Apple usually makes my job easy. As e-commerce editor, I help seek out the best deals on the best kit for digital creatives, then tell you guys about it. When it comes to Apple, it's often felt like shooting fish in a barrel. New iPad Pro out? Once I've got my hands on it and made sure the specs match hands-on experience, I can tell our digital artist readers that it's the best tablet out there. A MacBook Pro release? We get it in and all coo over another potential best laptops for graphic designers, and how Apple continues to raise the bar with its latest chip set... well, that was until the M3 Pro.
There's something a little fishy going on with the latest pro laptops from Apple – enough for me to point 2D creatives to seek the best MacBook Pro M2 prices instead. Lifting the hood, looking at the price options and comparing them to the previous M2 options, you quickly realise that the new MacBook Pros are no longer aimed at the largest number of creatives possible. Instead, with the M3 MacBooks Apple has hobbled 2D creatives such as video editors, leading them to get the more expensive models to get what they want, while charging them more money for tech they probably don't need. And that's a little maddening.
So, what's wrong?
Having caught the excellent video by tech expert Just Josh, it became apparent that Apple has fiddled with the magic formula for the M3 range of MacBook Pros. The entry level M3 MacBook Pro still only comes with 8GB RAM as standard. In 2024! So any content creator worth their salt will skip that model and go straight to the M3 Pro. And that's when things get super funky.
In short, the M3 Pro chip offers less memory bandwidth compared to the M2 Pro chip – 100GB/s compared to 150GB/s. That means reduced access to memory and slower performance. It also has a different configuration of cores. Where the M2 Pro has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, the M3 Pro has 6 cores for both performance and efficiency – that is, 2 less performance cores!
So what? Well, as Josh insightfully points out, "this means if you want the best possible CPU performance, you are now forced to upgrade to an M3 Max processor." That means spending more money to get the tech you want, but also paying more money to get tech that you don't need.
The M3 Max chip will give 2D creators the CPU power and memory bandwidth that they desire. But you'll have to pay for the eye-watering 40-core GPU and ray tracing tech that comes with it – ideal if you're a pro 3D creative (it has certainly tempted our resident 3D expert), but total overkill if you're a video editor, photo editor or programmer.
Of course, you could just go for a bespoke configuration of the M3 Pro, adding to that base model. But that'll cost you. And that additional cost will soon stack up to something nearing the M3 Max price anyway. It's hard not to think that this is Apple's plan. They've messed with the perfectly good (brilliant!) M2 Pro set up, so that 2D creatives who want the latest tech will end up paying for all the bells and whistles. Even if those bells and whistles remain unrung and un... whislted?!
