Apple held a surprise “Scary Fast” event on the 30th of October, unveiling a new lineup of M3 chips to power the next generation of Macs. The fittingly Halloween-themed event brought some frighteningly fast upgrades for Apple’s most popular computers.
As previously reported, the most anticipated reveals for the October event were a new 24-inch iMac and a MacBook Pro refresh. Apple’s recent event confirmed these predictions, and the star of the show was undoubtedly the new M3 chip lineup. The event, shrouded in eerie ambiance with fog, bats, and ominous choir music, had few surprises for those who had been closely following the leaks and rumors.
In case you missed the event due to its unusually late 3AM kickoff, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive recap of everything unveiled at Apple’s “Scary Fast” October event.
M3 Chips – Scary Fast Upgrades
The star of the show was the new M3 chip family, delivering scary fast speeds. The M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max will power the latest iterations of the 24-inch iMac, 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple focused on ramping up graphical performance, thanks to hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shading and Dynamic Caching. This intelligent memory allocation dramatically increases GPU usage for complex creative tasks.
Benchmarks vs the previous M1 chip show the M3 renders graphics 2.5x faster. The M3 CPU itself sees a 30% speed bump over the M1. This generational leap makes the M3 family well poised to continue Apple’s silicon success.
New 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros
The MacBook Pro now comes in a sleek new Space Black color. More importantly, underneath you’ll find the latest M3 chips. The 14-inch model can be configured with the M3, M3 Pro or M3 Max. The 16-inch comes with either the M3 Pro or M3 Max.
These new chips emphasize GPU muscle, aided by Apple’s thermal system. Even with the graphical focus, Apple still touts all-day battery at 22 hours per charge.
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Both sizes are available to preorder now, starting at $1,599 for the 14-inch with the base M3 chip. Pricing for the M3 Max upgrades is still unknown.
Space Black is an exciting callback to the dark Midnight MacBook era. It gives professionals a more refined yet still stylish color option.
M3 Charges the New 24-inch iMac
iMac fans get a fresh selection of colors plus an M3 speed boost. The 24-inch iMac sticks with the same thin design but now rocks a stunning 4.5K Retina display. It also adds a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and 6-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos.
You’ll have your pick of green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and silver. Preorders open tonight starting at $1,299 for 8-core CPU and GPU models. Upgrading to 256GB SSD brings the price to $1,499.
iPhone Cameras Film the Event
In a subtle flex, Apple revealed the entire event was filmed on iPhone and edited on Mac. It shows how far iPhone camera tech has come, producing professional-grade video.
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The hardware reveals may not have shocked, but seeing the full production done start to finish on Apple kit is impressive. It reinforces Apple’s ecosystem advantage.
Recap Apple’s Scary Fast Event
Missed the livestream? You can rewatch the full spooky event right here to catch all the announcements again:
The M3 chip family promises scary fast speeds for Macs. Paired with new MacBook Pro and iMac refreshes, Apple looks to continue its hot streak in silicon. While light on true surprises, the upgrades bring meaningful performance gains.
And doing it all in a fun, Halloween-inspired showcase proves Apple still knows how to put on a show.
