Apple is working on a slew of M3-powered Macs for late 2023 and 2024, and the latest mystery machine spotted on developers’ logs appears to be a new Mac mini.
The M3 chip, the next-gen Apple silicon that will power these Macs, should be based on the 3nm node, offering superior performance and efficiency.
M3 Mac mini spotted in development
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman notes spotting what he thinks is an M3 Mac mini in third-party developer logs. The machine was running macOS Sonoma 14.1 and packed eight CPU cores and a 10-core GPU.
This is the same number of CPU and GPU cores as the base M2 chip. But thanks to the more efficient 3nm node and possibly updated CPU cores, the M3 SoC should deliver better performance.
As per Gurman, Apple currently has the following M3 Macs in development:
- The possible M3 Mac mini (code-named Mac 15,12)
- M3 13-inch MacBook Air (code-named Mac 15,1 and J513/J613)
- M3 15-inch MacBook Air (code-named Mac 15,2 and J515/J615)
- M3 13-inch MacBook Pro (code-named Mac 15,3 and J504)
- M3 iMac (code-named Mac 15,4, Mac 15,5, J433 and J434)
- M3 Pro and M3 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros (code-named Mac 15,7, Mac 15,8, J514 and J516)
Apple reportedly plans to boost the number of cores on the M3 Pro and M3 Max. The former could come with a 12-core CPU and an 18-core GPU. As for the M3 Max, it might ship with 14 CPU cores and a 40-core+ GPU.
Entry-level M3 Macs could arrive in 2023
Apple launched several M2-based Macs this year, including the M2 Ultra Mac Studio and Mac Pro. The first M3 Macs could arrive as soon as later this year. But don’t expect any new high-end Macs so soon.
If anything, Apple could launch an updated 13-inch MacBook Air and update the aging Pro model with the newer chip. This is provided the company does not run into supply issues with the 3nm chip, which is based on TSMC’s cutting-edge fabrication process.
A delay could see Apple push the launch of M3 Macs to early 2024. All other more powerful Macs with M3 Pro, Max and Ultra variants aren’t expected before next year. And if you are particularly interested in the M3 Mac mini, a previous rumor indicated it won’t arrive before late 2024.
