At 8:00 am Beijing time on October 31st, Apple held a product launch event called "Scary Fast", which was also the first time Apple had held a launch event at night Eastern Time. This press conference lasted only half an hour and is known as Apple's shortest press conference.
At the press conference, Apple released new MacBook Pro and iMac (both personal computer products) as well as M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips. How to advance, let's explore below.
The latest product will be equipped with the most advanced chips
According to Apple's official introduction, the all-new 14/16 inch MacBook Pro is equipped with the latest M3 series chip and features a new deep space black color scheme. The 14 inch MacBook Pro starts at 12999 yuan, while the 16 inch MacBook Pro starts at 19999 yuan. The all-new iMac is also equipped with the M3 series chip and a 24 inch 4.5K retina screen. The basic model starts at a price of 10999 yuan. Orders will be accepted from 9am on November 1st and will be available on November 7th.
The highlight of the product clearly falls on the M3 series chips. According to information provided by Apple, the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips are the first batch of personal computer chips manufactured using industry-leading 3-nanometer process technology, allowing for the encapsulation of more transistors in smaller spaces and improving speed and efficiency. M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max jointly showcase the development history of silicon chips used by Apple Mac since the introduction of the M1 series of chips.
Apple's silicon chip completely redefines the Mac experience. Every aspect of its architecture is designed for performance and power efficiency, "said John Srouji, Senior Vice President of Apple Hardware Technology
The M3 series chips are equipped with the next generation GPU (Graphic Processing Unit), which represents the biggest leap in graphics architecture for Apple chips. GPU is faster, more efficient, and introduces a new technology called dynamic caching, while also bringing new rendering features such as hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to the Mac for the first time. The rendering speed is now 2.5 times faster than the M1 series chips. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) performance core and efficiency core are 30% and 50% faster than M1, respectively, and the neuron engine is 60% faster than the neuron engine in the M1 series of chips. Moreover, a new media engine now includes support for AV1 decoding, providing a more efficient and high-quality video experience through streaming services. The M3 series of chips continues Apple's tremendous innovation in silicon wafers and brings large-scale enhancements and new features to the new generation of products.
First implementation of hardware accelerated ray tracing function
Apple further revealed that the next generation GPU in the M3 series of chips represents the biggest leap in graphics architecture for Apple chips. Its characteristic is dynamic caching, unlike traditional GPUs, which allocate local memory usage in real-time in hardware, greatly improving the average utilization of GPUs and significantly improving the performance of the most demanding professional applications and games.
With the help of the M3 series of chips, the Mac has achieved hardware accelerated ray tracing for the first time. Ray tracing models ray attributes when interacting with the scene, enabling applications to create extremely realistic and physically accurate images. This, along with the new graphics architecture, enables professional applications to reach 2.5 times the speed of M1 series chips. Game developers can use ray tracing to obtain more accurate shadows and reflections, thereby creating a deep immersive environment.
In addition, the new GPU also brings hardware accelerated mesh coloring to the Mac, providing stronger functionality and efficiency for geometric processing, and supporting visually more complex scenes in games and graphics intensive applications. This groundbreaking GPU architecture enables all these enhancements and functionalities while maintaining the legendary energy efficiency of Apple Silicon. In fact, M3 GPUs can provide the same performance as M1 at nearly half the power consumption, with a peak performance improvement of up to 65%.
The next generation CPU in M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max have made architectural improvements to the performance and efficiency kernel. The performance core is 30% faster than the M1 series, making it even faster to compile and test millions of lines of code in Xcode. Musicians can use hundreds of tracks, plugins, and virtual instruments in Logic Pro. The efficiency core is 50% faster than the efficiency core of M1, so daily tasks are faster than ever before, while allowing the system to maximize battery life. The CPUs jointly created by these kernels can provide the same multithreading performance as M1, with a power consumption of only half that of M1, and a performance improvement of up to 35% at peak power.
