During yesterday’s “Scary Fast” new product event, Apple unveiled its next generation of bespoke processors — the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max — and some new computers to go with them. Built to the 3-nanometer spec that supports artificial intelligence and advanced graphics, the M3 line has 2.5x the speed of 2020’s M1 series, per Apple, which says the core processing performance is as much as 50 percent faster. New MacBook Pro laptops in 14-inch and 16-inch versions will feature M3 Pro and M3 Pro Max chips. An M3 powered 24-inch iMac series is also debuting.

“Although unveiling a new processor may not sound sexy, it will serve as the backbone to Apple’s latest products, enabling faster speeds and more capabilities than ever,” CNN writes. The prerecorded, live-streamed event featured CEO Tim Cook “wearing all black” and appearing “within a dimly lit spot inside Apple’s Cupertino, California-based headquarters, standing in front of an apparent smoke machine.”

The M3 series “will bring a whole new level of graphics to the Mac,” Apple SVP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji said, adding that “they are the most advanced chips ever built for a personal computer.”

Apple emphasized graphical horsepower, “with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shading and Dynamic Caching, which Apple claims ‘dramatically increases the average utilization of the GPU’ by allotting exact amount of local memory to given tasks,” TechCrunch explains.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro will be available in every M3 configuration, while the 16-inch model will feature only the M3 Pro or M3 Max. A new color, Space Black, is sure to get attention from “any Mac fan still pining for the 2006 MacBook, whose dark tone hadn’t been replicated in the MacBook iterations that followed,” TechCrunch writes.

Ship date is November 7, but Apple is taking preorders now. The 14-inch model starts at $1,599 and tops out at $1,999 for the M3 Pro version. The 16-inch MacBook Pro base model will sell for $2,499, with pricing for the M3 Max chip upgrade yet to be officially announced.

The Verge live-blogged the event, noting that “the most expensive MacBook Pro you can buy” is a $7,199 16-inch version loaded with “128GB of RAM, an 8TB SSD, and the most powerful M3 processor Apple offers.”

The new iMac comes with an upgraded 4.5K retina display screen with a 1080p FaceTime camera and support for Dolby Atmos and spatial audio through a six-speaker system. Color options are green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and silver. The $1,299 base model comes with GPU and CPUs that each boast 8 cores. A 256 SSD option starts at $1,499.

The brisk 30-minute presentation ended “with a fun fact: the whole thing was shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max,” notes The Verge.

Related:
Apple ‘Scary Fast’ Mac Launch Event: the 4 Biggest Announcements, The Verge, 10/30/23
Apple’s M3 Chips Have Big GPU Upgrades Focused on Gaming and Pro Apps, The Verge, 10/30/23
Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ Event Video Was Shot on iPhone, TechCrunch, 10/30/23