With more CPU and GPU cores than the M2, Gurman predicts that the first M3 Macs will be available by

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman predicts that the first Macs with next-generation M3 Apple Silicon will be released by the company around the end of this year or in the early part of 2024 in the most recent issue of his Power On Newsletter. So, Until it comes you can save your money by buying a refurbished MacBook.

Apple's M3 chip is a bigger deal than you might think

Gurman also reveals the specifics of one variant of the M3 series, based on developer logs of applications running on prototype M3 Macs. His information suggests that the M3 Pro chip has twelve central processing unit (CPU) cores, eighteen graphics processing unit (GPU) cores, and thirty-six gigabytes of random access memory (RAM).

If the present configuration of the chip is implemented, the M3 Pro chip would have two more CPU cores and two more GPU cores than the M2 Pro chip, as well as slightly larger maximum RAM (36 GB on the M3 Pro compared to 32 GB on the M2 Pro). The standard M2, Max, and Ultra CPUs will also see performance improvements.

Present-day M2 Pro chips include both high-performance and efficiency cores, totaling six in total. There are supposedly 12 cores in the M3 Pro chip: 6 high-performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. This is similar to what Apple did when upgrading from the M1 to the M2 series, where the increase in cores was attributable to a greater number of efficiency cores while the number of high-performance cores remained unchanged.

A 3-nanometer fabrication technique is planned for the M3 chip line. Increases in fabrication density not only make it possible to pack more cores into a given space, but also boost the efficiency of each individual core. This suggests that the six M3 cores are likely to be faster than their M2 counterparts, indicating that it is not enough to just compare the total number of cores.

A 15-inch MacBook Air powered by an M2 processor is expected to debut at WWDC in June. It won't be until late 2023 or early 2024 before we see the first M3 Macs. Gurman claims that the M3 variants of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac are already in development at Apple.