Apple silicon
Mac FORMAT INVESTIGATES
With the arrival of the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, Apple silicon shows no sign of slowing down. Here we take alook at how it’s performing
For our latest subscription offer see page 34!
Back in June 2020, Apple announced it was transitioning the Mac to what it broadly referred to at the time as ‘Apple silicon’. Instead of Macs containing chips made by Intel or another third party, Apple itself would create the hardware. In November that same year, we saw the first iteration of this – the M1 chip.
Apple has always insisted the move away from previous provider Intel would allow it to make more rapid progress in improving the Macs. “There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a decade of designing industry-leading chips for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, upon the release of the M1. Generally, this has proved to be correct.
Intel itself was rather taken aback by the release of Apple silicon. In October 2021, CEO Pat Gelsinger told Axios’ Ina Fried in a televised interview: “Apple decided they could do a better chip themselves than we could. And, you know, they did a pretty good job.”
Meanwhile, Apple were buoyant. Srouji continued the positivity when Apple released the M3 in October 2023. He said that “Apple silicon has completely redefined the Mac experience.” This may be a somewhat boastful PR statement, but it is certainly true that the Mac has seen rapid progress over the last three years.
MacFormat Investigates has dived into Apple silicon before, but it is worth recapping some of the key features before we move on. The M-series chips are actually a System on a Chip – the ‘SOC’ Srouji referred to. Basically, all the key components required for a computer to run are all together on one chip. This means machines perform better and have lower latency. Users find their computers are doing things in a quicker, smoother manner and they don’t heat up when doing heavy-duty tasks.
Amajor development in the M3 range of chips was the use of 3-nanometre technology. This allows a greater number of transistors to be put in a smaller space, further improving speed and efficiency. “With 3-nanometre technology, a next-generation GPU architecture, a higher-performance CPU, faster Neural Engine, and support for even more unified memory, M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer,” e
