Apple introduced the M3 chip series in October during their “Scary Fast” event. These chips have been featured in various devices like the MacBook Pro and iMac. Recently, Apple debuted the M3-powered MacBook Air in 13” and 15” sizes. Notably, the M3 chip operates solely on passive cooling, resulting in a distinct performance characteristic.
How does the M3 chip fare in terms of speed? Initial benchmarks from Geekbench’s database reveal a performance enhancement of approximately 20% in both single-core and multi-core CPU performance compared to the M2-powered Air models. When compared to the original M1 Air, the performance difference ranges from 30% to 40%.
M3 MacBook Air versus: M2 15” • M2 13” • M1 13”
For a detailed breakdown of the scores, you can view them here: vs. M2 15”, vs. M2 13”, vs. M1 13”.
The key improvement in the M3 chip generation lies within the GPU performance, an aspect overlooked by Geekbench tests. Additionally, considering the lack of active cooling in the MacBook Air, how much does this impact performance?
During the brief Geekbench testing period, the impact seems minimal (especially when comparing the same base M3 chip versions). The divergence appears to be within the margin of error. However, for sustained workloads, this might vary. Nevertheless, the MacBook Air is not typically purchased for tasks like 3D rendering or video editing.
M3 MacBook Air vs. M3 MacBook Pro
The Pro models also offer the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, catering to those in need of higher computing power.
The starting prices for the MacBook Air M3 are $1,100 for the 13” model and $1,300 for the 15” model. Both configurations come with an 8-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. The 13” model features an 8-core GPU, while the 15” model has a 10-core GPU. In comparison, the M2-powered 13” Air starts at $1,000 with an 8-core CPU and GPU, along with 8/256GB memory.
