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Based on Apple’s recent quarterly results (see page 4), Mac sales are not where Apple would like them to be. You’d think that with the success of the M-series chip rollout, MacBooks would be flying off the shelves, but they’re not.
There are a lot of reasons why people aren’t buying, but the product and the technology behind the latest Macs are not the problem. The M-series MacBook Pro rollout has been successful from an execution standpoint, but there still are lots of people using Intel-based MacBooks. Apple makes high-quality products that simply last a long time, and it’s easy to hold on to an older MacBook just a little while longer.
Apple has now released the M3 series of chips, which are featured in the MacBook Pro. It’s the third generation of the chip and the redesigned laptop, and with this release, Apple is hoping the third time is the charm that will persuade customers to invest in a new MacBook.
With this laptop, they just might. The new Space Black finish is alluring, the brighter display is eye-opening, and the performance is very satisfying. It all combines to make a charming MacBook Pro that is so very hard to resist.
PERFORMANCE
Except for a couple of other features (see the ‘Design’ and ‘Display’ sections below), this MacBook Pro update is all about the M3. Our benchmarks look at the M3 Max’s performance and how it compares to other older Macs.
After a couple of generations of M-series chips, Apple has proven that a chip’s performance is mostly consistent regardless of the form. For example, an M2’s general performance is the same whether it’s in a desktop Mac mini or a laptop MacBook Pro. So the charts below focus on comparing the results against other chips instead of other Macs. (The specific model is called out in certain instances, especially in graphics-oriented tests where throttling can occur.)
Geekbench 6: Single-core CPU
M3 Max MacBook Pro 16-core CPU: 3,219
M2 Ultra 24-core CPU: 2,856
M2 Max 12-core CPU: 2,888
M1 Ultra 20-core CPU: 2,381
M1 Max 10-core CPU: 2,369
Intel Core i9 2.4GHz MacBook Pro: 1,364