M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max also have enhanced neural network engines that can accelerate powerful machine learning (ML) models. The speed of the neural network engine is 60% faster than the M1 series chips, making AI/ML workflows faster while saving data on devices to protect privacy. Powerful artificial intelligence image processing tools, such as noise reduction and super-resolution in Topaz, are faster. The scene editing detection in Adobe Premiere and the Smart Conform in Final Cut Pro have also improved performance.
All three chips in the M3 series have advanced media engines that provide hardware acceleration for the most popular video codecs, including H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW. The media engine supports AV1 decoding for the first time, achieving high-efficient playback of streaming services and further extending battery life.
Complete the game ecosystem
Apple's comprehensive upgrade of GPUs involves both consideration of the current wave of artificial intelligence and strategic planning for its own ecological richness.
It is understood that M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max have built-in improved neural engines that can accelerate machine learning models, which is clearly in response to the current trend of large-scale model training.
At the same time, Apple also said for the first time that the neural engine can be used for end-to-end edge computing to provide users with an intelligent experience while ensuring that data is only running locally to ensure users' privacy and security.
It is worth noting that Apple has also launched the industry's first dynamic caching feature on the M3, which is quite friendly to visual developers such as games, and also reveals Apple's ambition to further expand the gaming ecosystem.
It is understood that this technology can dynamically allocate the exact amount of memory required to complete each task using GPUs in hardware, improve the performance of professional applications and games, and increase the average utilization rate of GPUs.
Apple stated that developers do not need to develop around it because it is a transparent and automated process.
At the same time, the M3 series chip released this time also became Apple's first M-series chip to support grid shading rendering and hardware level ray tracing acceleration technology.
It is understood that mesh shading technology supports advanced geometric processing and can render complex scenes. Ray tracing technology can achieve realistic lighting effects, adding to the beauty of 3D rendering. Compared with the first generation of Apple chips, the upgraded M3 chip is 30% faster and the efficiency core is 50% faster than the M1 chip.
According to Apple's official website, this technology can increase the rendering speed of professional apps up to 2.5 times, making the shadows and reflections in games appear more realistic.
The reporter noticed that both NVIDIA and AMD's latest GPUs fully support hardware based ray tracing.
Industry insiders believe that the arrival of hardware level ray tracing technology and grid coloring technology means that Apple is likely to continue to increase investment in gaming applications and applications on Mac systems.
At the previous Apple World Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple not only announced the introduction of a series of 3A blockbusters, including "Death Stranded," but also provided developers with tools such as the Game Porting Toolkit to help them better port existing game works onto the Mac system.
Apple will also face comprehensive challenges
There is a market view that the release of the new MacBook Pro will undoubtedly stimulate consumer demand. With the continuous progress of technology, consumers' demand for electronic devices is also constantly upgrading. The MacBook Pro equipped with the M3 series processor will bring consumers a better performance experience and more efficient office efficiency.
At the same time, this will further promote Apple's competitiveness in the high-end computer market. According to public information, Apple's Mac revenue in the 2022 fiscal year reached $40.18 billion, accounting for approximately 11% of its total revenue.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that the iPhone series of phones accounts for half of Apple's revenue, making it undoubtedly the most valued Apple product category in the market in recent years.
Recently, the topic of "plummeting prices across the entire iPhone 15 series" has topped the hot search list. As the "Double Eleven" shopping festival approaches, there has been a varying degree of decline in the official prices of the entire iPhone 15 series on relevant e-commerce platforms. According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, the sales of the iPhone 15 series within 17 days of its debut in China decreased by 4.5% compared to the iPhone 14 series released in 2022. It seems that the aroma of apples is also gradually dissipating, and the future will face comprehensive challenges.
According to the latest news, investment agency Oppenheimer has maintained Apple's outperformance rating and adjusted its target price from $220.00 to $200.00.
Guo Mingyi, an analyst who has long followed the Apple industry chain, predicts that Apple will spend billions of dollars on hardware to support its artificial intelligence development by 2024. Guo predicts that Apple will spend at least $620 million on servers by 2023 and $4.75 billion on servers by 2024.
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