Back in May, we saw reports stating that Apple has begun testing its upcoming M3 chips and its variants. More recently, it looks like products armed with this chip will be hitting markets by the end of the year. The company has also begun testing what is dubbed the “highest end next-generation laptop processor”, likely referring to the M3 Max.
According to Bloomberg, Apple will start pushing out products with the M3 chip in October, marking a transition to the new generation chips as the report calls it. This is due to the fruit company stating in its quarterly earnings report that it won’t be releasing new Macs until after the fourth fiscal quarter, which ends in September.
For some of their specs, the report cites third-party developer test logs that indicate that the base chip will have eight CPU cores and up to 10 graphics cores. The Pro variant, on the other hand, will start with 12 CPU cores and 18 graphics cores. Then there’s the M3 Max, which has 12 high-performance cores and four efficiency cores. For graphics cores, the report states that it will have “at least two additional graphics cores” compared to “the current M2 line for laptops”. For context, the M2 Max can have up to 38 graphics cores.
Also mentioned in passing is a possible successor to the M2 Ultra, probably to be simply named the M3 Ultra. But this particular variant has not shown up in any of the test logs.
So far, the October release date for the first Mac products with the M3 chips line up with previous predicted release windows, but naturally with a narrower window. Based on these, the MacBook Air and the iMac would probably be the first in line, with the Mac minis and MacBook Pros following early next year.
(Source: Bloomberg)
