Made For a Personal Computer
In a press statement, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji claimed that the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chipset with their 3-nanometer technology, next-generation GPU architecture, a higher-performance CPU, faster Neural Engine, and support for even more unified memory are the “most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer”.
The M3 will be shipped with the 24-inch iMac and 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the M3 Pro and M3 Max will be available on the 14-inch and 16-inch Macbook Pros. In the US, the 14-inch MacBook Pro will start at $1,599 with the M3 and the 16-inch MacBook Pro will start with the M3 Pro at $2,499. Whereas, the updated M3 iMac desktop starts at $1,299.
