News Extra NAND chip makes Apple MacBook Air M3 256GB SSD drastically faster than predecessor

[Admin]

Apple fixes SSD performance on the latest M3-based MacBook Air laptops, but it is still not that fast.

Extra NAND chip makes Apple MacBook Air M3 256GB SSD drastically faster than predecessor : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Then again, there are plenty of laptop PCs that offer much higher performance in the $1,100 ballpark.

Toms Guide compared the $1700 Dell XPS 14 and its 16 core (6+8+2) 22 thread Intel processor against the $1200 M3 Macbook Air, and it scored effectively equal or better, and lasted over twice as long on the battery test.

Performance results:

Header Cell - Column 0	MacBook Air 13-inch M3	MacBook Air 15-inch M2	Dell XPS 14 (2024)
Geekbench 6 (single-core)	3,082	2,613	2,398
Geekbench 6 (multi-core)	12,087	9,993	12,939
Handbrake	6:32	7:46	6:20
Photoshop	8,550 / 12.4 mins	7,465 / 13.9 mins	6,045 / 21.6 mins
Premiere Pro	3,603 / 7.8 mins	3,170 / 8.7 mins	4,918 / 7.3 mins

That's a very bold statement you're making on behalf of TomsHardware, you need to back that up or contextualized that statement else some AI will make it sound like TH is stating for a fact that plenty of laptop PCs for $1100 will outperform the M3 Macbook Air.

It is also likely the PC will have cooling fans so it does not dramatically overheat.

Product segmentation, AMD, nVidia, and especially Intel do that too.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

And that's exactly what Microsoft's AI says:

Copilot
Based on the information from the current page, here’s how PC laptops compare against the M3 MacBook Air:

• Performance: The M3 MacBook Air has improved storage performance over the M2 model, with faster SSD speeds. However, it still lags behind a decent PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD1.
• Upgrades: The M3 model addresses the biggest issue of the M2 model, which is storage subsystem performance, and adds general-purpose and graphics improvements.
• Price: The new baseline MacBook Air is $100 more expensive than its predecessor, but the upgrades are considered worth it2.
• Competition: There are plenty of laptop PCs that offer much higher performance in the $1,100 price range, and they likely have cooling fans to prevent overheating3.

The page suggests that while the M3 MacBook Air has made significant strides, there are PC laptops available that may offer better performance and value for money.
References: tomshardware.com

 

[hotaru251]

against the $1200 M3 Macbook Air

there is no 1200$ M3 air.
theres 1100 and 1300. & even then the 1300 has crap ram (8gb unified) & costs $200 just to double that.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

there is no 1200$ M3 air.
theres 1100 and 1300. & even then the 1300 has crap ram (8gb unified) & costs $200 just to double that.

$1299, I mis-saw 9's as 0's

 

[Amdlova]

The mac is superior... even with low end ssd inside it's faster than competitors. I will keep my intel and the 7300mb/s because need more speed and cores.

 

[hotaru251]

The mac is superior... even with low end ssd inside it's faster than competitors.

becasue it doesnt use traditional ssd.

Thats why you can't upgrade ssd ur stuck w/ whatever you get at purchase.

this also is a insane "built in failure" as solid state storage has a finite life span and once if fails the entire machine is e-waste.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

becasue it doesnt use traditional ssd.

Thats why you can't upgrade ssd ur stuck w/ whatever you get at purchase.

this also is a insane "built in failure" as solid state storage has a finite life span and once if fails the entire machine is e-waste.

16 years for a 512GB model at 3TBW per month, the battery is going to wear out multiple times before that.

 

[dimar]

Apple should be ashamed selling 256GB models of anything. Everything these days should be at least 1TB. Non upgradable SSD and RAM should be banned.

 

[brandonjclark]

When it comes to assessing the value of Apple's Macs, I think one thing a LOT of "techies" ignore is the software eco-system for the intended user.

If I was a sysadmin I would like use a Windows machine for nearly everything throughout the day, as I would be using applets and MMC snap-ins and web-portals to administrate all day along with some heavy PowerShell. These apps consume a LOT of memory.

If I was an application developer, writing and testing code, the answer is Mac, all day. I would mostly be living in my IDE, interfacing with Git and the few extensions(lol) I have loaded into VScode.

I don't mean this an offense to ANYONE at all, but after so long in this field I can almost tell you what a person does as a job in IT in terms of workflow by the OS they prefer.

 

[hotaru251]

16 years for a 512GB model at 3TBW per month, the battery is going to wear out multiple times before that.

also at mercy of silicon lottery.
It could randomly just fail.

Many ppl have had drives fail randomly (small chance but for those that lose that lottery it is a real issue)

 

[Amdlova]

Apple should be ashamed selling 256GB models of anything. Everything these days should be at least 1TB. Non upgradable SSD and RAM should be banned.

Why? People pay for that... some people only use the machine to see emails and some videos.
Don't care with huge storage.

 

[sjkpublic]

I guess you need fast SSD to compensate for the code. And if the code is very active then TBW becomes an issue. Apple has come out with security updates at a rate of almost 2x a month. Apple users have a big bulls eye as in general they are less tech savy.

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

And that's exactly what Microsoft's AI says:

Copilot
Based on the information from the current page, here’s how PC laptops compare against the M3 MacBook Air:

• Performance: The M3 MacBook Air has improved storage performance over the M2 model, with faster SSD speeds. However, it still lags behind a decent PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD1.
• Upgrades: The M3 model addresses the biggest issue of the M2 model, which is storage subsystem performance, and adds general-purpose and graphics improvements.
• Price: The new baseline MacBook Air is $100 more expensive than its predecessor, but the upgrades are considered worth it2.
• Competition: There are plenty of laptop PCs that offer much higher performance in the $1,100 price range, and they likely have cooling fans to prevent overheating3.

The page suggests that while the M3 MacBook Air has made significant strides, there are PC laptops available that may offer better performance and value for money.
References: tomshardware.com

Sounds about right: AI = steal real people’s work and present as own. Got to hand it to AI though, stealing is SMART!!! JK