The first claimed M3 MacBook Air benchmarks have appeared on Geekbench. Unsurprisingly, given both machines have the same M3 chip, performance is near-identical to the base model 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro.
The benchmarks are for a machine labelled Mac15,13, which is consistent with a 15-inch MacBook Air …
M3 MacBook Air benchmarks
Although Apple only announced the machine yesterday, and it isn’t available until Friday, it’s likely that review units have been sent to selected journalists, and that one or more of them have put it through its paces on Geekbench.
MySmartPrice spotted the entry, which saw the following results:
- Single core: 3,157
- Multi-core: 12,020
Compared to base M3 MacBook Pro
As we saw with the M2 MacBook Air back in 2022, the scores are identical to the MacBook Pro powered by the same chip, within the usual margin of error for test-to-test variances.
However, it should be noted that the MacBook Pro has active cooling, which means it will be able to sustain peak performance for longer periods of time than the passively-cooled MacBook Air.
Compared to the M2 MacBook Air
Compared to the M2 model, the M3 chip provides around a 20% increase in the single-core score, and 18% in multi-core.
Apple didn’t make direct comparisons between the two generations, instead opting to compare it to earlier models – both the M1 MacBook Air, and the last Intel version.
Built using industry-leading 3-nanometer technology, the M3 chip brings even faster performance and more capabilities to MacBook Air. Featuring a powerful 8-core CPU, up to a 10-core GPU, and support for up to 24GB of unified memory, the new MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the model with M1 and up to 13x faster than the fastest Intel-based MacBook Air.
While slightly cheeky, it could be argued that the comparison is fair enough in real-life terms, as few M2 owners would be considering an upgrade. The more likely upgrade paths are from a 13-inch MacBook Air powered by either M1 or Intel chips.
Check out also our breakdown of all the other differences between M2 and M3 MacBook air models.
Image: 9to5Mac composite from Geekbench and background by Maxim Tajer on Unsplash
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