It’s an odd time for Apple to launch new processors, but launch it did. The company on Monday rolled out the update to most of its processor line, the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, along with refreshes of systems using them: The iMac and 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro. All are available for preorder now and shipping next week except for the M3 Max models, which are slated to ship later in the month.
The processor upgrades bring typical generation-over-generation performance bumps — generation-over-two-generations for the iMac, which remained on the M1 chip. In other words, it’s somewhat faster, significantly faster or seriously faster depending upon what you’re doing, what you’re comparing it to and who’s doing the comparing. But they’re likely fast enough that given the last generation of MacBook Pro 16 just shipped in February, I’d be peeved if I’d bought it.
