What I Have Planned for My New M3 Macs!

We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.

It’s new Mac week for me!

Despite suggestions that the new M3 Macs may not be selling too well (based purely on delivery estimates which remain in November for most models), I’m sure lots of you are eagerly awaiting the knock on the door this week.

I have two M3-powered Macs on the way. The first is a base model M3 24-inch iMac, which will replace my currently – and embarrassingly – unused M1 version, and an M3 Max 14-inch MacBook Pro which will push my M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro onto the secondhand market.

I have plans for both of these machines going forward, of course, but there’s an immediate test I have in mind as soon as they’re unboxed – the results of which I’m hotly anticipating. I’m also hoping my rudimentary testing will help you make a decision about your own upgrade to the M3 platform.

Let me explain.

My M3 iMac test

I have a policy with certain Macs which is only to buy the base model version.

The MacBook Air is one such machine. My suspicion is that a vast number of people simply opt for the cheapest one available, given that these are highly desirable yet rather expensive computers. It’s my job, therefore, to see exactly what base model buyers get for their money.

I took the same approach with the 24-inch iMac refresh back in 2021. Rather than speccing it up beyond the M1’s base configuration, I just chucked the first option into the bag and headed to the checkout. That left me with a Mac running 8GB of unified memory, a 7-core GPU, and 256GB of SSD storage. Like every M1 machine of that confirmation, it performed well beyond its pay grade, making it an instant classic.

Its replacement, therefore, has quite a bit to live up to, and my approach to buying it was identical. The only differences this time around are a single-digit increase in graphics cores and the leap from M1 to M3.

The question is: how big a leap is that after more than 900 days of no updates to Apple’s all-in-one? Remember – this is the machine that was denied the M2 chip and left to languish on the shelves, completely untouched. Some of us even wondered if Apple had forgotten about it entirely.

Thankfully, they clearly hadn’t forgotten about it, but the question remains: if you’ve got an M1 iMac and you’re considering upgrading to the M3 version, or if this is your first leap into Apple Silicon territory from an Intel-based iMac, what are you getting for your money?

How far have we come?

My test will be as simple and back-of-the-cigarette-packet as ever. I’m going to shoot a 10-minute piece of 4K footage on my Sony FX3 camera, throw it into Final Cut Pro, give it a gentle colour grade and perform two routines – a render, and an export. I’ll do this on the M1 iMac, the M3 iMac, and my old 27-inch Intel-based iMac.

How significantly faster do we think the base model M3 iMac is going to be over its forefathers? I’m genuinely excited to find out (remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel not to miss the video)!

My M3 Max MacBook Pro test

I think I’ve made a mistake with my M3 14-inch MacBook Pro order.

You see, during my bleary-eyed coverage of Apple’s ‘Scary Fast’ event last month, I had to quickly spec up and order my new production laptop. Unfortunately, this was a late affair (the event was aired at midnight, UK time) and I hadn’t fully engaged my brain, clearly.

The spec I have winging its way to my door (although it is, curiously, currently ‘delayed’, according to Apple’s order tracker) contains the M3 Max chip fully maxed out with the 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, 2TB of SSD storage, and 48GBs of unified memory.

The error I think I’ve made relates to the latter. For an additional £200, I could have configured my lovely Space Black laptop with 64GB of unified memory. Given that I had already sailed well beyond £4,000 for this new machine, that now feels like a bit of a no-brainer. It is, after all, Monopoly money at this stage.

For that reason, it’s highly likely I’ll return this configuration once it arrives and reorder the 64GB version. Lesson learned. But I will make use of Apple’s generous returns policy to (carefully) unbox that lovely new Space Black colour and give the machine a quick Mark Ellis Reviews Test.

The test won’t be any more elaborate than the iMac’s, but the results should be just as enlightening. As I’ve noted previously, if I wasn’t a content creator who covers Apple stuff for a living, I would never have bought this new MacBook Pro – my M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro is still an absolute beast.

This begs a very important question: what gains do we get when switching from the M1 Max to the M3 Max? Do they in any way justify the significant expense involved? The general consensus appears to be that the Max version of the latest Apple silicon family presents the most impressive leap forward over the last two generations. I want to see what that means in real, everyday numbers.

So, I’ll be running the same Final Cut Pro test between these two machines. How many seconds (or minutes?!) can I shave off the rendering and exporting processes? Any video editor will tell you that, when your livelihood depends on the speed with which you can get your projects out of the door, those seconds mean an awful lot. The question we all have for Apple is how many of those seconds we get back for our considerable investment in its hardware.

Because let’s be honest – these MacBook Pros are very expensive machines.

Wrap up

I’m conscious that my tests are very much centred on video production – and I’m equally conscious that this isn’t everyone’s use case for a new Mac.

My test results should, therefore, be taken with a pinch of salt if you’re not working with visual content. There will be, thankfully, lots of far more in-depth tests from other reviewers emerging over the next few weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they get up to – and what this means for the M3 generation.

Over to you, though – what M3 Mac is on your shopping list, and what do you intend on doing with it? Get involved below!

Before you go

Join my newsletter list for a weekly behind-the-scenes video of a tech content creator!