Here’s the latest on new MacBooks to expect from Scary Fast event

UPDATE: The “Scary Fast” event has come and gone, and it brought the fresh MacBook Pro models and the iMac — all powered with a new M3 processor — that leaks predicted. Check out Cult of Mac‘s full coverage for more details.

As Apple’s Monday-evening Scary Fast event fast approaches, the latest rumors Friday say new M3-powered 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are likely to appear, while a new 13-inch M3 model likely remains in development.

Scary Fast event predictions: Expect 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, not 13-inch version

We expect Monday’s event to be about new Macs, in part because that matches Apple product-release tradition and in part because Cupertino has hinted as much. But which ones? A new 24-inch iMac is likely, many rumor sources agree, and so are some new MacBook Pro models.

Now a new report in Bloomberg says to expect new 14- and-16-inch M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro models Monday, while a new M3-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro probably won’t appear until early 2024.

The new M3 chip derived from the new 3nm manufacturing process will significantly boost the new laptops’ performance over M2 versions released in June 2022.

And the new M3 chips will be the main upgrade to the two models, said to be codenamed J514 and J516 (for 14-inch and 16-inch). Design changes seem unlikely.

M3 on fast track over M2 disappointment?

One analyst who had predicted no new M3 MacBooks in 2023 but later flip-flopped on the idea said the M3 MacBook Pro release might’ve been accelerated due to poor sales of the M2 machines, as consumers weren’t satisfied with the power boost over M1 versions.

The predicted Scary Fast event releases follow other Mac releases earlier this year. They include M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros and M2 Mac mini in January, plus 15-inch M2 MacBook Air and the first silicon-powered Mac Pro in June.

Possible new processing core and memory configurations

Here’s how Bloomberg further characterized Monday’s likely MacBook Pro releases and the possible chip characteristics:

• [Apple] has been testing multiple different versions of the M3 Pro processor. One baseline version in the works has 12 main processor cores, made up of six high-performance blocks and six high-efficiency cores. Generally speaking, the more cores you have, the more powerful the chip. The product also has 18 cores for processing graphics. That would be an increase of two main processing cores — known as CPU cores — and two graphics cores over the current model. Another M3 Pro chip seen in testing by developers has 14 main processing cores, including 10 for high performance and four for efficiency, and 30 graphics cores.
• There are multiple versions of the M3 Max in testing, including a top-end version with 16 main processing cores — 12 for high performance and four for efficiency — and 40 graphics cores.
• Apple has also tested updated configurations for memory, or RAM, including new 24-gigabyte and 48-gigabyte options.