Here’s why Apple ditched the M3 so quickly and moved on to M4 Macs

If you doubt that Apple has moved on from the M3 Mac lineup, one of the company’s top insiders just confirmed it. In the latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that no Mac Studio and Mac Pro are expected until mid-2025.

With that, Apple is skipping the M3 processor for the Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and Mac mini. But why has Apple rushed to announce the M4 chip, and when should we expect M4 Macs?

The M3 was just a stopgap chip; the M4 is the real deal

Apple’s Mac chips are based on the iPhone’s processors. By the time Cupertino introduced the A17 Pro chip, the first 3-nanometer processor, we knew it wasn’t the chip Apple was aiming for.

One reason the iPhone 15 Pro overheats is Apple’s 3nm chip. Previous reports said Cupertino decided to launch a 3nm processor with the iPhone 15 Pro to claim it was the first. However, the better processor would come a year later, when all other manufacturers could also take advantage of this technology.

To be a bit more technical, the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip uses an N3E manufacturing process, which is considered a “transitional design chip.” The new M4 chip uses the N3B process, which is considered the second generation with improved yield.

This N3B process will also be used for the upcoming A18 chip. This new method can provide better performance and power efficiency. With that, not only will iPhone users benefit from a better battery and fewer overheating issues with the iPhone 16.

Fortunately, we know the power of the M4 chip thanks to the new iPad Pro. According to Apple, the M4 chip has a new CPU with 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, with next-gen ML generators. Up to 50% faster CPU compared to M2. With a 10-core GPU, it offers Dynamic Caching and hardware ray tracing. M4 can deliver the same performance as the M2 with just half the power. The Neural Engine comes with a 16-core design, with up to 38 trillion operations per second. It’s 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine.

That said, why would Apple keep focusing on M3 Macs if it could deliver more power efficiency and other innovations with this new chip? If you’re curious about when the new M4 Macs will land, we already know when to expect them below.