Apple M3 Chip Rumored to Come in Three Variations – Here’s What We Know

The highly anticipated launch of the next-generation Apple Silicon chip is imminent, with the Apple event dubbed ‘Scary Fast’ scheduled for October 30 at 5:00 PM PT. This event is likely to introduce the new M3 chips, which are expected to deliver improved performance and energy efficiency. The M3 chip is anticipated to power Apple’s new Macs, including the MacBook Pro and iMac, and may come in various versions with different core counts. Additionally, there are speculations that the chip could signify a transition to a 3-nanometer production process. Let’s delve deeper into Apple’s upcoming M3 chips.

Apple M3 chips: details

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared details about the types of M3 chips Apple plans to deploy. Although it was previously hinted that there could be four versions of the M3, only three of them have been revealed so far, and there is no information about the M3 Ultra. That’s why we expect only three variants of the M3 chip – M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max.

1. M3 – According to Gurman, the base M3 chipset would have 8 CPU cores with 4 high performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. Additionally, it could have up to 10 GPU cores, which is the same as the M2, but could offer better memory configurations to get better performance from each core.

2. M3 Pro – The high-end M3 chip, the M3 Pro, is known to be tested in various configurations. According to Gurman, it could have up to 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, making it a total of 12 CPU cores. GPU cores are also expected to rise to 18. On the other hand, the top configuration would get 14 CPU cores (with 2 additional cores) and 20 GPU cores.

3. M3 Max – The M3 Max chip is said to have 16 cores in one of its configurations, 12 high performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The GPU cores could be increased to a mammoth 40 in its top configuration. According to Gurman, the M3 Max is the top-of-the-line chip in the M3 lineup and is expected to have 32 GPU cores in the base configuration.

Note that all the information above is based on unofficial reports and should be taken with a grain of salt until official information comes from Apple, which is expected to be at the Scary Fast event.