On October 30th, Apple released a new PC chip processor M3 series at an overnight press conference, along with new MacBook Pro laptops and iMac models.
On the same day, the US stock market closed, and Apple's stock price rose by more than 1%.
Apple has released three new PC chips, namely the entry-level M3 chip, the M3 Pro chip that has increased speed by 40%, and the M3 Max chip that has increased speed by 250%. M3 has an 8-core CPU and a 10 core GPU, M3 Pro has a 12 core CPU and an 18 core GPU, and M3 Max has a 16 core CPU and up to 40 core GPUs.
Apple stated that the GPU speed of the latest generation of M3 series chips is 1.8 times that of M2 chips; When dealing with heavy workloads, the M3 CPU kernel is 15% faster than the M2 kernel and 60% faster than the first generation M1 CPU kernel.
The new generation of M3 series chips will be manufactured using a 3-nanometer process, which is currently TSMC's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology.
Before the Christmas shopping season arrives, new chips are expected to drive sales of Apple's Mac series products. Apple's new product release comes as global PC sales have slowed down. Apple's financial report shows that sales of its Mac series products decreased by 7% in the second quarter.
Like Apple's iPhone, computers such as the MacBook Pro and iMac have no new design improvements, only equipped with new chips.
Apple stated at a press conference on October 30th that the M3 series of new chips is a major upgrade, providing faster speed, longer battery life, and providing the high-performance driving force required for developing artificial intelligence applications.
Apple stated that all M3 series chips can provide up to 22 hours of battery life for laptops.
Apple has gradually shed its dependence on Intel CPU chips since 2020. Now, the company is accelerating the improvement of GPU processor capabilities. Currently, NVIDIA dominates most of the GPU market.
Unlike other laptop manufacturers that combine CPU (mainly based on Intel x86 architecture) and GPU, Apple's self-developed chip integrates CPU and GPU onto one chip, combined with Apple's iOS operating system. The company claims that this will make the chip perform better than its competitors. Apple's chips use ARM architecture design technology.
The competition in the field of PC chips is accelerating. Just last week, there was news that NVIDIA was deploying and developing ARM based CPU chips for PC devices, which are expected to be released to the public in 2025. Prior to this, NVIDIA had not truly entered the PC CPU market. This may help improve the performance of Microsoft Windows operating system laptops.
&Amp; Quot; In the PC market, Apple's self-developed Arm chip has achieved success, which may be a driving factor for companies such as Nvidia to enter the market, as it means huge market space, with Intel's x86 currently occupying the majority of the market& Amp; Quot; Gartner analyst Sheng Linghai told reporters from First Financial.
Qualcomm is also accelerating the production of ARM based chips that support the Windows operating system, and announced plans last week to release a chip that is faster and more energy-efficient than some Apple products.
An industry insider told a reporter from First Financial:; Quot; Now that AI is localized, terminal computing power is no longer surplus, but will become stronger and stronger. Obviously, both Apple's M3 and Qualcomm's Arm PC chips are seeing this trend& Amp; Quot;